Epson v500 for 120?

[srichards]

Just looking in the start of the scanner test and the V500 seems to produce some good results. Is it much worse than the V700 or V600? The latter seems to get reasonable review on imaging resource and did well in the 120 scan test. Spotted V500 on amazon for £133 so it's not too silly money at the moment. V600 is £200+ and both have the same dmax of 3.4.

Anyone use one with 120 film and compared it to the v600 or v700? I could probably get a V600 in time.

Plustek have a medium format dedicated scanner in the offing but it's £2k...

 

[Morinaka]

£133 is a decent price, i paid £160 for my v500 about 18 months ago. The results are fine, i can't compare it to the more expensive Epson models but i can't imagine them being that much better as they are still flat bed scanners, obviously a dedicated scanner will be much better but like you know you have to pay for that when it comes to 120 film.

There's a thread on here from someone who made their own film holders for the Epson flatbeds and the quality level instantly shot up once he found the right film holder height and made the holder to that height, think of it like finding the right focus point for the scanner. The biggest problem is probably the film holders as they aren't giving you everything the scanner can do.

 

[srichards]

I looked at better holders for mine but they don't do one for my model. I find it odd as I was pretty sure the 3490 was virtually identical to a 4490. The scan area with transparency is probably just large enough for 120 on the 3490.

 

[pityacka]

I would snap the V500 up at the price you quote. Paid £169 for my V500 about 1 year ago. Although getting on in years I found it easy to set up, and more importantly, easy to use. I have not been disappointed with the results. I considered the V600, etc., but for amateur use I did not think the price of the dearer Epson models was something I could justify. (And the wife would have had a fit, and would still be grumbling today.

 

[steveo_mcg]

I picked up a "used" v500 for a hundred quid delivered from ebay. I say used but only the box had been opened, the blue tape and plastic locking bits for transport were still original.