LaserSoft Imaging

I don't know too much about scanning. In the past I have been using an older version of Silverfast on my Gateway PC. Now I have moved to an iMac (Mountain Lion 10.8.4) About 1-2 years ago I got the free version of 8 on my Mac but I never got the forever key. I will be scanning mostly my graphite drawings and older negatives. Like I said, I am so far from being fast and into all this, but I do know one thing. The quality of my drawing scans. From tests I ran between Silverfast and my Mac software (30 day free trial). Silverfast was a bit better. I would scan the same thing and zoom way in on the same part. I have a Epson Perfection 2450 Scanner. I know this could be upgraded. Would a more expensive scanner scan graphite drawings with more quality? The other thing I would like to know is...Which version I would want. The very main question for me is SE 8, SE Plus 8, Silverfast Ai Studio 8...which version would do the very best quality scan. Just a normal scan of a drawing. If I had all the versions at my disposal and scanned the very same drawing or picture. Then I zoomed in on the very same part in each scan and compared them side by side, would the Silverfast Ai Studio 8 look just the slightest slightest better than SE Plus 8? And would SE 8 look the least good. I am talking about just the slightest difference. Like you would almost see with a microscope. It would really help me to know this before I purchased. I'm not into calibration etc. I'm not into color casts unless they are way off. You have so many products, I can't keep track of what is what. I know there is Silverfast 8.5 now. I'm trying to phone, to find out what I do next to purchase. Do I need to download another version now? But please, these questions on quality are very important to me. They are everything. In the future I can upgrade if I need to. Thank You for any help,

Thank You Very Much,

Jasper

Dear Jasper,

The SE Plus and Ai Studio versions add Multi-Exposure which enhances the dynamic range of transparency scans and the Auto Adaptive Contrast Optimisation.
SE Plus also allows more settings and Ai Stdio allows detailed expert settings.
Ai Studio also adds the IT 8 calibration and allows 48 Bit output.

Kind regards,
Arne Ketelhohn.

Thank You Arne,

So you have more adjustments before you scan a non transparent image. And scanning a transparency would be more refined with SE Plus & Ai Studio. But if you scanned a drawing without any pre-scan adjustments, at the same resolution with every version of SE, there would be no difference in the quality of the scans? ...but scanning the drawing with a new higher end scanner than my Epson 2450 would show a better quality scans with every SE version?

Sorry, I don't understand IT 8 calibration and what 48 Bit output would change. And what are detailed expert settings of Ai? (you don't have to go into detail). Or does your site explain this?

Thank You for the in depth information very much,

Thank You,

Jasper

Dear Jasper,

Some adjustments are always necessary.
The highlights and shadows must always be set, though SilverFast can do that automatically.
If a different scanner would produce a better result is difficult to tell. This greatly depends on the scanned material and if it contains details or a dynamic range that would benefit from a better device.

The IT8 calibration measures the way your individual scanner sees colours and makes sure the colours are correctly reproduced.
The SE and SE plus mainly offer presets with some adjustments.
The Ai Studio offers detailed settings for individual configuration.
This is best seen in the demo.

Kind regards,
Arne Ketelhohn.

Thank You for all your help. Seeing one of my drawings scanned with a higher end scanner would be a help. I scanned at a higher optical resolution with my 2450 and it seemed to bring out too much detail. (no sharpening was on) But a different scanner? I need to know my basic way around scanning in this and if I could see a scan of my drawing with a higher end scanner that would do it. Thank You for all the help again.

Thank You,

Jasper