"VueScan lets me extract the maximum possible from the scanner"

Hamrick Software's industry-leading product helps John Chapman with poorly exposed originals

John Chapman is a former lecturer in graphics, multimedia and programming at RMIT University, and now works full time writing and publishing guide books. He uses VueScan to prepare the images that illustrate the books that he writes and publishes. These books include 'Day Walks Victoria', 'Bushwalking in Australia' and 'Day Walks Tasmania'.

Silverfast and NikonScan limitations exposed

John uses Windows 98 SE and a Nikon LS1000 or LS4000 scanner. He investigated a variety of scanning programs before settling on VueScan. He takes up the story: "I tried Silverfast and NikonScan. Both of them did processing after the scan, and therefore were not able to extract very much information from poorly exposed original images.

"Both programs handled correctly exposed transparencies adequately, but in the real world not all images are correctly exposed. VueScan gives much better results from poorly exposed originals, and its use is intuitive. This is the real area where VueScan shines against its competitors."

"I rarely do any correction after scanning - just dust spotting and sharpening, which are both compulsory anyway. With VueScan, it is also a lot easier to adjust the focus point, which lets me scan older, more severely bent transparencies more successfully."

Reliable preview

John also appreciates the more accurate preview that he receives with VueScan. "With NikonScan, I found that the preview was not very accurate, in relation to the end result of the scan. I often had to repeat the scan many times before getting something satisfactory. With VueScan, the preview is extremely close to the final output so just one scan is all that is required each time.

"Now that is an extremely valuable benefit to someone like me."

Key VueScan features for John Chapman: