SilverFast レビュー 

I have scanned for years. I lost my Nikon software for my coolscan V ED and Nikon discontinued its production. So I began searching for an alternative.

I bought the Silverfact 9. This Siverfast 9 is a nightmare. It is needlessly complex. Example: I cannot even see how to save the image. GMAB!

Good lord, it has to be the very best scanner with the absolute WORST UI one could think of. I'm a years long user. still its terrible. They put microsoft's decades run as worst UI designers to shame. Truly terrible. And i paid for it. Really it's shit.

I bought SilverFast 9 (upgrade) online after having used SilverFast 8 for several years.
After some initial problems with downloading and installing the software it now seems to be working ok.
SilverFast 9 is definitely an improvement on Silverfast 8 which was itself an accomplished program for scanning slides (transparencies), and digitising negatives, although not particularly fast. I have to say that the results from scanning, sometimes decades old, slides has inspired me to fetch out and recondition my old Contax film camera.

Ich verwende Silverfast seit längerem, anfangs noch sporadisch. Seit 2-3 Jahren intensiv um meine alten analogen Bilder zu digitalisieren. Mit der Software bin ich ohnehin zufrieden, was mich aber absolut beeindruckt ist der Service.

Während viele Anbieter sich hinter einem Link zu Ihren FAQs verstecken und sich eifrig bemühen die Kontaktaufnahme zu erschweren, wurde hier meine Anfrage beim ersten Versuch binnen weniger Stunden kompetent beantwortet. Der Mitarbeiter war sehr bemüht und motiviert, Rückfragen wurden sofort bearbeitet und der Mitarbeiter blieb bei der Sache bis zum Schluss und hat zudem noch wertvolle Tipps gegeben, die sich andere wahrscheinlich gespart hätten.

Mein Problem war binnen kürzester Zeit vom Tisch und meine Software funktioniert wieder und ist nutzbar. Eine Erfahrung, die ich bei der Neueinrichtung meines PC leider auch ganz anders erfahren habe.

Ich kann die negativen Bewertungen, die es teilweise zu dem Unternehmen gibt nicht bestätigen. Für mich ist das ein sehr gutes Beispiel für Service und Kundenorientierung. SUPER. Für mich uneingeschränkt zu empfehlen.

Vorweg ein Hinweis: Ich bin weder Mitarbeiter der Fa. Lasersoft Imaging noch in irgendeiner Weise von dieser abhängig.
Die negativen Bewertungen auf diesem Portal, die sich auf die Software des Hauses beziehen, kann ich so nicht nachvollziehen. Sie mögen mit der Art der Hardware (Auflicht statt Durchlicht, d.h. Flachbett- statt Filmscanner) zusammenhängen, oder auch mit der Komplexität der Software selbst.
Ich selbst bin seit mehr als 20 Jahren Kunde der Fa. Lasersoft und seit Beginn an von den vielfältigen Möglichkeiten der Software, gemessen an den im Lieferumfang der Hardware enthaltenen, begeistert. Eine Einarbeitung ist zwingend, ohne entsprechende Grundkenntnisse kann man sich schon "verirren".
Die aktuelle Version Silverfast Ai Studio 9 nutze ich in Verbindung mit meinem gut 20 Jahre alten Nikon LS-50 Filmscanner. Vor dem eigentlichen Scanvorgang führe ich eine Kalibrierung mit IT8-Targets durch, die die mitgelieferte Standardkalibrierung nochmals verbessern.
Der WorkflowPilot in der aktuellen Version 9 ist noch ausgereifter und umfangreicher und kann an die Bedürfnisse angepasst werden - von schnell bis detailliert ist alles möglich. Selbst mit der Einstellung "schnell" lassen sich in kürzester Zeit gute Ergebnisse beim Einscannen von Diapositiven erzielen.
Insbesondere Die Staub- und Kratzereliminierung - ein ärgerliches Übel bei allen älteren Diapositiven - funktioniert ausgezeichnet. Inwieweit Stockflecken und Newtonsche Ringe bei falsch gelagerten, jahrzehntealten Diapositiven behoben werden, habe ich allerdings noch nicht getestet.
Zudem gibt es zu - fast jeder Funktion einen Link, der zu einem kurzen Erklärvideo für die jeweilige Funktion führt. Wem es zu beschwerlich ist, sich auf diesem Weg
über die Einstellungsmöglichkeiten zu informieren, der darf sich nicht beschweren - wer bereit ist sich einzulesen findet jedenfalls alle Möglichkeiten, seine Diapositive mit optimalen Ergebnissen zu scannen - das kann natürlich dann schon einmal 30 Minuten dauern, will - oder muss - man die Funktionen, die die Software anbietet, ausschöpfen.
Zu guter Letzt verdient der Support die Note "Ausgezeichnet". Die Mitarbeiter reagieren auf E-MAil-Anfragen kompetent, bei "hartnäckigen" Problemen und Sonderfällen ist auch eine - kurze - TeamViewer-Sitzung möglich, bei der im Dialog Missverständnisse zügig ausgeräumt und Arbeitsabläufe erläutert werden. Dafür gibt es von mir sechs Sterne :-)
Ich habe mir jetzt das neue E-Book "Das offizielle SilverFast 9 E-Book" vom Firmengründer Karl-Heinz Zahorsky gekauft. In diesem mehrere hundert Seiten umfassenden Buch ist die Software detailliert beschrieben.

Apologies, I'm updating my review from 2 to 5 stars!!! I realise now my initial frustrations were simply due to getting used to the software (though in my defense it has taken 5 days to do so). It's working very well now I've figured out some smaller tricks. I've been able to scan kodachrome pics from the seventies very nicely. Apologies for my initial scathing review.

I have just bought a Plustek 8200i SE Scanner. I am very pleased with the scanner, it's Silverfast which is the problem. It is very user unfriendly. Far too complicated to use and the layout of the scan screen is complicated and confusing. I have had very good scan results by ignoring all the fiddly Silverfast controls and just scanning the negative/slide as is and then doing my enhancements using Photoshop.

I upgraded my old flatbed to an Epson V600 and Silverfast 9 SE was part of the bundle. Having an old version which ran on a Minolta Elite film scanner I was quite happy to try it out. Essentially Silverfast can often produce superb images "out of the box" with excellent colour. The main (major) drawback with the software is the myriad menus and hidden options scattered over the main screen. Pursuing the help buttons takes you to short instructional videos, which do give some insight but seem to be either aimed at the Archive Suite user or refer to a prior software version. Not very helpful. Now, do not fall into the trap of buying the E-book - written specifically for SilverFast 9 - which technically it is, as long as you have the Archive Suite version and not the cut down cheaper SE plus version. Simply put don't waste your money. But having said all that, it is quite simply the best scanning software out there - and that includes Vuescan, the nearest rival. The learning curve is vertical, get used to being really frustrated with the overly complex menus and eventually you'll get to enjoy using it.

I purchased the SE version of this software primarily for scanning colour negatives. As such, it far out-performs it's main rival, Vuescan; sadly, the latter delivers consistently dreadful colour balance (although it does have a useful "right click" function for manually setting colour balance against a neutral reference and is excellent for colour reversal film). Silverfast, by contrast, can often produce superb images "out of the box" with excellent colour.
The problem with Silverfast is that I can't even say the instructions are useless, since, well, there aren't any. Oh, yes, there is a help page on the website and it even contains "Silverfast instructions". These do tell you how to install the software and other really useful things such as how to change the display theme from white to black and how to upgrade; but how to use the software? Absolutely nothing, so far as I can see; just guess and make it up as you go along. Which is a shame, really, since it appears that it might well be quite powerful software - if only someone had thought to tell you how to use it.

Silverfast 9 is a waste of money. It has trouble scanning B+W negatives. They either come out black of like some king of cartoon image. I'd advise people just to keep their money and stay with epson scan.

I've bought a Plustek 8300i to archive my slides to a previous owner. We proceed to license transfer for Silverfast software thru the dedicated portal. All was working well for two days...
Suddenly my license was revoked by Silverfast arguing my device was already used in the past (of course!!!). I post a request to support team, I get no answer nor contact. No way to reach them by phone...
Now I just keep an useless device and my slides in their box... waste of money and time.
to flee !!!
Update: support team finally contact me, and after many emails to explain the issue, the license was granted.

I have been trying for over four months to resolve an issue, where the final saved scans of 35mm film differ significant in colour, compared to the preview in their Silverfast 9 software. Despite I have a background in IT, they kept suggesting me to try different settings, often similar settings already discussed earlier, to no avail.

Also Silverfast HDR 9 studio is completely useless for me, since it just keeps crashing right after launch, despite reinstallations/resetting preferences.

Customer support seems apathatic. Support representative stays 'polite', but does not at least (especially after four months of trying things) communicate what they (the development team) are proactively trying to investigate the issue deeper. Neither do they offer a refund.

On paper all the options the software has to offer seems promising, in practice for now, a waste of money unfortunately.

I might consider to update this review, when the issue will be resolved.

I had an Epson 600V flatbed scanner and it was a total diaster when Epson discontinued their own software and took in Silver Fast - it was so user unfriendly that I wasted it leaving on the shelf for three years, no customer service support contacted me and it took too much time trying to learn how to use it. Dont BUY!

I'm going to give these people one star because of their un-be-lievably opaque and sluggish purchasing and registration process. I haven't even tried the software yet. I got a free copy of the software on a DVD with the purchase of a V850 Pro. Like many, I no longer have a DVD player in my PC. There were no instructions on where to download. The only way I found in which I could enter my serial, was by buying an upgrade, still without having tried the software (I remember it from an old Nikon scanner though and thought then that it was quite good). The process of buying an upgrade took more than half an hour and required several registrations even AFTER having put down the money (which I actually think is illegal in the EU). People, please, this is 2021!
Edit: And now I have compared with Epson Scan and decided to use that. It just fits the purpose of what I need to do better for big batch operations, which are complicated in Silverfast. Had I just been able to register the included version would have saved me 65-odd bucks...

waste of money
I'm getting purple scans that I'm unable to correct no matter what I do in the software and I don't have this issue with epson scan and I'm unable to use "batch scan as the software just crashes
customer service was of no help whatsoever

Sick of software that charges so much and don't offer refunds when it doesn't work how it's supposed so

Very expensive software with very poor instructions, missing out numerous vital details. Combine that with no support phone number and a support forum which hasn't been responded to since 2018, and you quickly realise you've made a mistake and wasted hard earned money. All very disappointing.

Un sito , un'assistenza ed un programma fatto da disturbati mentali. Dopo innumerevoli tentativi di installarlo dal sito con codice, ripertutamente cadeva la linea come se avessero manipolato il mio router. Impossibile installarlo, mi sono rassegnato e come consigliato (e consiglierò) da amici ho optato per Vuescan , che viaggia una meraviglia. Non compratelo e non istallatelo ...tra le altre cose ho dovuto usare un programma per disinstallare parti dei loro file che si agganciano al PC. Da evitare come la peste!

Crap, they take your money the software does not function and they provide no support.

Purchased and downloaded Silverfast to convert some old negatives to digital format. Software promised to be compatible with my scanner. Software is buggy, laggy and crashes. Explained this to their customer service team and they refused a refund. I rarely write reviews but felt compelled to do so. Awful product, awful company, avoid!