Thanks for the quick response, all!
Not quite what I wanted to hear after buying the upgrade that was recommended on the LaserSoft website for my V750, but it certainly explains why I cannot get the results that I previously was able to obtain.
Ellen
Hi Ellen,
I can
infer (rightly or wrongly) from your posts that when you bought your V750 it came with SilverFast SE 6 (but that would be unusual - I thought with the V750 they bundled either SE+6 or Ai6, but I may be mistaken - it's years ago and I don't remember). Then they came out with SilverFast-8, so you "up-graded" the version number (i.e. from SF6 to SF8), but not the level (from SE upward)?? If that's right and if you want 16 bit output, which anyone concerned with maximizing intrinsic quality would, you now need to upgrade from SE8 to Ai8. There is an upgrade price of course, which you can find out by going to their website and plunking in your SE8 serial number to see what they will charge you these days for upgrading to Ai8 Studio; then you can determine whether it is worthwhile. Or, plunk in the original serial number for the software that was bundled with the V750 and see what they will charge to upgrade that to Ai8 Studio, and use whichever upgrade path is cheapest.
But I would try something else before going there: assuming you now have the settings right to get a positive B&W out of a B&W negative, try scanning it at maximum optical resolution in 8-bit with your current software version, import it to Photoshop or Lightroom, do all your edits, print it, and see (this is visual quality, not intrinsic quality) whether 8-bit is showing obvious signs of inadequacy. Use a negative that has a nice tonally-graded sky - that would be the first place 8-bit deficiency should appear. If you see trouble, upgrading is indicated. If you don't, perhaps skip the upgrading until such a time that you think it has become necessary.
The other option out there of course is Vuescan which for 80 dollars I believe will give you 16-bit depth. You can download a trial and see whether you like it. Then compare that price, feature set, user-interface with what an upgrade of SilverFast gives you for all those factors. I know these answers don't provide immediate hapiness, but it does take a bit of messing-around to settle on what will be most cost-effective for you.