Epsom scanners.

Steve-B

Steve-B

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I am going to be purchasing a film scanner shortly and have been looking at the Epson range..... The V500, the V600 and the V700, ( I would have liked a dedicated scanner but on searching the ones that scan 120film are out of my price range at the moment..)

I will be using a scanner for scanning both 35 mm and 120 film only ( no documents or photo's )

Has anyone had much experience with the Epson flat bed scanners, and also I know that the Epson V 700 is about 3 times as costly as the V 500 but is it 3 times as good ( I don't mind paying the extra if it is) alternately is any body using a different scanner which will do the job as good or better...

Thanks Steve.
 
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***Has anyone had much experience with the Epson flat bed scanners,**


Yep from a 4180 for £3.50 at a boot sale to the V750 and they all do a reasonable job at 35mm but better at 120 (larger neg so less magnification for same size print compared to 35mm). Anyway the V500 is a good compromise for price/performance.
 
I'm not convinced the V700 is 3x as good as the V500 - they all use roughly the same technology and the same way to extract a picture, and the limitations that brings. The V700/750pro probably has a higher Dmax, but you'd probably struggle to tell.

A lot of it is convenience with the holders though:
V500 - 2 images
V600 - 3 images
V700 - 6 images

of 120, 6x6, in one go. So the V700 means you can scan a whole roll whilst only needing to change film once.
 
Thanks all for the answers, it looks like it might be theV 500 then, no point spending more than I need too..

I take it that if a image is already properly focused and sharp when it go's into the scanner they come out scanned reasonably good..

And if 35 mm would be better with a dedicated 35 mm film scanner then it' not the end of the world, as what I will save buy purchasing the V 500 against the V 700 would probably nearly pay for one..

Steve.
 
Steve-B said:
I take it that if a image is already properly focused and sharp when it go's into the scanner they come out scanned reasonably good..
Steve.
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Well for me (and I would say for others) I'm lucky if a scan comes out perfect with no further adjustments/tweaking needed in Photoshop. Your main enemy is dust so a large rocket blower is essential.
 
I bought the Epson V500 last year, and it is simple and easy to set up. Using it is also straightforward. You can scan 4 slides at once. With the V700 I think you can scan 12 slides at once. I almost went for the 700 but could not justify the cost as I am not going to be scanning hundreds of slides. I did a lot of 'research' on the internet re the different makes, and there are plenty recommendations for Epson.
 
excalibur2 said:
Well for me (and I would say for others) I'm lucky if a scan comes out perfect with no further adjustments/tweaking needed in Photoshop. Your main enemy is dust so a large rocket blower is essential.
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Cheers for the reply, I don't mind a bit of sorting out in CS5...
 
pityacka said:
I bought the Epson V500 last year, and it is simple and easy to set up. Using it is also straightforward. You can scan 4 slides at once. With the V700 I think you can scan 12 slides at once. I almost went for the 700 but could not justify the cost as I am not going to be scanning hundreds of slides. I did a lot of 'research' on the internet re the different makes, and there are plenty recommendations for Epson.
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I can't see me doing a massive amount of scanning so the V 500 it is..
 
Epsom V 500 ordered from amazon will have it in my hands before one o clock tomorrow... Developing equipment and chemicals won't be here until next week though. But I expect I can find Some negatives to scan over the weekend...
 
I bought a V500 a couple of months back, and I have been very pleased with it.
 
Steve-B said:
Epsom V 500 ordered from amazon will have it in my hands before one o clock tomorrow... Developing equipment and chemicals won't be here until next week though. But I expect I can find Some negatives to scan over the weekend...
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I have just ordered one too and look forward to trying it out!
 
Steve-B said:
Kev, Do you use the Epson software that came with the scanner or are you useing vuescan...
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I got V500 about half a year ago and initially used Epson software but now fully moved to VueScan. I like Vuescan for the fact that you can turn off all the "optimisations" and get the maximum sharpness from the image (cannot get the images that sharp from Epson own software). But Epson software has one interesting feature that none other have - it looks as though it can control exposure (sensor exposure when scanning) per-channel. If you change say blue curve in Epson software curves the scanning time change. There was an article on a web where some chap experimented with this (on a slightly older scanner but it seemed to be the case for more recent ones as well). I still prefer VueScan for all the other control that it gives you.
 
dalex_257 said:
I got V500 about half a year ago and initially used Epson software but now fully moved to VueScan. I like Vuescan for the fact that you can turn off all the "optimisations" and get the maximum sharpness from the image (cannot get the images that sharp from Epson own software). But Epson software has one interesting feature that none other have - it looks as though it can control exposure (sensor exposure when scanning) per-channel. If you change say blue curve in Epson software curves the scanning time change. There was an article on a web where some chap experimented with this (on a slightly older scanner but it seemed to be the case for more recent ones as well). I still prefer VueScan for all the other control that it gives you.
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Cheers for the info, the vuescan does not seem that expensive so I will probably get it anyway....It should be here within the next hour and a half..
 
The V500 is here so I thought that i would run some negs through it ..with the software in the proffesional mode and select the target mode at 10" x 8" it will only let me scan at a max resolution of 1200... if I set the target size to original i can scan at whatever resolution i want.

I am not sure if I am doing everything right or not

Steve.
 
Steve-B said:
The V500 is here so I thought that i would run some negs through it ..with the software in the proffesional mode and select the target mode at 10" x 8" it will only let me scan at a max resolution of 1200... if I set the target size to original i can scan at whatever resolution i want.

I am not sure if I am doing everything right or not

Steve.
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I think you need to abandon that target mode thing - it is sort of automation to specify "optimal scanning resolution" if you know how big you going to print it.
 
dalex_257 said:
I think you need to abandon that target mode thing - it is sort of automation to specify "optimal scanning resolution" if you know how big you going to print it.
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Thanks again for the info, I ended up purchasing vuescan this afternoon and so far it seems to work good, in fact the scans are coming out better than I expected...only tried 35mm so far.. but my developing kit should be here next week so I can try out some 120...
 
Steve-B said:
Thanks again for the info, I ended up purchasing vuescan this afternoon and so far it seems to work good, in fact the scans are coming out better than I expected...only tried 35mm so far.. but my developing kit should be here next week so I can try out some 120...
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Exciting times :thumbs:
 
Mine arrived yesterday very pleased with it so far. :) Using Epson Scan software and settings suggested here: http://photo-utopia.blogspot.co.uk/2010/11/scanning-with-epson-v500.html

Here's an example of a picture using Ektar 100:

img008-Edit.jpg
 
what about the old Epson 4990, you could probably get one for a bargain price. I only do 120 scan, the result is as good as the V700, and so much better than the V600 I used to have.
 
Osh that's very good and just needs a bit of sharpening.
 
excalibur2 said:
Osh that's very good and just needs a bit of sharpening.
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Thanks will do - I think I need to learn a bit about sharpening more generally. I find the background quite amusing - a clotheshorse which has turned into a ghostly figure!
 
Just ordered my V500, hopefully it will be here on tuesday. Getting ridiculously excited...how old am I?
 
Andysnap said:
Just ordered my V500, hopefully it will be here on tuesday. Getting ridiculously excited...how old am I?
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Well done...I am pleased with mine and you would probably be hard pushed to better it for the money.......

Oh yeah, answer to the question...we are all big kids at heart...;)
 
V500 is certainly a capable scanner - with proper film flattening (matte glass like ScanAssist) and no nonsense scanning with VueScan it can do pretty well. I did a few scan of my old 35mm Agfa's and they came out stunningly sharp. MF is even better - contrary to popular opinion not to scan above 2400 dpi I do scan all my MF at 4800 and if not sharp at a pixel level I process and downsample them as the last step to 3200 or 2400. It seems to yield better details (to my eyes) thanjust scanned at 2400 to start with.

This photo, for example, from my last trip to Bavaria is a scan of Velvia 50 - at 4800dpi it yields 100 megapixel image and even downsized it is around 50 megapixels with plenty of details. Sure modern DSLRs like Nikon D800 can get closer to this but the colours from the film are simply not there yet ;)

p1014526033-5.jpg
 
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dalex_257 said:
V500 is certainly a capable scanner - with proper film flattening (matte glass like ScanAssist) and no nonsense scanning with VueScan it can do pretty well. I did a few scan of my old 35mm Agfa's and they came out stunningly sharp. MF is even better - contrary to popular opinion not to scan above 2400 dpi I do scan all my MF at 4800 and if not sharp at a pixel level I process and downsample them as the last step to 3200 or 2400. It seems to yield better details (to my eyes) thanjust scanned at 2400 to start with.

This photo, for example, from my last trip to Bavaria is a scan of Velvia 50 - at 4800dpi it yields 100 megapixel image and even downsized it is around 50 megapixels with plenty of details. Sure modern DSLRs like Nikon D800 can get closer to this but the colours from the film are simply not there yet ;)

p1014526033-5.jpg
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I am only looking on my phone at the moment and that looks to be a cracking image ( looking forward to getting home and seeing it a bit bigger)

I have just been looking on the scan assist site, does the scan assist really make that much difference... The reason why I ask is Whilst I am happy with my v500 I scanned a couple of images over the weekend and the centre portion of the images were blurred and just not in focus and sharp as the rest of the image, this only happened on a couple of images that I tried and I was only testing the scanner out.. But is this the sort of thing that the scan assist will help with. ?

I am going to send of for some as it's got to be easier than clipping the Epson bit of plastic into the holder when you have got great big builders hands like me
 
Steve-B said:
I am only looking on my phone at the moment and that looks to be a cracking image ( looking forward to getting home and seeing it a bit bigger)
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Thanks - the autoresizing on TP makes it a bit blurry (its sharper when viewed full size :))

Steve-B said:
I have just been looking on the scan assist site, does the scan assist really make that much difference... The reason why I ask is Whilst I am happy with my v500 I scanned a couple of images over the weekend and the centre portion of the images were blurred and just not in focus and sharp as the rest of the image, this only happened on a couple of images that I tried and I was only testing the scanner out.. But is this the sort of thing that the scan assist will help with. ?
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It depends - have you checked your film with loupe to see if that is not a problem with negative? If it is not then yes I'd say it probably will help. My 135 films were quite flat so it does not make that much of a difference there but with MF flatness is more difficult to achieve so for me the glass was a big improvement.

Steve-B said:
I am going to send of for some as it's got to be easier than clipping the Epson bit of plastic into the holder when you have got great big builders hands like me
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It certainly is easier - I removed the clipping parts altogether and simply align the film now and then cover it with the glass and scan. Job done :)
 
That looks stunning Alex. I have just looked up Scan Assist and may have to get some I think. :)
 
dalex_257 said:
V500 is certainly a capable scanner - with proper film flattening (matte glass like ScanAssist) and no nonsense scanning with VueScan it can do pretty well. I did a few scan of my old 35mm Agfa's and they came out stunningly sharp. MF is even better - contrary to popular opinion not to scan above 2400 dpi I do scan all my MF at 4800 and if not sharp at a pixel level I process and downsample them as the last step to 3200 or 2400. It seems to yield better details (to my eyes) thanjust scanned at 2400 to start with.

This photo, for example, from my last trip to Bavaria is a scan of Velvia 50 - at 4800dpi it yields 100 megapixel image and even downsized it is around 50 megapixels with plenty of details. Sure modern DSLRs like Nikon D800 can get closer to this but the colours from the film are simply not there yet ;)

p1014526033-5.jpg
Click to expand...

Wow that's a stunning picture!
 
Thanks guys - I am not entirely happy with it yet. As some blues on a slide are much better. Got myself a Wolf Faust targets and will try to profile my scanner for Velvia 50 over weekend and give it a go again.

The view by the way is from Zugspitze.
 
My V500 arrived yesterday and after a little play I can say I'm pleased with it. I'm only using the software it came with at the moment but it seems to do exactly what it ought to do, would buying better software improve the output or can the same be achieved by using PE9 after scanning?

Cheers

Andy
 
Andysnap said:
My V500 arrived yesterday and after a little play I can say I'm pleased with it. I'm only using the software it came with at the moment but it seems to do exactly what it ought to do, would buying better software improve the output or can the same be achieved by using PE9 after scanning?

Cheers

Andy
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Well some say different software is better (I'm happy with Epson), but all us using different flatbed scanners are all stuck with mechanics and optics that can never get the very best out of a neg.
 
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