LaserSoft Imaging

the.duch wrote:So long Lasersoft,
one customer less to care about.

M. Duch

In the end is about if or how much money Silverfast is asking for a Lion compatibility, and I, and everyone else will have to take a decission

S

So I emailed LaserSoft to ask how much the upgrade to Version 8 would cost. Mind you I just purchased the Ai studio with printer calibration and multi exposure in December 2010 (about $400). The upgrade price is $200!!! I'm a full time student and could barely afford the software to begin with. If they are going to charge so much initially, then why charge so much for upgrades? I was defending the company before I saw this. I would gladly pay $50, but not $200. They clearly are not focused on keeping customers.

I can't believe that they make customers pay so much only 7 months after such a large investment. They have basically decided to make their software obsolete by not provided a cheap upgrade for Lion compatibility.

I too will be looking for replacement software. Farewell Silverfast!! I have emailed them this complaint but I'm not sure they will respond.

Hi there,

Last post approved for today, occasionally we require some sleep so please do not be offended if your post does not appear immediately

Cheers

brucekinley wrote:So I emailed LaserSoft to ask how much the upgrade to Version 8 would cost. Mind you I just purchased the Ai studio with printer calibration and multi exposure in December 2010 (about $400). The upgrade price is $200!!! I'm a full time student and could barely afford the software to begin with. If they are going to charge so much initially, then why charge so much for upgrades? I was defending the company before I saw this. I would gladly pay $50, but not $200. They clearly are not focused on keeping customers.

I can't believe that they make customers pay so much only 7 months after such a large investment. They have basically decided to make their software obsolete by not provided a cheap upgrade for Lion compatibility.

I too will be looking for replacement software. Farewell Silverfast!! I have emailed them this complaint but I'm not sure they will respond.

Hmm! 200 USD is a little too much I would say, unless ver 8 provides extraordinary new features, but for me, it would be un-useful as with the ver 6 I can do scanning very well using only some basic features of the software.

So...

First, I agree with andifor regarding the requests for free upgrades to 8. The folks at Lasersoft Imaging have been hard at work for some time on the next release, no doubt about it. They deserve to be compensated for their efforts.

However, given the current situation, a 30-day, limited functionality, "early adopter" upgrade should be offered as a stopgap solution for those who upgraded to Lion and are now stuck without a workaround. Disable the "new to version 8" features if you have to, but make it functional enough users can continue working with the software until Silverfast 8 ships.

Also, I would suggest anyone who uses Silverfast in a professional capacity and is interested in Apple's new cat to hold off on upgrading to Lion until version 8 is released.

I have a temp solution, be it a horrid one. I bought a second hand IBM thinkcentre for £30 with Win XP on it which runs the Silverfast software. Bit of a pain as I need to transfer all the images but a better alternative than re-installing the OS. I know I could also install Leopard on a separate disk but was curious who Silverfast performs on Windows. Looks 100% the same so guess that is why it has such a horrible user interface.

Having said that there simply is no better alternative. Been using the software for many years on several different scanners. I recently bought a slide scanner which came with Silverfast as well.

Apologies if this has been covered before, but why wasn't there an advice on the lasersoft store to advise that 6.6 was not going to be suported by Lion when I purchased it on 28th May 2011?

Lasersoft knew this was the case back in March, but are only providing free upgrades after June. Should they not have warned that no future updates will be made to 6.6 and you will have to pay for the product again if you buy Lion?

So now I have broken software and have to pay for an upgrade or roll back to Snow Leopard and kill my other apps. Very disappointed, and now deciding if I discontinue using Lasersoft products.

As I said, very poor CS...

Dear kampr
Dear users

kampr wrote:you will have to pay for the product again if you buy Lion?

Not again, You pay for one product once.
If you want another product generation you have to pay for the upgrade, which in this case is something around 50% to 70% of the end prize, depending on the product generation you are upgrading from.

SilverFast users have free updates within a product generation, one product generation lasts about three or four years (as was the case with version 6.5 and 6.6 as well as previous product generations).

Since we heavily invest on further development, the company is expecting to recover the investment once the next product is out, hence we need to charge for the upgrade to the next generation.

Cheers

Let me try to explain one customer’s position with this example. I own Photoshop CS5 and it was installed on my computer when I had Snow Leopard. I now have Lion installed and that same Photoshop CS5 program continues to work as it did with Snow Leopard. If Adobe used the Silverfast model, my Photoshop CS5 would no longer work and I would be required to pay for an upgrade and, to add insult to injury, wait a period of time to even get the upgrade. During this time my Photoshop would be useless to me. I am happy the Adobe and my other programs do not share the same business philosophy/model as Silverfast.

Thanks Alejandro,

I think it is both reasonable and fair that a generation only last for a few years. But...the big problem here is that you have professional users like my self who have went on ahead and upgraded to Lion based on the statement that is now gone on the website that stated SilverFast would work under Lion, even though it did not specify a new version. So I am waiting a few more days lie the email correspondence said and then I am going to have to revert back to OSX 10.6.8 since I have a ton of work to do and no scanner at this point.

This was a big PR blunder in my opinion in regards to being clear with your customer base in terms of Lion compatibility. I am running a very robust late model Mac Pro and had no problem with the previous OS and current version of SilverFast, I would have happily stayed with it until this was all sorted out had I been told the right information.

With All Due Respect,

Daniel Bayer, Creator / Director of the Kodachrome Project

Dear SilverFast users

KC1 wrote:I own Photoshop CS5 and it was installed on my computer when I had Snow Leopard. I now have Lion installed and that same Photoshop CS5 program continues to work as it did with Snow Leopard. If Adobe used the Silverfast model, my Photoshop CS5 would no longer work

It is a respectable opinion. However if you had photoshop CS3 or CS4 I believe the situation would have been different.

KR_Project wrote:But...the big problem here is that you have professional users like my self who have went on ahead and upgraded to Lion based on the statement that is now gone on the website that stated SilverFast would work under Lion, even though it did not specify a new version. So I am waiting a few more days lie the email correspondence said and then I am going to have to revert back to OSX 10.6.8 since I have a ton of work to do and no scanner at this point.

This was a big PR blunder in my opinion in regards to being clear with your customer base in terms of Lion compatibility. I am running a very robust late model Mac Pro and had no problem with the previous OS and current version of SilverFast, I would have happily stayed with it until this was all sorted out had I been told the right information.

Dear Daniel, dear SilverFast users

I offer an apology on behalf of the company I represent for any misunderstanding or confusion.

I sincerely recommend you to go back to the latest stable combination of hardware/software you had, to continue working with your projects.

Transitions to new operating systems are a slow process (and not necessarily free of hassle).

Kind regards

Going back shuold be the best option - oh and for the pros: to update a workstation a couple of day after a new Os release, what the hell you we're thinking???

Anyway, a temporary solution on intel machines, could be to switch to windows just for the scans (Silverfast licence is PC and Mac).

the.duch wrote:Going back shuold be the best option - oh and for the pros: to update a workstation a couple of day after a new Os release, what the hell you we're thinking???.

This is exactly what the hell I was thinking...

1) 64-bit Performance Gains (Time is Money)
2) Multi-tasking (again, Time is Money)
3) WorkflowPilot (in a studio environment, being able to hand off scanning to an assistant gives me more time to shoot)

Did I miss anything?

Has anyone tried Snow Leopard or Snow Leopard Server in a VM on Lion?