LaserSoft Imaging

Hey Everyone,

From reading a few of the posts here, generally people here know a lot more about scanning photos and negatives than I do, so please bear with my ignorance.

I received an email offer to upgraded my SilverFast SE to SilverFast Achive Suite SE (my upgraded cost is $149USD) or to SilverFast Achive Suite (my upgrade cost is $300USD). The special pricing expires on Dec 31. Tonight, I am going away for the Christmas holiday and won't be back until Jan 1, so I will not have time to try either suite in demo mode.

I have hundreds, perhaps even a couple thousand old family photos that I want to preserve digitally (some photos still have the 35mm negatives; others do not; all photos were taken with 35mm film). I have a flat bed Epson 4870 scanner, that has negative holders. My objective is to get good quality scans all the photos and negatives (I will scan both, since I don't know which photos are missing the negatives) in the most time efficient-manner possible. After having skim-read the SilverFast product pages, I am not sure which package I should go for and am looking for advice. I don't mind spending more money, so long as the improvements in scan quality and the time savings are in line with the cost of the software.

My questions:
1) Which package do you think I should go for and why?
2) If you recommend the full suite, which colour calibration sheet should I buy (I am from Canada, most of my pictures were done at a store called "Black's Photography" on their home brand of 35mm film; I also spent some time living in London, pictures from those days were developed at Boots, also on their home brand of 35mm film, if I remember correctly)?

Thanks to anyone that takes time to share their thoughts with me.

Greg

Dear Greg,

gsmcl0964 wrote:1) Which package do you think I should go for and why?
2) If you recommend the full suite, which color calibration sheet should I buy (I am from Canada, most of my pictures were done at a store called "Black's Photography" on their home brand of 35mm film; I also spent some time living in London, pictures from those days were developed at Boots, also on their home brand of 35mm film, if I remember correctly)?

Since you are planning to scan lots of Negative, you will not need an IT8 calibration chart, these are only necessary for positive (reflective or transparency). For scanning negarives, SilverFast has a set of Negative profiles with up to 120 different types of films.

But, because you have shot most of your pictures in special film brand, which is not included in the NegaFix set of films, you probably might have to create your own curve.
Creating film curves is only possible in SilverFast Ai or Ai Studio which is only included in the Archive Suite.

Given the circumstances, I would go for the Archive Suite.

Cheers