One thing I realize I left out from my previous (long) post about my
experiences with the SprintScan 120 was the alternative to spending $300 on
the Silverfast software. To the extent that Silverfast doesn't offer any
significant advantages over 48 bit editing in Photoshop 6, why not spend
about $150 on ICC Scan (from www.profilecity.com), plus $40 for a Kodak IT8
35 mm slide. With the software and slide, you can use Polaroid's Polacolor
(is that the name?) included basic software which DOES SUPPORT exporting 48
bit raw scans. Export a 48 bit raw scan and use ICC Scan to profile it.
Voila, you have a profiled scanner with Photoshop's 48 bit editing to work
on your raw scans.
My strong suspicion is that the profiling of ICC Scan will be better than
that of Silverfast, although I'd love to hear any comments
agreeing/disagreeing with this "suspicion." I've been following an Imacon
email group, and several users on that group have had glowing comments about
ICC Scan. It's a one trick piece of software -- it only profiles scanners.
It's up to date, and engineered (I think) by the same folks who designed
some of the Gregtag software (or from another big color profilnig company, I
can't remember which one). It should do it's one trick very well, and user
reports seem to confirm that it does.
Howard A. Slavitt
www.enaturephoto.com
