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Hamrick Software VueScan Professional 8.4 review

Verdict:

Review Date: 15 Aug 2008

Price when reviewed: (around £40)

Our Rating 5 stars out of 5

ExpertReviews Award

Hamrick Software's VueScan Professional scanner interface for Windows, Mac OS and Linux supports over 750 USB, SCSI and FireWire scanners, from budget flatbeds to professional 35mm negative scanners.

The Windows version has a generic driver that allows you to use almost all the supported devices, although a handful of scanners require their original drivers. The generic driver works with Vista, too, making VueScan perfect if your scanner is no longer supported.

Both Standard and Professional versions are available. VueScan Standard is cheaper, but it can't save unprocessed raw scans and doesn't support IT8 colour calibration or ICC colour profiles, which ensure that your scans match your monitor and printing hardware. These features are useful if you intend to do high-quality image editing and archival, so we recommend VueScan Professional.

We found it easier to use and configure than most manufacturers' scanner interfaces. For quick and easy scanning, a step-by-step mode guides you through the process with a series of simple pull-down options.

The Advanced scan mode is flexible and powerful, with various colour restoration and sharpening filters, white balancing and colour profile selection. Transparency and negative scanning modes add menus to the colour configuration tab that allow you to select the exact brand and type of film you're using. This produced some of the most accurate colour-negative scans we've ever seen. We've only seen this feature in more expensive programs such as LaserSoft's SilverFast.

VueScan Professional is a high-quality imaging tool that can produce stunning photo and negative scans. For just £40 including a lifetime of free updates, it's an essential program for any photo enthusiast.

Author: Kat Orphanides

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User comments

Vuescan Software

I downloaded the trial version of this software at the companies website. I am an engineer and not a computer type guy, so when it did not work properly, I emailed the author of the software. The author responded to me with a very rude, unprofessional and demeaning email, representing a person with whom I do not want to spend my money. Below is his email in return;


Ed Hamrick Quote "I'm not impressed either - you didn't tell me what kind of scanner
you're using, what operating system you're using, and you didn't
include a vuescan.log file.

Hardly the professionalism of an "Aerospace Engineer"

By werdert on 9 Jan 2010

Other side of the coin

werdert ... sorry to hear that you had a bad experience. Because I had an experience that appears to be exactly opposite to yours – I felt compelled to respond. I am an also engineer and I do work with computers. I also have the trial software, and I am testing it out with the intention of buying it. I emailed Ed (9Jan2010) with a question and got a rapid response with a good answer. With respect to your “negative” response ... on his website … Ed indicates that he addresses a lot of email, and that if you have a technical question, you really must attach the log file. For computer guys, debugging without the log is like looking for a needle in a haystack. If you want to try Ed again, send the log and get back to us with how it goes.

By Aussie on 10 Jan 2010

@Aussie

Not everyone who may download the "Trial" is aware of "debugging" or "log files". Furthermore, no where does the website explain in detail where to obtain the "log file" or even how to send it. For those of us who are not computer guroo'es per say, and we failed mind reading 101, his response was unessesary and unprofessional.

Writing the response he did to me, without so much as even asking me to submit the data, was completely without merit and not necessary. Any "professional" like Ed, should have enough couth and professionalism to at LEAST be friendly to a prospective customer. We have 10 of these Documate 510 scanners, and we needed software for our primarily MAC equipped office. Since I do exhaustive amounts aerospace design and reverse engineering, our scanners are our life blood. My thought process was to try it out and if it worked buy 10 sets of the software from this guy, and contract his services in some manner to ensure the vitality of the process.

With regard to your comment, I cannot speak for your interaction I can only testify as to what was presented to me. His comments to me were unprofessional and rude, and were without merit.

I have located another vendor who actually has agreed to supply what we need, and do so without being a A-Hole.

By werdert on 10 Jan 2010

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