Digital BW, The Print

I use Vuescan and Nikonscan with my Nikon V, Vuescan and Epson with my
flatbed. 

I have had no problems with any of them, or with Minolta's
application, with the exception that Vuescan doesn't as conveniently
control film advance with the motorized Nikon SA21 carrier...I use
Nikonscan with color negs only. 

Vuescan's front end seems initially complex, but that's mostly because
it involves linear logic and lacks cartoons and graphics that make
other apps seem more friendly. I like being able to use the same
scanning workflow on both my flatbed and my Nikon, and it worked well
on my Minolta, while that briefly functioned. 

The performance advantage of Vuescan over Nikonscan, that I find
convincing, is with silver B&W. 1) It may not exaggerate grain as much
as Nikonscan. 2) Its "slight grain reduction" setting definitely does
prevent grain exaggeration and it does not soften the grain or degrade
finest detail. This makes post processing applications related to
grain and noise unnecessary, if they ever were necessary to Photoshop
users. 

You'll find, if you follow posts on this topic on other sites, that
there is an individual who continually damns Vuescan, even damning the 
man behind it as a person. When somebody reports huge and continuing
problems with Vuescan, this is sometimes the story. Personally, I've
never had a problem with Vuescan in 98 or XP, but I've heard
real-sounding complaints with Mac.

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, Daniel Ridings
<dlr@...> wrote:
>
> I have been using Vuescan for about 5 years now. Best thing since
sliced 
> bread in my opinion. One piece of software for all of my scanners.
Works 
> the same everywhere.
> 
> This was done with it and the b/w print is even more beautiful:
> 
> http://www.dlridings.com/paw2007/14.html
> 
> Don't go in to the darkroom either if you don't want to learn things.
> 
> Daniel
> 
> 
> David Keenan wrote:
> > 
> > 
> >  >Try Vuescan,
> > 
> > Don't try it, though, if you want scan software that doesn't require a
> > degree in both computer science and scanner design to use -- nor
if you want
> > software that has anything more than the most rudimentary
documentation --
> > nor if you want software that is backed up with timely, responsive
technical
> > support.
> > 
> > I own it and have tried to use it numerous times and never without
a high
> > degree of frustration. I have 30+ years experience with computers and
> > software development so I'm hardly a novice-- and I think that
while the
> > developer of Vuescan may mean well, this product borders on being,
well,
> > just plain awful.
> > 
> > Silverfast is marginally better but it has its own issues.
> > 
> > I pretty much end up using the manufacturers software be it Epson,
Nikon, or
> > Minolta. These are far easier to operate and the results come out
just fine.
> > 
> > Dave.
>