Silverfast v Vuescan

Hi

I have a Nikon coolscan LS4000 and a slide feeder attachment. I am starting the process of scanning my slides - the Coolscan software keeps crashing on my Mac but is adequate just wondering
1 any advantage switching to Silverfast or Vuescan
2 Which people prefer out of the two

Thanks

I have Vuescan and like it.
Why not download and trial it?

I have - thumbs up for the software - instrucions need a masters in scanning to understand

Nikon discontinued their support for the MAC Coolscan software, SilverFast didn't.
A few months ago SilverFast added support for all nikon scanners on Mac OS 10.5 Leopard. (Directly, not through the MAID-module).

If you tried out this Vuescan, than you have to compare it to SilverFast (free demo), it's way better.

I use Vuescan and have never used Silverfast so cannot comment on the latter. I'm perfectly happy with Vuescan.

My V ED has always been prone to crashing and I've generally blamed NikonScan, so I would hope that using either of the alternatives would help.

It's a shame that Nikon always were so useless at producing software and seem incapable or unwilling to address the problems with NikonScan. Otherwise the Coolscan range of scanners are well made and capable of excellent results (if you turn digital ICE off that is - Software again!). A good full frame scan is still able to beat my 30D.

Rather than use ICE to remove dust and scratches, I use canned air to remove the dust and repair scratches in Photoshop. ICE softens everything too much for my liking.

My Coolscan V never crashed (yet) using VueScan on OSX 10.4.11

It did have a few bugs (preview being good, scan not so) though... Still working on that.

Lowner wrote in post #6818477
ICE softens everything too much for my liking.

Have you tried SilverFast in the meantime ? Maybe they're offering a solution to your problems with ICE also. They've implemented an own scratch and dusk removal tool, called iSRD. It can be run in manual mode, where you are able to set different masks and layers to control sensitivity of correction in different areas separately.

I use Silverfast x-ray and it is tremendous, and support from the company top notch. Never used Vuescan......