New to SF - question about scanning film negatives

[Garyd333]

I (recently) bought a Canon 8400F scanner - primarily to scan "old" 35mm photo negatives. I'll also utilize the other functions on this scanner, but the ability to do negatives was a strong selling point with me.

Wanting to get the best possible quality out of my scans, I investigated on-line and that's what has led me SilverFast. I've downloaded the AI6 demo and will try it out. I fully assume that I will buy shortly after some trial. NegaFix being the key feature I want to try first.

My primary question (today) is - let's say that I don't know what film type or speed was used. Is that a big deal? Is it just a trial and error to see what looks best?

I'm entirely aware that I'm showing my novice scanning stripes here with that question - but hoping that I can get some gracious guidance from those with the experience.

Thanks in advance,
Garyd333

[LSI_Noack]

Dear Gary

indeed it is important to know what film material is going to be scanned to achieve best results. However, sometimes you just cannot tell. The Ai is a good choice then, because it allows you to modify any one profile and let's you save and later recall your own Negafix profiles.

You will find a complete list of the SilverFast Negafix profiles at:
https://www.silverfast.com/show/negafixprofiles/en.html

New Negafix profiles are always incorporated in the latest update release of SilverFast, which can be freely downloaded from our website as well.

If you are missing the profile for your film material, or want to adjust the values set by SilverFast, you want to use the enhance the Negafix dialogue by clicking on the expert icon (not present in SilverFast SE).
After developing your own profile you can save it and import it lateron to another computer, if you like.

You will find a guide to the Negafix tool in PDF format here:
https://www.silverfast.com/show/negafix/en.html

A valuable read is the SilverFast Negafix tutorial in Ian Lyon's Computer Darkroom:
http://www.computer-darkroom.com/sf5-ne ... egafix.htm

If you would like to have the Negafix workflow presented in a movie, you're in the luck, too:
https://www.silverfast.com/showmovie/en. ... Fix-en.mov

Best regards
Sonny Noack
- Manager Technical Support, LaserSoft Imaging AG -

[Garyd333]

Sonny,

Sincere thanks for the useful and detailed info!! I will print out/view these documents and give them a try from home.

Kindest regards,
Gary D.