Epson Photo reviews

I purchased this unit primarily to convert our collection of thousands of slides to a digital format. I had initially purchased a “cheapie” slide scanner for about $65 [ASIN:B00264GNR2 Innovative Technology 35mm Negative and Slide Converter to PC]], only to find that it produced very poor digital copies (detail was OK, but color reproduction was awful). After reviewing numerous other options for slide scanning (including sending the slides to a scanning service, with charges averaging about 35 cents per slide), I decided to try this unit, because it had gotten good reviews from others and the combination of price point and features seemed to best match my needs. I have now scanned more than 2000 slides and I am thoroughly satisfied. The scan quality has been excellent – much better than I was expecting from a flatbed. The color reproduction has been extremely accurate and the level of detail is superb. The biggest problem – as with all flatbeds – is dust; it is difficult to keep it completely off the glass, so it often shows up in scans. However, in addition to the obvious option of carefully dusting the slides and the screen before each scan, several other options are available to deal with dust: Digital ICE (which I don’t much like, as it greatly increases scanning time and often produces weird artifacts in the scans); a dust removal program in the SilverFast software that comes with the unit (this also greatly increases scan time, but produces much cleaner results); and the “spot healing brush” in the Photoshop Elements software that also comes with the unit. Although I find that Epson’s own scanning software is satisfactory for most slides, the addition of the other software (even though the SilverFast is not the “premier” version and the Elements is an older version) makes the whole package very versatile and well worth the moderate price point. It’s difficult for me to believe that the much higher priced, dedicated slide scanners would produce noticeably better results or would be worth the extra cost for most people, especially since this unit gives me the ability to scan photographs, filmstrips, and text documents as well. Final point: the scanner arrived from Amazon very quickly – even before Amazon’s own earliest estimated arrival date!

I bought this scanner to digatize old photos and slides. I think it does a great job. It’s pretty putzie to go through all the steps to get the scans if you want high quality. Batch scan, frame, zoom to get frame exactly right, adjust color/exposure/contrast/repair/etc. and then final scan. The frames for slides works well and you can do 12 at a time. High quality scanner that fits the bill for me.

I was surprised how easy the scanner was to install and how little room it takes up on my desk. Very convenient to have it next to my computer.
The HELP? feature is easy to understand and I was scanning slides in no time.
The only problem I had was with the enclosed SilverFast software. It “blacked out” my MacBook twice…So, I stopped using it for correcting exposure, color, etc. The Epson software puts the scans directly on my desktop and from there I enter them into my iPhoto program where I manipulate the pictures. The results have been very good.
The scanner only works when directly plugged into my MAC.
I also found that the emulsion side of the slides have to be facing up for the scanner to “see” them.
It worked well with my Black&White negatives.
The scanned slides (some fifty years old) all look better than their original.
I highly recommend this Epson scanner.

I have been using this scanner for a couple of months now to digitize more than 1,000 color slides from the 60s and 70s, and have found that it suits my needs perfectly. The biggest advantage is that I can set it up to work with 12 slides at a time using the supplied holder, and still get extraordinarily high resolution images of 5 to 8 mbytes – and I’m using the 6400dpi setting – there’s still a 9600 and 12800. Each “run” takes about 40 minutes, so I can set it up, walk away and get things done in large blocks of time, instead of having to constantly return every 5 minutes to insert another slide. The scan quality is as good as I can imagine – but I’m not a professional photographer, perhaps a Nikon device would do it better. It does include Digital ICE, and I have found that to be effective a few times. Overall, this machine is a great combination of quality and efficiency, and it seems that there is enough of a resale market out there that buying one is almost like renting it – if you’re careful with it and re-package it well, it will sell on the used market for close to what you bought it for. Recommended.

I am very happy with this machine. I was needing a contact printer for all my old negatives of every size and shape. I now have it. The V700 is even better than my old enlarger style set up. I can set the resolution to what ever I want which I could not do before. I highly recommend this product to all the old enlarger buffs out there.

Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What’s this?)
I am very happy with this scanner for the purposes I use it. I basically use this machine for scanning old photos for restoring and scanning pictures from magazines and various sources for printing as photos. The setup was very simple and the operation of the scanner could not be easier. There is an easy scan mode and a professional mode, giving you total control over all attributes of your scan. I cannot think of anything that I would like to control that I am not able to control with the scanner settings. The quality of the scans is really outstanding. Even when scanning from less-than-perfect quality sources, the scan ultimately looks great if you tweak some of the scan settings.

This is a solid and efective scanner for the uses mentioned above.

The Scanner and the Element 4 software are excellent. The Silverfast software that offered so much promise is very poorly documented and I was unable to get it setup or deleted properly from my computer (Mac). The scanner results using Elements IV to recover old damaged slides and negatives is terrific. The ability to scan up to 12 slides at a time is a great convenience. I have 30,000 slides and while it will take a lot of work the product will allow me to put all the material on CDs very cheaply.

I just purchased the Epson Perfection V700 Photo Color Scanner a few weeks ago, to scan 4 x 5 negatives. I needed them to be at a higher resolution because I have the images printed on glass at 4 ft x 5 ft. This scanner is efficient enough to complete such a task. It is very helpful that you can scan not only 35mm and 120 film but medium format as well. I would recommend this scanner to anyone that scans film as a professional photographer, for print. This is not an item that would be worth the investment in though, if you are just scanning old high school photos for your 10 year reunion.

I decided at the last minute to upgrade from the V600 to the V700 once I saw the extra film and negative holders included in the V700. Wow, I can scan 12 35MM slides at one time, although it does take awhile. Love that it creates a separate file for each slide, even though it scans all 12 slides at once. The ICE software removed the dust marks, etc. I didn’t have to do much touch-up in Photoshop afertwards. Simple to install and load the software. I researched photo scanners for about 6 months and am very pleased I spend the extra dollars for this one. Amazing quality.

I recently bought an Epson V700, and have scanned over 1000 35mm negatives with it. It does an excellent job. It provides a really accurate image of the actual negative. The film tray is very easy to use. It is made of a sturdy plastic, and is very easy to load. I scan four strips at a time, each having approximately 4 or 5 negatives on them, so I usually get a total of 16 to 20 negatives scanned in each scanning session. I scan at 6400 ppi resolution, and save the file as a “tiff” file to avoid compression. I tried to scan at 6400 ppi to a jpeg file, but it would not do it at a 48 bit depth, so as I said I changed the setting to save as a “tiff” file and I get the full 48 bit depth. I have a Windows 7, 64 bit system, and it takes approximately 70 seconds per each negative to be scanned using the settings I already mentioned. I do not use the Ice or any other setting because I want the raw file, and the scanner does an excellent job of presenting detail and color. If you want to increase the color saturation at a later time, it does not come out fuzzy or anything, it just adds the color as needed. I am satisfied with the scanner, I feel that Epson is honest in saying it gives professional quality results. The dmax is 4 so it is a little more powerful than the V500, but the more detail it gives may be worth it. The Windows 7 drivers and manual are available on the Epson site, which I had to download for my system, and everything has been working fine. It is simple to operate, and gives very satisfying results. I compliment Epson on creating such a product