VueScan Newsletter - April 2021

Welcome to our newsletter!

Hello again to everyone, wherever you are in the world! One of the many aspects at Hamrick Software that we enjoy is having customers from so many places. Did you know that we have customers in almost every country in the world, and that VueScan has been translated into 29 languages? We also have customers that have been with us for over 20 years – and if that is you then we would like to say a special thank you for being so loyal and recommending us to so many people – we appreciate it very much.

Anyway, at long last, we are beginning to see signs of the recovery from Covid 19, and for that we are all grateful. Fortunately, we have been able to continue working full time on VueScan – as we have home offices – so our product development has not been affected. Every month we have many new subscribers to our newsletter, and if this is you, then a warm welcome from us and we look forward to hearing from you. If you do use Facebook please continue to add reviews for us as this is a great way for people to learn from other people about how they use VueScan.

Please remember you can contact us for technical support (we need a Problem Report) and any general enquiries, suggestions or feedback here

Ed, Dave and I wish you all of you a happy and healthy month.

Stay safe and take care,

Beverley.

Please remember: If you have changed your email address PLEASE do not email us!

Remember! You do not have to tell us about an email address change for your use of VueScan, it is only relevant for the newsletter.

You can subscribe to the newsletter with your new email address here

You can unsubscribe the old email address here

You can contact us with questions or for technical support here

Change to VueScan Free Update Policy

We changed our free update policy at the beginning of 2021. Anyone who purchased the Professional Edition of VueScan on or before March 31, 2021 receives unlimited free updates for life. Anyone who purchases the Professional Edition after this date receives free updates for one year after purchase. Our web site has reflected this free update policy since January 1, 2021.

This isn’t a subscription plan – you can use any free update that you’re entitled to for life without ever paying anything more.

This change is to bring our update policy in line with most other companies selling software.

Purchasers of the Standard Edition of VueScan previously received free updates for one year after purchase, and continue to receive these free updates for one year after purchase.

A promise made is a promise kept, and if you purchased the Professional Edition on or before March 31, 2021, you will continue to receive unlimited free updates for life!

VueScan Updates

Since the last newsletter, we’ve released VueScan 9.7.52, 9.7.51,9.7.50, 9.7.49, 9.7.48 and 9.7.47.

You can access all version changes here

What’s new in version 9.7.52

Added support for 2 new Brother MFPs
- Brother DCP-J587N
- Brother DCP-J987N
Added support for ‘Input
Lamp’ on Epson Perfection V600
Fixed problem with Minolta Scan Multi and Scan Multi Pro
Improved recognition of ScanJet 4850 vs. ScanJet 4890 (same USB Product ID)

What’s new in version 9.7.51

Increased number of bits in TIFF and Raw files with multi-sampling and size reduction
Fixed problem with hangs after some Windows installs
Fixed problem with ‘Overview’ and ‘Cropped area’ not both updating when ‘Input | Media’ changed

What’s new in version 9.7.50

Added support for 80 new Canon MFPs
Canon E3400
Canon E3440
Canon E3470
Canon E3490
Canon E3491
Canon G2020
Canon G2021
Canon G2060
Canon G2160
Canon G2260
Canon G2420
Canon G2460
Canon G2520
Canon G2560
Canon G2820
Canon G2821
Canon G2860
Canon G2920
Canon G2921
Canon G2923
Canon G2924
Canon G2960
Canon G2962
Canon G2963
Canon G3020
Canon G3021
Canon G3060
Canon G3160
Canon G3260
Canon G3360
Canon G3420
Canon G3460
Canon G3520
Canon G3560
Canon G3620
Canon G3625
Canon G3660
Canon G3665
Canon G3820
Canon G3821
Canon G3860
Canon G3920
Canon G3923
Canon G3960
Canon G3962
Canon G3963
Canon TR7000
Canon TR7020
Canon TR7060
Canon TR7600
Canon TR7620
Canon TR7660
Canon TR8600
Canon TR8620
Canon TR8630
Canon TR8660
Canon TS3400
Canon TS3420
Canon TS3425
Canon TS3429
Canon TS3440
Canon TS3450
Canon TS3451
Canon TS3452
Canon TS3460
Canon TS3465
Canon TS3466
Canon TS3470
Canon TS3480
Canon TS3490
Canon TS3491
Canon TS3492
Canon TS7400
Canon TS7430
Canon TS7440
Canon TS7450
Canon TS7451
Canon TS8430
Canon XK90

What’s new in version 9.7.49

Improved quality of buttons at lower right (rotate, zoom, change frame)
Added ‘Prefs - Dark mode’ option on Windows 10
- Installs ‘VueScan Dark Mode’ theme
- This theme can also be selected from Personalization control panel
Fixed problem with flickering window title
Fixed problem with Canon DR-M260
Fixed problem with Brother MFC-J6925DW

What’s new in version 9.7.48

Added support for Fujitsu ScanSnap iX1400
Added support for Fujitsu ScanSnap iX1600
Added support for Plustek OpticSlim 1680 on macOS
Added support for older WIA 1.0 drivers (i.e. Mustek)
Fixed problem with Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500 and ScanSnap S1500M
Improved recognition of ScanJet 4850 vs. ScanJet 4890 (same USB Product ID)

What’s new in version 9.7.47

Fixed problem with adding/deleting pages from PDF file on Windows
Added “PDF - PDF tools” command
Improved recognition of ScanJet 4850 vs. ScanJet 4890 (same USB Product ID)

VueScan in the press

For our customers who scan film, here is a review from DPReview comparing VueScan, SilverFast and Epson.

If you haven’t heard of DPReview, this is who they are!

Digital Photography Review’s mission is to provide the most authoritative coverage of digital photography gear in the world, including news, articles and expert reviews. We have built the most comprehensive database of consumer digital cameras on the Internet, and we provide an open, active forum and useful tools for our community.

To read the review, click here.

And thank you to PC Pro who also mentioned us!

Support for different film types

VueScan first started supporting different film types about 20 years. We originally got film profiles from the PhotoCD database. These film profiles contain ‘sensitometric curves’ for different film types, and they don’t vary much in film types in use in the past 15 years or so.

More significantly, most color negative films have dyes that fade differently over time for each of the three color layers. This makes scans of older color negative films have a color tint that doesn’t reflect the original. This means it’s not practical to use film profiles to get accurate color.

Instead, we’ve developed the ‘Filter | Restore fading’ option, which compensates for different rates of fading of different dye colors. It does this by trying to linearize the colors that are close to neutral (gray). It works pretty well with old color negative films as well as old Ektachrome slides that have faded to red (Kodachrome dyes don’t fade much over time).

In extreme cases, the ‘Filter | Restore colors’ option is useful, but it sometimes produces strange colors. It works by finding colors closest to ‘memory colors’ – i.e. you remember that the sky is blue, grass is green, wood is brown, etc. – and then VueScan finds a color transform matrix that brings the scanned colors closest to the memory colors.

Black and white film is different, since it doesn’t have color dyes, but only has silver particles that determine how gray the image is. Depending on how the film was developed, the contrast changes. The PhotoCD data we’re using for Kodak TMAX film has options that look like ‘CI = 0.50’ which Kodak calls this the “Developer Contrast Index”. Use film profiles with different ‘CI’ values to change the apparent contrast of the scan.

Other black and white negatives films, including the popular Ilford negative films, have sensitometric curves very close to Kodak TMAX, so you can just use the TMAX profiles with different ‘CI’ values with these films. You can also change the overall contrast of a film scan using the ‘Color | Brightness’ option. This effectively changes the slope of the sensitometric curve.

And more information on film scanning!

Henry Richardson has been scanning since 1997 using various film scanners and has written all about his experience. Click here to learn more about Henry.

Scanning Torture (or Learning to Love Your Digital Camera) -

Part 1

Over 10,000 35mm slides and negatives scanned! -

Part 2

Update on scanning color negatives -

Part 3

Frequently Asked Questions

Q) The one suggestion I have, one that would have made my workflow a lot easier, would be for the manual white balance option to be able to start with the automatic one. I found that one of the automatic white balance would get close but would need a little tweak. However, switching to manual would change the white balance setting completely and I would have a hard time getting back to what the automatic setting did. Usually, I would just accept the almost-good automatic result and not try to improve.

A) Single-clicking on a neutral color in an image adjusts the color balance so this point is gray. Double-clicking with the right mouse button reverts to automatic white balance.

Q) I would love to have an interface that allowed more standard Curves adjustment much like in Flexcolor or Lightroom or Photoshop. The ability to shape the curve, and to select the endpoints. For instance, I never want to have a pure black or pure white in my scan, no clipping of any kind. I want all possible info captured. Right now, I have to set negative values in the clipping function, which seems to work but is not a particularly straightforward approach.

A) This is on the list of enhancements to investigate. For now, most people do a lot of enhancing with Photoshop, so outputting 48-bit DNG files to Photoshop seems to be what most people use for this kind of thing.

Customer Corner

Many thanks to Fred and Bryan – just two of our customers who contacted us. If you would like to be included, please just email us!

Fred – USA

I remember when Nikon stopped supporting Nikon Scan and I had to find a replacement. I first did a trial of Silver Whatever-It’s-Called. Why did I choose that? Because it cost so much more; it had to be better, right? I soon got bogged down in minutiae while facing the prospect of having to purchase extra bits beyond the basic app. It was going to be expensive, and I didn’t mind that as much as the frightening learning curve. So, I tried VueScan and, despite a support query or two, have never looked back. My Nikon film scanner is happy, and my new HP all-in-one is too.

Bryan Barbee

VueScan brought back my Nikon LS-50. I’ve had the scanner for 10 years, and an LS-1000 before that, but haven’t used it because the software from Nikon wouldn’t work. With this Covid mess I’m working from home now on a new iMac Pro editing videos. So I put the VueScan software in it and have been rediscovering some negatives and slides from over 50 years of shooting. I can scan into Photoshop as a .dng file and the film looks great. Thanks for a great product!

Here is an example - The photo was taken in the Sandbridge section of Virginia Beach, Virginia in 2002 using Kodak Gold 200. The kid in the photo is my son Carl who is 29 and 6’4 now so it’s an old photo. Shot with a Nikon F 4 Nikon 28-70 f 2.8 Nikkor lens. It was new back then.

To see more of Bryan’s work click here

Shipps Bay in Virginia Beach, Virginia

Bryan's photo