LaserSoft Imaging

I have around 2000 35mm slides that I want to scan for archival purposes. The vast majority were shot on Kodachrome stock and all date from the 1970's and although they have been stored well, they all have a fair amount of dust on them.

I'm using a Plustek Optifilm 7600i and I'm scanning them at 7200dpi (I could probably get away with 3600dpi but I only want to do this once in my life so may as well go with the highest!)

I've just read on this forum that Kodachrome stock can cause problems with iSRD, should I not be using iSRD for Kodachrome slides? I already scanned around a hundred slides using iSRD but under Silverfast 6 on my old Apple Mac. I've just replaced that Mac with a new one and am now using Silverfast 8 so would like to know what the best settings are for scanning these slides.

I've just tried scanning one slide and used iSRD as my scanner supports infrared. However after the scanner performed the first scan it then performed the second infrared scan. Then Silverfast said it was processing. It' still processing.....30 minutes later! I'm running Silverfast 8.0.1r5 on a brand new Mac which has a 3.1Ghz Quad Core i5 CPU with 16GB of RAM so plenty powerful enough to handle this task.

Is it normal for iSRD to take soooo long to process? On my old Mac (an Intel 2.33Ghz Dual Core CPU with 3GB or RAM) using Silverfast 6 it only took a few minutes to process after the infrared scan.

Dear customer

In current versions of SilverFast you can use iSRD with Kodachromes.
But Kodachrome mode must be activated.
For some high-density Kodachromes the correction strength must be reduced.

iSRD correction is one of the more lengthy tasks.
That is why we offer the ArchiveSuite workflow to take this load to a separate batch operation.

kind regards,
Arne Ketelhohn.

Thanks for the reply. I think though I seem to be having problems because I now find I can't get Silverfast 8 to actually perform any iSRD or SRD at all. Perhaps I'm doing something wrong though (although I'm doing the same things I did under Silverfast 6).

This is what I'm doing and the settings I'm using.

I select Transparency, Kodachrome, 48 -> 24Bit as the source
Under Scan Dimensions I give it a unique name, save it in TIFF format, choose the folder I want the TIFF file to be saved in. Set the resolution to 7200dpi

I'll then perform my prescan.

After this I'll make adjustments to the colour by using Picture Settings, Histogram, Gradiation & Selective Colour Correction.

I then select iSRD and click on the iSRD tab. Correction is set to Automatic

I then press Scan.

The scanner completes the first scan and then performs the infrared scan. After this second scan it says "processing...." but it never completes - I've left it overnight and no TIFF file is ever created.

If I set the Correction to Mark then after the scanner has performed the infrared scan the 1:1 view shows entirely red - like it's marked the entire image to be one giant scratch that needs to be cloned!

If I decide not to use iSRD and use SRD instead then the scanner again performs the infrared scan after the first scan but again it just says "processing..." and never completes.

If I use a different well known program (v*eSc*n) it completes the infrared scan and produces a corrected TIFF perfectly each time so I know it's not my scanner that's at fault (I'm using a Plustek Optifilm 7600i). I've tried uninstalling/reinstalling Silverfast 8 and resetting the preferences but no matter what I can't get it to ever complete a scan with either iSRD or SRD.

Am I doing something wrong?

Can you please download SilverFast 8.0.1r5 and reinstall it.

kind regards,
Arne Ketelhohn.

I have just upgraded my silverfast to silverfast SE plus, from 6.6.., but i have the same problems as peakoverload had when using iSRD. The entire image in red when i choosed "Mark" in correction, and dusts cannot be cleared when select Automatic.

i'm using V8.0.1r11. Will that becos of the problems of my scanner? Because I haven't use it for awhile, or it's purely related to the programme? Thanks!

Thanks Arne, may I ask where can i find the download link of SilverFast 8.0.1r5 ?

The r5 is no longer available.
We have updated a few times since February.
Our current version is 8.0.1r11

Have you tried different correction strength settings for iSRD?
Also try lowering the values for SRD in case it is active.

kind regards,
Arne Ketelhohn