LaserSoft Imaging

I am using a Reflecta RPS 3600 scanner with the latest Silverfast AI 6 and experiencing 3 to 5 times slower scan time when scanning full 3600 dpi res. All other resolutions are working fine.

I am comparing this to the performance in Windows XP which used to be faster. I recently switched to Mac OSX. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what it might be that's causing the slowing sown?

(I addressed this problem in Silverfast support and I got the answer that it might be a driver conflict. I am using a trial version of Photoshop CS2 but otherwise not many programs other than the preinstalled ones.)

Thanx
crisp

Maybe you need more RAM?

I have way more RAM on the mac (1GB) than I used to have on the PC (384MB). It isn't the RAM.

Just and idea, sorry!

Perhaps it is a driver issue as LaserSoft indicated to you then.

Just to be clear, you used the exact same scanner on a PC with WINXP and scanned at the same resolution (3600 dpi), right?

Thanks RAG for helping me out on this one. I took a look through the Silverfast Forum and saw that you are practically everywhere. I appreciate that, I think everybody else too.

Well, to get to business: I'm using the same scanner with the same USB 2.0 cable that came with it. I just switched from PC to the Mac so I downloaded the OSX version of SF and installed it. I expected everything to work the same way, maybe even better, since I thought Silverfast was OSX-native, but I don't know about that.

It does work the same way, except for these 2 issues:
1. The first prescan (when scanning negatives) takes longer, there's an extra step in there called "Calibrating..." which wasn't on XP.
2. Scanning with full resolution (3600) takes much longer, and the scanner is also making these weird sounds I didn't hear before, like it's interrupting the scan, going back a few inches and scanning again...

I'll try to install the old SF Ai6 I have on CD to be sure that it's not SF's fault. I'll be back.

crisp

by "a few inches" I meant fractions of inches. I'm a metric system fan, sometimes I get confused...

I'm sorry, I couldn't install the old app, it wouldn't start, is probably not compatible with Tiger...

Do you have other scanning software that you may use to see if the same problems exist? (Specifically the stopping and going back a few centimeters) This problem does sound like it might be introduced by a driver.

I think trying other software would help isolate the problem.

You are RIGHT!

I don't have any other scan software, since SilverFast is the only software that came with the scanner, but I do have another scanner: an old flatbed Canon D2400U scanner. I scanned an image with 150, 300 then 2400 dpi. At 2400 dpi it has the same symptoms: it is not a continuous scanning sound, but has these very small pauses in between. I get longer pauses even if I switch between programs on my computer.
So you must be right, there probably is something that's interfering with the scanners.

???
crisp

Hey,

If it is happening with two different scanners maybe it has to do with data transfer speed. This could be a hardware (computer) limitation of an OS driver issue, right?