LaserSoft Imaging

I'm a new owner of an Epson V700, and am looking for a faster alternative to the Digitial ICE dust removal process, which works great, but takes forever.

Today I installed my copy of Silverfast SE that came with the scanner, and updated it to 6.6.1r3. I have read about iSRD, but I am unable to find the icon to activate it. Along the left side of my preview window, I see the following buttons, in this order ...

Info
Quickhelp
Rotate
Flip
ScanPilot
Digital ICE (turned off)
SRD (the blue button, not iSRD)
Parameter dialog for dust removal
Delete frame
Find frame
Show bright/dark - number frames
Print
Quicktime

And in my Dust and Scratch Removal Navigator window, (with only the blue SRD logo at the top), I see icons below my image for the following operations, listed left to right:

Reset to default, lasso tool, switch preview mode, view uncorrected, view corrected, view with defects, and help.

Nowhere do I see the red iSRD icon. I am led to understand that it is available for my scanner, since it's equipped with an infrared source. I need help from seasoned users!!! Where do I find the button?

Thanks!
Mark

Dear Mark,

The scanning modules of SilverFast do not have the iSRD button directly. There is an option of producing raw files in 64 bit color mode (or 32 bit geyscale) which contain the infrared channel. Those files can be edited in SilverFast HDR where you will be able to use iSRD with the infrared channel information of those RAW files.

The 64 bit HDRi color or 32 bit HDRi greyscale scanning mode are only available in transparency mode.

Cheers

Thank you for the reply.

What is the reason for this? Why have such a convoluted process instead of simply making iSRD available from a button, like ICE? Is this likely to change anytime soon?

Regards,
Mark

Dear Mark,

The reason for this is licensing issues for patented products like ICE. Hence we can not place the iSRD button on the Epson scanner modules but on our editing application.

Cheers

I might have guessed that lawyers were involved. It certainly seems a shame that iSRD is effectively neutered on my scanner. Is this true only on Epson scanners?

Thank you, by the way, for your patience. I'm certain you have answered this question many times.

If I am understanding this correctly, I'll need to upgrade SE to something else. Looking through the silverfast website, I think that SE Plus has HDRi and iSRD. Is this correct?

Dear rxda90

rxda90 wrote:Is this true only on Epson scanners?

No, this is not only on Epson Scanners. But it is not the only reason why some scanners do not support iSRD.
Sometimes, due to technical issues or poor quality of their infrared channel, other scanners do not have the iSRD feature.

rxda90 wrote:If I am understanding this correctly, I'll need to upgrade SE to something else. Looking through the silverfast website, I think that SE Plus has HDRi and iSRD. Is this correct?

Well, HDRi support and iSRD are completely scanner model dependent. We have not yet introduced HDRi format on all scanner brands which support iSRD. Our programmers are in the process of including this feature on more scanners. As long as we implement this file format with more scanners we will be announcing it on our newsletter.

You can check the product site for your scanner model, there you can find out if these features are supported:
http://www.silverfast.com/product/en.html

Cheers