Review 5 of 19
Price Paid:
$1100.00
from Adorama Summary: LaserSoft''s SilverFast Ai5 software is now available for this scanner and what a difference it makes. It hasn''t turned Cinderella into a Princess but it''s about as close as you can come given the inherent shortcomings of the hardware. You''ll find much faster final scan times, much larger and less pixelated prescans and greatlt enhanced control of image parameters, especially color and tone. I was ready to junk my 3600, which Iv''e owned since Decemeber 2000, before SilverFast Ai became available. It isn''t perfect and doesn''t turn the 3600 into a true professional scanner but it''s a major upgrade that should please most present 3600 owners who use the scanner for non-professional purposes. Strengths: Good dynamic range of 3.6, high scanning resolution and great control of image (scan) parameters using the new SiverFast Ai5 software. SilverFast also allows greatly improved prescans and much faster final scans as compared to Kodak''s software for this scanner. On my system (a Dell Pentium II 400 computer with 256 MB of SDRAM running Windows 98SE with the scanner connected via a USB port) a full frame final scan of a 35mm slide took 4 minutes, 15.3 seconds using Kodak''s software and only 1 minute, 53.3 seconds using SilverFast Ai. The final scan in each case was 31.4 MB in size. Scan times were measured from initiation of the scanning process to display of the finished image on the monitor. Prescans of the same slide were 34.7 seconds for the Kodak software and 56.3 seconds for SilverFast Ai. The longer prescan time for the latter probaly accounts for the much higher image quality (larger and less pixelated) of the SilverFast prescans. Weaknesses: Neither SilverFast Ai nor Kodaks native software for the 3600 are stand alone programs nor do they have provision for automatically eliminating scratches, dust particles, etc. as does Applied Science''s Digital Ice and Canon''s FARE. Optical resolution (as reflected by the scanner lens) could be higher as well but should be adequate for most hobbiest uses. Similar Products Used: HP S20 CSe Customer Service: Good but slow. I started bugging Kodak about the inadequacies of their software almost 10 months ago which finally paid off when they sent me the SilverFast Ai5 software reviewed here. If present owne
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