RE: SilverFast (negafix)

["Paul D. DeRocco" <pderocco@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Another bitch about SilverFast prior to Negafix: the manual showed a
drop-down list of different negative film types, but the LS-2000 version of
the software didn't provide such a selection. Their explanation was that the
LS-2000 does negative to positive conversion internally, and there's no way
to adjust it for different film types. When I asked why they didn't simply
run the scanner in positive mode, and do the reversal in their software, I
got no answer.

The explanation of NegaFix suuggests that it reads the color of the mask by
looking at the borders around the picture, and compensates automatically.
Now that it does that, I can't understand why you have to specify the film
type in greater detail than before. Or conversely, if you can specify the
film type down to the specific brand, what does one need NegaFix for?

I've chosen not to upgrade to 5.5 because a) I fear that the full advertised
negative processing (perhaps even NegaFix) is still disabled in the LS-2000
version, b) I don't believe they've fixed the fatal flaws that the old
version had, and c) I feel the first few hundred bucks I spent were a
ripoff, and I'd feel like a complete shmuck if the added $45 turned out to
be a waste, too. Until someone tells me they've rewritten the program from
the ground up, and fixed these issues, I'll not upgrade, and continue to use
NikonScan.

--

Ciao,               Paul D. DeRocco
Paul                mailto:pderocco@ix.netcom.com

> From: Harry Minoru Shin
>
> 1.  from what i can tell and from the silverfast / lasersoft website
> states, negafix is ONLY on version 5.5, and thus whatever you have on
> 5.2 is not negafix.
> 2.  i can't recall in detail what version 5.0 was like, but i believe
> negafix will differ from you have in the following respects:  a)  in
> the older versions, when you choose "negative", a little dialoug box
> pops up and then you can choose very basic data such as ASA, major film
> types (kodak, fuji etc...).   with negafix, you still choose ASA, the
> film company (kodak, fuji, agfa etc...) but it also has a huge list of
> specific film brands (kodak royal gold, kodak gold, fuji reala etc...).
>  and i assume via that huge list, the software algorhythm is much more
> complex, which supposedly gives much better scans / color.  in terms
> of the difference, i do feel that 5.5 with negafix gives better results
> than without it--however, i only used 5.0 for only a day or so.
> i upgraded
> because it only cost me $10.00 to do so (a special promo for polaroid
> customers).   however, i do believe that the 5.5 upgrade is only $45.00
> for those with other versions of silverfast--so it may be worth a try.

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