LaserSoft Imaging

Having tested your software for a short while (version 6 for Nikon 8000ED), I have to say I'm very pleased with its performance. Scanning negatives gives great results, even when the default settings are used. Huge improvement over the original Nikon software. Unfortunately, your software is useless for a user who scans 6x6, 6x7, and 6x9 film on a Nikon 8000ED. I've already contacted the US tech support regarding this issue, but was asked to post here as well. I cannot believe that people who test the software prior its release could have missed the fact that there is no adjustment for the film strip offset. How do they expect people to center an image so that a full frame is scanned and not just a portion. The scanner does not know where an actual frame starts or ends, spaces between frames vary greatly (known fact for medium format film) and there has to be a way for the user to adjust for this. Nikon software has this feature, your own manual shows a button that controls this, but unfortunately the button does not exist in the release for the scanner I own. Could you please let me know when the problem might be addressed and corrected. I have also noticed one other odd thing and that is a constant disk activity that starts as soon as the plug-in is launched, even when no scanning is being performed. I let the software just sit for as long as 30 minutes with nothing being done and the pointer constantly flashes changing to a watch and the hard disk is constantly writing. Do you have any idea what might be causing this? (Mac OS9.1)

SilverFast 6 and Nikon LS 8000

We are working with Nikon Japan to solve the problem. Since SilverFast has to use the Maid SDK, which is a library Nikon is supplying, we are dependent on those functions inside the library.

The problem has been identified and we are now waiting for Nikon to send the corrected Maid module to us and the problems should be fixed with the next update.

So far, we have to ask for your patience until then.

Very often problems become only visible after the market reports those problems to us, since they might also be configuration dependent, which makes testing so much more of a headache. We do our best to get flawless solutions to you and we are here to listen to every customer complaint or recommendation for an enhancement!

Thank you again for your cooperation!
With best regards!

Karl-Heinz Zahorsky
President & CEO
LaserSoft Imaging

Excessive disk activity can mean insufficient ram allocated to a program (thus lots of paging) , heavily fragmented disk, or even physical disk errors.

Frank

MM,

You are so right. I installed the demo of Silverfast Ai to try with my Nikon 8000. The Nikon software (in OS 9 on a Mac) does allow positioning with strip film. I spoke to a marketing guy in Florida yesterday, and he was unaware that there were any current problems with the software. Clearly a medium format scanner is useless without this feature.

It would be even nicer if there were broader discretion available for the user in order to scan negatives of any size (e.g. hasselpbad x-pan) too.

It is too bad, because the Nikon Software (3.1.3) plain won't work in OS 10.2!! You'd think Nikon would get to work for customers who buy a scanner of this quality (cost)!!

My experience with the demo, on 35mm, was mixed. I was very happy with my scan of some Fuji Velvia (even without a profile--I used Superia). Both the neg fix and the negative direct scans were quite good and color accurate without fussing. On positives, however, I am getting highly saturated and inaccurate, but pretty, colors. Has anyone else observed this difference??

Wish list: more profiles for fuji and kodak pos and neg films.

Lasersoft please take note: the marketing person to whom I spoke on the phone was extremely friendly, very patient, and a pleasure to deal with. He was a great inducement to buy your product if you can fix it for the 8000.

Thank you.

Has a new version of SilverFast 6 Ai been issued to be used with the LS 8000, clearing the difficulties mentioned in your clients' discussions of the software. I have Mac equipment & Photoshop. Some reviews of the software sound alluring, but not if it does not work with larger than 35 mm formats. Thanks very much for your help. If the problems have not yet been resolved, please let me know when an updated version is issued.
GS

PS I have no idea what all your code stuff means.

I have reported this problem already to Silverfast Ai6 without any response as of yet. I am running the current version of Mac OS 10.2, with the latest version of Photoshop 7.01 and my film scanner is a Nikon Coolscan 8000 ED. Silverfast Ai is set as a plug in. I can get Silverfast to recognize the existence of the scanner and I can get it to start the prescan process (recognize the film type & film seize). The scanner performs its prescan, does its focusing, but when it gets ready to load into Silverfast Ai, the program freezes, i.e., nothing happens. I never see the prescanned image. I see a doted line where it should be and the little Mac color wheel keeps going round like the program is working. After waiting a long time, I eventually get a window that says ?Scanner Error 0?. However, the process will not end and I have to force close Photoshop. As I said ealier, this problem was reported to Silverfast with no response. I can acquire images via Nikon Scan.

i had the same problems:
everything works fine (r11), after i installed r12, i had the same problems:
- focusing -> freeze
- no response from Lasersoft.

then i deleted all folders (Silverfast, Nikon) and reinstalled Ai6.
everything works fine now.

I did hear from SilverFast yesterday and they had me change the name of the Library/Application Support/Nikon to Nikonold and than download a rebuild of this library. Everything works fine now. I have asked if there are some interface issues with Nikon View 5 as there are components in this library.

I'm not sure that I'm clear. Will Lasersoft now permit the position of medium format images be adjusted in Photoshop 7 with OS 10.2.3?