Epson 4990 Software, Suggestions?

[Greg Winterflood]

I have an Epson 4990 on order. It will act as my "dry" darkroom. Its initial use will be to process the efke R100 negatives I am developing myself, after having shot the film in my Baby Brownie.

Are there considered opinions as to whether to go with the bundled software which comes with the Epson, or should I be looking elsewhere?

As well, I am in the process of constructing a "wet" darkroom, in order to enjoy the pleasures of both worlds, but the scanner will get here first.

[Wirehead]

So, between all of the scanner manufacturers, Epson has some of the better bundled software, IMHO. So try it out and if you can't deal with it, then see about looking elsewhere. I haven't felt the need yet. But you do want to take it to the professional mode where you can control all of the paramaters.

You will need Photoshop or a similar image editing tool, however.

Digital ICE doesn't work on any non-chromagenic materials. Dust removal sucks up CPU and doesn't work very well. So you will end up having to spot your negatives in Photoshop post-scan unless you clean them very carefully.

[Greg Winterflood]

Wired head , thanks for that.

I recently downloaded a trial version of VueScan and played with that on my current scanner, a CanoScan LiDE20.

It was only after doing that, that I realized that scanning software was different from editing software. In my innocence I had thought that one program did both jobs.

I don't have Photoshop and I'm still running XP home - so I wonder if this means a transition to Vista and a Vista Version of Photoshop??

More research needed!!