SilverFast Reviews 35

Bundled with Plustek scanner, this software looks like it's out of the 1980s. Life is simply too short for things that need vast manuals and who's owners have obviously been milking the product for decades without investing.

I received the Silverfast 9 SE Plus with my Plustek 8200i film and slide scanner that I bought in December 2025. I have been using it on a 2024 MacBook Pro laptop for over a month and one-half. I think that the software is terrific and the Silverfast support in Germany is excellent. I have scanning film and slides that are twenty to forty years old and the results are great. There is some learning curve but it has renewed my interest in film photography.

I want to love Silverfast - I took the time to learn it inside and out. But if you own a Mac - 100% don't buy it. I have owned it for a couple years. I would say there is a 95% chance it is not going to open and log you in so you get to your paid version. They told me that they don't like Macs - they blamed it on CleanMyMac app. Even if that was the problem - I have never had a problem with any other app running properly. Even if it does open one day for you - If you close the app and come back tomorrow - there is 95% it will not open again. Save your money. My Vuescan works properly every time. It is too bad I like the Silverfast interface better than Vuescan.

We use SilverFast Ai Studio and also HDR for slide and negative digitisation. The software and configuration options available ensures we always capture the best possible image.

Given the vast scope of settings it can be difficult to quickly determine how you should configure the software but with some time you will develop some capture profiles which give great results.

The support team at LaserSoft are fantastic and are happy to assist. There are also extensive learning materials available online.

Do not buy this software—it's horrible and far from professional. The customer service is even worse; it feels more like a scam. I don’t understand how they have positive review articles when the software is nowhere near professional.

The software doesn't work even after I paid for an upgrade. I asked for a refund the same day I made the purchase and they refused after I emailed their support with the problem. I did what they advised and it still doesn't work after hours spent trying to resolve the problem.

SilverFast is an absolute piece of junk. It came bundled free with my PlusTek 7300 and even they admitted it has issues after I contacted them.

SilverFast wasted hundreds of hours of my time scanning old slide and negative. Just cannot get a good scan from it - terrible colours, adds scan lines, appalling contrast. Terrible user interface. The producers in Germany don't care.

I then discovered V u e S c a n and it worked brilliantly. Easy to use, great quality scans, but it's not free, and costs more if you want to scan slides and negatives.

Been building and using PC's since the 1990's. Setting up the SilverFast 9 software has taken over five days so far, and it's still not out of the limited demo version. Bought a Plustek 8300i bundle on Amazon. Can't rate the SilverFast software because it is not running other than in demo mode and I'm not spending hours scanning 35mm negatives with watermarks embedded - which make the scans useless. Biggest complaint, their response time on requests for help is a 2 out of 10. Main problem is getting the software registered and out of demo mode. Suggest loosening up some on the demo mode restrictions knowing you will get scammed some, but legitimate users will then have time to get registered or get your tech support answering alot faster!

Had a problem where after updating and cleaning my computer the Silverfast app wouldn't let me log in. I found Nico from SF customer service to be extremely helpful, he even logged into a call to help me out, and resolved the problem immediately. Thank you!

I bought a plustek 8200i scanner. It came with a link to Silverfast SE plus 9. I am updating my review from 1 star to 3. After 3 emails from me I finally received a response and they fixed the problem right away. The 3 stars is due to the fact that it took 4 days and 3 emails to finally hear back

I have scanned for years. I lost my Nikon software for my coolscan V ED and Nikon discontinued its production. So I began searching for an alternative.

I bought the Silverfact 9. This Siverfast 9 is a nightmare. It is needlessly complex. Example: I cannot even see how to save the image. GMAB!

Good lord, it has to be the very best scanner with the absolute WORST UI one could think of. I'm a years long user. still its terrible. They put microsoft's decades run as worst UI designers to shame. Truly terrible. And i paid for it. Really it's shit.

I bought SilverFast 9 (upgrade) online after having used SilverFast 8 for several years.
After some initial problems with downloading and installing the software it now seems to be working ok.
SilverFast 9 is definitely an improvement on Silverfast 8 which was itself an accomplished program for scanning slides (transparencies), and digitising negatives, although not particularly fast. I have to say that the results from scanning, sometimes decades old, slides has inspired me to fetch out and recondition my old Contax film camera.

Apologies, I'm updating my review from 2 to 5 stars!!! I realise now my initial frustrations were simply due to getting used to the software (though in my defense it has taken 5 days to do so). It's working very well now I've figured out some smaller tricks. I've been able to scan kodachrome pics from the seventies very nicely. Apologies for my initial scathing review.

I have just bought a Plustek 8200i SE Scanner. I am very pleased with the scanner, it's Silverfast which is the problem. It is very user unfriendly. Far too complicated to use and the layout of the scan screen is complicated and confusing. I have had very good scan results by ignoring all the fiddly Silverfast controls and just scanning the negative/slide as is and then doing my enhancements using Photoshop.

I upgraded my old flatbed to an Epson V600 and Silverfast 9 SE was part of the bundle. Having an old version which ran on a Minolta Elite film scanner I was quite happy to try it out. Essentially Silverfast can often produce superb images "out of the box" with excellent colour. The main (major) drawback with the software is the myriad menus and hidden options scattered over the main screen. Pursuing the help buttons takes you to short instructional videos, which do give some insight but seem to be either aimed at the Archive Suite user or refer to a prior software version. Not very helpful. Now, do not fall into the trap of buying the E-book - written specifically for SilverFast 9 - which technically it is, as long as you have the Archive Suite version and not the cut down cheaper SE plus version. Simply put don't waste your money. But having said all that, it is quite simply the best scanning software out there - and that includes Vuescan, the nearest rival. The learning curve is vertical, get used to being really frustrated with the overly complex menus and eventually you'll get to enjoy using it.

I purchased the SE version of this software primarily for scanning colour negatives. As such, it far out-performs it's main rival, Vuescan; sadly, the latter delivers consistently dreadful colour balance (although it does have a useful "right click" function for manually setting colour balance against a neutral reference and is excellent for colour reversal film). Silverfast, by contrast, can often produce superb images "out of the box" with excellent colour.
The problem with Silverfast is that I can't even say the instructions are useless, since, well, there aren't any. Oh, yes, there is a help page on the website and it even contains "Silverfast instructions". These do tell you how to install the software and other really useful things such as how to change the display theme from white to black and how to upgrade; but how to use the software? Absolutely nothing, so far as I can see; just guess and make it up as you go along. Which is a shame, really, since it appears that it might well be quite powerful software - if only someone had thought to tell you how to use it.

I own a minolta scanner which produces a magenta cast on the image borders only with silverfast. Any other software (vuescan and the original minolta software) do not have the same issue. Spent months trying to fix, even following the "suggestions" of the customer care. They didn't even reply to my last email leaving me with a software totally unfit for purpose. Essentially I wasted my money. The worst part is their tone. Their first suggestion was that I was at fault not being able to use the software properly. They even blamed the scanner which as I mentioned works fine with other software. I should have read the reviews here before. I would suggest anyone with an old scanner for negatives (like my minolta dimage) to buy vuescan instead, it does not have any of the issues I found with silverfast and it is updated frequently.

Silverfast 9 is a waste of money. It has trouble scanning B+W negatives. They either come out black of like some king of cartoon image. I'd advise people just to keep their money and stay with epson scan.

I've bought a Plustek 8300i to archive my slides to a previous owner. We proceed to license transfer for Silverfast software thru the dedicated portal. All was working well for two days...
Suddenly my license was revoked by Silverfast arguing my device was already used in the past (of course!!!). I post a request to support team, I get no answer nor contact. No way to reach them by phone...
Now I just keep an useless device and my slides in their box... waste of money and time.
to flee !!!
Update: support team finally contact me, and after many emails to explain the issue, the license was granted.