SilverFast Ai Software

The big advantage the V750 has over the V700 is in the bundled software. The V750 includes the full version of SilverFast Ai scanning software, (V700 has the SE version). In case you are not familiar with LaserSoft SilverFast Ai, it is an excellent interface which enables you to capture quality information out of your film. To start this part of the review I have used both the EpsonScan and SilverFast scanning software to produce a "No Adjustments and Fully Auto" scans. I have not applied any post production to the scans.

EpsonScan no adjustments	SilverFast no adjustments
EpsonScan Auto setting	SilverFast Auto setting
EpsonScan 48bit no profile applied	SF 48bitno profile applied
EpsonScan 48bit with profile assigned	SF 48bit with profile assigned

Both sets of scans have produced more than acceptable scans, although the SilverFast auto setting has produced an overexposed scan. I also scanned the image in 48bit without any colour management settings and then applied the canned Epson profile to both scans. The SilverFast scan in this case displays the most natural looking colours, especially in the greens. The last scans are my own preferred way of working, ie, scan the image without any settings and then apply a profile in Photoshop. (more about this later). However, the purpose of this test is to see what can be achieved with the scanning software.

Image tweaked with EpsonScan	Image tweaked with SilverFast
Levels applied, reduced saturation and an increase in the magenta with EpsonScan
Colour correction, curves and selective colour adjustments applied with SilverFast

The SilverFast application offers far more control than EpsonScan, but then that's what I would expect. Having said that, EpsonScan has produced some very good scans and I would be more than happy to use Epson's software for almost all of my scans. SilverFast has many features that will suit the advanced user, you could easily tweak the settings to perfection with the software, but with an image scanned in 48 bit you can apply many of the adjustments from within Photoshop. The full version of SilverFast offers more scope than the SE version, it is worth the extra outlay.

(Source: photo-i, Vincent Oliver, 2006)