LaserSoft Imaging

I would like some guidance on a suitable workflow for scanning multiple 35 mm (slides or negatives) with Plustek 120. This is what I do so far:
- Use Overview to view thumbnails of all images (Refresh Thumbnails if necessary), and select those to add to the Job Manager (JM)
- Double click on the first image in the JM and do a prescan
- Adjust the frame to the image (it is never spot on), and select all the adjustment tools that are needed (USM, iSRD, etc). Click on "Standard Auto Adjust"
- Copy all these (including the output path) to the all the other images using the "copy" and "paste" tools in the JM

It then seems that I have to double click on each successive image and prescan it so that I can adjust the frame, and apply the Auto Adjust. This seems to take forever, as the scanner goes through an initialisation process each time (at least 1 minute for each prescan).

Once I have been through all images this way (adjusting the frames, and applying Auto Adjust), I may want to return to a particular image. Clicking on this in JM again takes ages, as it again does it initialisation routine.

Surely there should be a way to get all the images selected by the Overview to be prescanned, so that even if it takes so much time for each, it can do so on its own in batch mode?

Anyone worked out an efficient workflow? I would love to know your thoughts

Dear customer,

I have forwarded your concern regarding the frame finding to our product management.
We will look into this.

The scanner initialization however is something the scanner does on it's own.
We can not influence this behavior.
But make sure you are using the latest drivers.
For Windows systems these are available from the Plustek website.
For OSX they are included in SilverFast.
Make sure the scanner is switched off when you install the update so the drivers are not in use.

kind regards,
Arne Ketelhohn.

Actually, I've realised that one thing that really slows up the process is if one of the tools (USM, iSRD or GANE) has the "Automatic 100% preview" option enabled in the first image. When the settings are copied to the other images, this option, if switched on, is also applied. Every attempt to inspect any image thereafter results in the full preview process occurring - a full scan of the image, plus an IR scan. So, even if preview is selected for the first image, to judge the effect of USM, iSRD or GANE, it is imperative to switch this off before copying the settings to the other images. So now, in bulk scanning mode (12 negatives), the whole process of getting an Overview, selecting all the images, and then individually prescanning every image (making minor adjustments to the frame in each, applying Auto, etc) takes only 10-15 mins. For subsequent batches, I find it ideal to delete all the previous images from the Job Manager except the first one, as this then preserves all the settings (including the output path) for the next batch.

Dear customer,

Thank you for your feedback.
I have forwarded your findings to our support system.
We will take a look at this behavior.

Kind regards,
Arne Ketelhohn.