LaserSoft Imaging

Asking users of Silverfast's e-mail help service to share their experience getting answers. I'm the new owner of a Microtek scanner chomping at the bit to get Silverfast up and running. Came across a roadblock (posted in the Microtek section) and have been waiting almost two weeks for e-mail help response. Is this normal?

it would depend on the problem you've encountered. if Lasersoft knows the answer, they'll respond pretty quickly. if they don't know the answer and if the problem does not concern an area of planned improvement to the SilverFast, you may never hear from them. their resources are limited. it is therefore hoped that SilverFast users can help each other out via this forum where possible.

Lasersoft is getting sandwiched at the moment. Do they continue to improve SilverFast for photographers sticking to film, or do they begin focussing on the processing and improvement of digital film?

Personally, I would like to have a digital camera for non-essential quick shots, but will continue to use my Canon EOS-5 camera for shots that I value, shots from which I would like to get the maximum number of scan pixels possible through high-resolution scanning or shots for which I need the flexibility of interchangable lenses. my Nikon 4000ED scanner can get 20 million pixels from each 35mm negative. it will be a few years yet before even professional digital cameras can deliver that volume of data.

Thanks for the prompt reply and accept my regrets for the delayed response. I grew tired of waiting (still waiting, in fact) and elected to contact Silverfast's fee based help. Turned out Silverfast has a known problem with Windows Me and Firewire. Ended up having to nuke my system and migrate from Win Me to Win2k (XP did not load). Found myself without a computer for a bit of time.

In the conversation, I did Learn your perspective is accurate - they are quite busy and backlogged. In today's tech economy, I guess being backlogged is better than being out of business.

As for the rest of your comments, I'm in exactly the same place and reached the same conclusion. My personal affinity with my Nikon 8008 is not about to end anytime soon. Couple that with a rather large slide archive and you quickly get to a place where a Microtek 4000tf is a good value. I did pick up a Coolpix about a year ago to take care of casual photo needs.

Dear forum users

please note that the forum is a place for users to exchange thoughts and ideas - and maybe a helpful hand, too.
(cf. the President_LSI's post at viewtopic.php?t=2271 ).

However, you might have experienced that we are trying to answer even support requests posted in this forum.

You definitely shall get an answer to every single email, fax, a.s.o. by SilverFast staff.

As Gregory pointed out correctly that if the request addresses a known problem, you will get an answer quickly. The reason for this is the need to work efficiently - a maximum number of requests can be answered this way, thus maximum number of customers can receive support.

This might be frustrating at first for an advanced user, but please try to realize that every request with a rather complex nature needs testing and probably recoding, and eventually retesting, until a solution could be implemented.
Only then a user can be informed about this solution. That's why we sometimes wait with an answer: Because we try to make it happen in the meantime. We really want to return a solution to every given problem.
It might be quicker and less costly if we just said "No, sorry, that can't be done, oh so truly sorry, we tried everything", while we wouldn't do so much as to move a single finger, because we immediately saw "wow, that's a time consuming request from a user who didn't pay much"... - However, that's just not our style.

So it would seem, everybody has to give - we try to give our best.
That might not be enough sometimes, and if you would think so, please embarrass us with your magnanimity.