4.6.2017

This is an excellent scanner once you get to grips with it - which you will after a few hours! The attached files are scans from Velvia 50, Portra 160 and Superia 400 that I have done - please have a look to see what is possible with this scanner if you scan in TIF and then edit the levels and make minor tweaks in a program like Adobe Lightroom or Camera RAW.I purchased this scanner because I've recently been shooting a lot of Fuji Velvia film. I have a slide projector to view the slides on and the slides look great, but the lab I use to process my slides don't do great scans from Velvia so I thought I would buy my own scanner and give it a go. I'm so glad I did!I'm really happy with the results and it also scans C-41 films like Kodak Portra, Ektar and Fuji Superia nicely too. It didn't scan my Ilford HP5+ negatives brilliantly but to be honest with you, I don't think those negatives were processed very well by the lab.Before you start you must read the instructions (which don't come with the scanner - download the PDF from Epson's site instead). If you don't read the instructions you'll make mistakes. Firstly, for scanning film you must remove the document mat which is the big white sheet on the bottom of the scanner lid. Then, depending on whether you are scanning slides or negatives, you must move the bracket accordingly. If you are scanning negatives, you need to align the 'A' tab on the bracket with the 'A' tab on the scanner and for slides you need to align the 'C' tab on the film bracket with the 'C' tab on the scanner. All will become clear if you purchase this scanner and wish to scan film, but just thought I'd point those two things out!The scanner can scan in a whole range of resolutions right up to the likes of 9,600 DPI and 12,800 DPI. Really, these just produce massive files, so I scanned all of the examples you see attached to this review in 6,400 DPI which produces an image with the dimensions of 8,640x5,5416px equating to 47.9 megapixels which is more than enough. I scan in TIF which generally creates files of around 280 MB per file and then alter these TIF files in Lightroom, usually resulting in the final JPEG exported from Lightroom being around 20-30 MB (which is a similar size to my digital Nikon D3200's final processed JPEGs). You can actually alter the scans in the software directly and then scan as a JPEG or a TIF (and there's other formats too, but these are the two most useful for photographs) with those adjustments, but I wouldn't bother with that - I'd just scan in TIF and then edit in Lightroom or Photoshop or another image editing application where you have more control. The issue with editing in the software is that you can't really see what you're doing due to the preview being too small, it's difficult to save and apply settings/presets to multiple scans and quite often you'll edit a scan and the final thing doesn't look like the preview too - often I'd get the contrast completely wrong and have to scan again.Everybody has their own preferred method of scanning, but unless you pay and arm and a leg you'll never get the same amount of flexibility as you do from using your own scanner. You can choose to scan in JPEG, TIF, from a range of resolutions and have full control of colour, adjustments and everything. This is why if you're into film photography you need to get one of these. Eventually the cost of getting your negatives or slides scanned will be more than just buying this scanner and doing it yourself.The software isn't too bad, but I have one big tip: be patient with it! When you turn your scanner on, wait 5 minutes or so before you even attempt to open the software (on Windows 10 Creators' Update x64 at least). If you turn the scanner on and then immediately open up the software it will tell you that the scanner cannot be found or it can't communicate with it. If you turn on the scanner, wait 5 minutes, then open the software, it will work fine. I also find that running the software as an administrator helps, though I'm not sure if this is strictly necessary.The scanner does have dust removal features which you activate in the software but it doesn't always work 100% and it can increase the scanning time quite considerably. I'd recommend you get yourself a pair of cotton gloves and a little duster to use to dust the scanner instead of rely on that. If the dust is small, you can use the Clone Stamp or Spot Heal or Content Aware Fill tools in Photoshop or Lightroom to remove it, but it's best to make sure the scanner is clean before you start.The Epson Scan software also has backlight corrections too which can help brighten underexposed negatives or slides. I'd recommend seeing how your scans look with and without it using the (rather small) preview in the software. It's a useful feature that has made some of my scans really 'pop'. The scan of the Fiesta with the sun shining on it (Velvia 50) and the scans of my brother, mother and I in the forest (Portra 160) had backlight adjustments on them and it really improved the scan.You can scan up to four 35mm slides or 12 35mm negatives at a time, so it can take a while to scan but if you're into film photography patience is key anyway!If you take the time to explore the scanner's features and make sure you read the instructions carefully and wait before you open the software after turning on the scanner, you will love this bit of kit! This is the best solution for home scanning. For me it was an expensive purchase at just under £200, but I hope it will be worthwhile and encourage me to shoot more film.

2.4.2014

I've only used this as for reflection (opaque originals), so far as I've had no pressing need for transparency scanning. When I do, I'll amend this but it's been pretty thoroughly covered by other reviewers.My Scanning History:Back in the early days of the then innovative Desk Top Publishing when owning any sort of hard drive was regarded as the height of techie professional geekery, I used an Apple flatbed black and white with a resolution of, I think, either 3 or 400 dpi. It was good enough for images for laser printing in Pagemaker or for positionals for images that were going to be scanned properly on a drum scanner by a bureau.Exciting times.Then I had a logitech hand-held 8-bit greyscale which needed three overlapping passes to scan an A4 and then a session with an image editor to stitch the scans together, which was not as simple as it sounds, particularly using Photoshop v1 on a b/w (not even greyscale) machine. It needed a steady hand, a lot of breath holding and patience. I got pretty good at it eventually.Then I had a Microtek II flatbed with three separate passes for full colour ! Heavy and slow. This highly-acclaimed machine was a revelation, when it worked, and turned out pretty good scans. I even did full-colour brochures from photographic prints with it, much much cheaper than having transparencies drum-scanned at a bureau. I wouldn't use it for anything like a Vogue cover (I wish!) but with tailored Photoshop tweaking and the right material, good enough for business flyers. Just outside of warranty it developed an intermittent SCSI connector problem then the computer would no longer recognise it and I had to buy another one which was horrific as each cost me over a thousand pounds but there was little else available. This too lasted about two years and then slowly died with the same problem but could occasionally be persuaded to work by jiggling the thumb-thick cable and constantly rebooting until it "took." Eventually that didn't work either so I gave up scanning for a long time, occasionally used a camera when desperate or borrowed something.I finally stopped being stubborn and decided to look for a replacement - USB, this time. I spent a LONG time researching this. I considered the Canon 9000F, but I'd borrowed a lesser-specified Canon for a trial and thought the software was way behind the Epson for features and usability and, mainly on the strength of USA reviews, finally settled on the V600 though somewhat warily as I have had bad experiences with Epson (printers) in the pastI Installed the drivers and fired it up and it was recognised by pretty much everything. I updated my copy of Vuescan with their latest stuff and it was even better.This thing turns out near drum-scanner quality in the midtones which is astonishing for a domestic flatbed. O.K. the shadows are a bit blocked in comparison but I dare say that most people wouldn't even notice without a side-by-side and a guided tour with narration. Colour is scanned in one pass, so less potential problem with registration and it's obviously much, much quicker to use, particularly when scanning a batch.It's light. The colour rendition is rather good.As I'm an illustrator I often have occasion to scan original drawings and this is a severe test of any scanner. Not technical drawings or positional sketches for subsequent rendering on-screen; they are not really any challenge at all. Scanning full-toned pencil or line and wash work can be an astonishingly difficult business, particularly high-key pencil work where the paper is largely white. Producing an accurate, believable copy of _that_ is nigh on impossible as the background tends to muddy if tone is captured in the hilights and contrarywise aiming for a paper-white background stonewall filters the faint pencil tones right out of the picture. giving a bleached and washed out look to work which is never attractive. Illustrations of fine drawings in books often are printed as if they are on a grey background (when the originals are actually white) for fear of bleaching out the subtle hilight detail. This can look pretty ghastly too.Copying pencil as "line" work will not produce anything usable as it does the above stonewall filtering at both ends of the scale. The drawing has to be scanned as a photograph, and whereas a photograph will mask any unevenness in platen illumination, the drawing can't - except that with the Epson, it makes a pretty good job of it. The 'Lumination is remarkably even - far more than I might have hoped and enables quite "bright" scans of drawings to be produced.My one concern now is longevity. In my experience and in information gleaned from long research, Epson have been one of if not _the_ worst culprits of following very deliberate short product life policies re. their printer models. Whether this extends to their scanners or not is not known at this time. I will report back should my scanner decide to expire

6.2.2011

I have just bought one of these to replace my old Perfection 3200. The 3200 was a really good scanner but when I upgraded to Win7 64bit the Epson scanning software was not compatible. Epson provided a driver but could not offer an upgraded software package. So for me, the scanner was rendered useless. I tried various third party scanning software such as Vu-Scan and Laser Soft but there really is no substitute for the proper stuff. I found that even simple copying was a labourious task with poor results. I really had no option other than to replace the 3200.The 3200 had given me excellent service so I wanted a scanner that gave at least as good a performance.Trawling through reviews I zoomed in on the V600 and the many positive comments settled it and I decided to buy one. I am absolutely delighted with my purchase. I thought the 3200 would be hard to beat but this scanner is light years ahead. I scan lots of photographs and negatives of classic cars and had up until now been happy with the results but wow, every little gleam, every piece of chrome and shiney bodywork simply leaps off the screen in a way that I didn't think possible from a scanner in this price range. I am so impressed that I am actually re-archiving many photographs, negatives and slides that I had previously thought to be of a very good standard.Scanning slides and negatives was always a bit of a trial. It was really difficult to eradicate dust and spots. Epson's own dust removal tool was pretty lame and often removed fine details in addition to dust. So, I would spend literally hours cleaning images up with Photoshop and this would take the pleasure out of the whole exercise. I had read many articles on Digital Ice and despite general praise for it, I was quite cynical. Boy did I get a suprise. It actually works and the amount of time spent cloning on Photoshop has drastically reduced. I keep it set to the default, 'medium' setting and this produces excellent results. It should be mentioned at this stage that Digital Ice will not work with Kodachrome slides. This is something, as I understand it, to do with the yellow dyes in this type of film. This is a pity as I have many Kodachrome slides.Now you will note that I have only given four stars rather than five. This is due to the fact that the scanner is made of some very, VERY cheap looking and feeling plastic and I really do wonder how robust over time it will be. The 3200 was built like a bus and weighed a ton but you got a feeling of solidity and reliablity with it that simply is lacking in the V600. The flims carriers too are of poor construction in comparison to the 3200. I seriously doubt that they will endure long, daily scanning sessions. Shame on Epson for this and in my view they have tarnished an otherwise great product. Clearly there have been some major cost reductions. They should realise that scanners at this end of the market get much more use than the cheaper ones and quality of build does count. If you buy one, and I hope you do, exercise real caution when using it or you could find yourself with a big, expensive broken toy.

25.6.2014

I bought this scanner to scan in my documents and 35mm film negative strips and some photos.It does a good job. Feels solid out of the box and was easy to set up and install the software.The software works well, I recommend you use "Professional" mode and save your setting presets for later use.The scanner comes with a Power supply, UK cable, USB 2.0 cable and two film negative accessories, it can do medium format, 35mm and others.Scan times are reasonable, for example, two strips of 35mm negatives at 48bit colour, 2400 dpi and Digital ICE enabled takes circa 25 minutes (or about 3½ minutes per negative image). When scanning, it makes high pitched screeching sounds like R2D2 but this is normal.You can hear a clunk now and then as the imaging switches modes.The Epson website states this has a MCBF (Mean Cycles Between Failure) of 30,000 cycles. An office grade scanner would typically have about 600,000 MCBF for comparisson. The V700 has MCBF of 100,000 and takes 4 35mm strips per cycle, this V550 takes 2 35mm film strips per cycle (depending on cut length of your film strips, but you can also double up per strip to save scan cycles). Given the cost of this V550, it is reasonable, however, it would be better if there was a way to scan more strips side by side, but the upper lamp is only so wide on the lid.My workflow for image scanning is to use the Epson software to scan to a folder, then in Lightroom using auto import from folder to speed it up for image processing later.There also is OCR software, this is useful if you wish to digitize all your documents to save a paper mountain. There is no sheet feeder as this is not an "office" grade product but rather a "consumer" grade product.If you are looking for the power button, it is on the right hand side near the back. It is a soft button switch and not a rocker/radio switch so it could easily be pressed accidently.If you find you cannot get Digital ICE to work on all images, you have to select (blue border) each frame thumbnail (click "All" button), then check Digital ICE checkbox.Epson has good reviews compared to Canon on their scanners, this does not supprise me due to having had the Canon consumer experience, their commitment to specs on the consumer end of the market, is seriously lacking. Epson however, are very much committed to the consumer market on quality and specs.Why not full stars?1) 30,000 MCBF compared to 100,000+ on the V7002) Film negative scans are only 2 strips wide for 35mm3) No designed in storage for accessories (minor annoyance, a slot underneath to store the removable accessoreis would be handy)4) Power button is a soft power button easily pressed accidently, a larger recess around the button would help prevent this5) Film strip accessories is fiddly to use for a lot of film negative scanning

16.4.2017

I'm rating this highly as a Mac user and I'll explain why. I read the reviews on here and how they were all rather negative when using with a Mac. In April 2017 I'm still running El Capitan, so you can tell how much I update my iMac. The scanner comes well-packaged and has all the items needed to start up, including a CD-ROM with the drivers. Mac users, please discard. Go to the Epson website and download the software updater. Switch on and connect the scanner and load up the updater. Let it recognise your scanner. It will most likely tell you to add a couple of items but that the driver is now in OSX updates. Install the small patches and then go to App Store and search for updates.

3.6.2010

I bought this for home use, to scan in photos for a photo book being constructed in Aperture (on an iMac, Snow Leopard, 2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo and 3GB RAM). I knew I would be working with some very old photographs (more than 100 years old), old format B&W negatives, slide film and 1970s colour prints. With a lot of material, I didn't want to wait too long for each scan.The scanner worked fine on all prints and negatives, but consistently introduced a red line down all of the colour transparencies. Thinking that a newer driver might solve the problem, I tracked down one on the Epson website (v 3.81, rather than the ver 3.80 supplied on the CD). It didn't solve the red line problem,

22.2.2015

I bought the Epson Perfection V550 scanner to archive a couple of shoe boxes of old photos and negatives.Taking it from the box I faced a small hurdle in that epson ship the software on CD and none of my home computers have an optical drive any more. So after copying the disk at work I set the software up on my computer and went through three rounds of software updates. This is quite frustrating; i know the disk can't always be the latest version but the software update shouldnt download all the intermediate versions.Once all was setup; the software itself is pretty useful for archiving volumes of photos. It has 3 modes; and the home mode allows you to load multiple photos at once onto the scanner and scan them in one parse.

16.1.2014

I was pleased to have the opportunity to review this scanner as I have an ongoing project to digitise the photos I have taken on my film camera. I have been using the scanner on my Canon MP610 all-in-one colour printer to scan family photos and create photo books. It is the most straightforward way for my siblings and me to all have copies of photos from when we were kids, together with the precious photos of our parents' wedding etc. I have also been able to compare this model with an earlier Epson scanner belonging to a friend - the Epson Perfection 1670. I have found a significant improvement in results using this V550 scanner.The V550 scanner is very sleek looking and is longer than I was expecting (485mm),

25.9.2015

Straightforward to set up if you follow the brief instructions and don't be put off by "Professional" mode in the Epson scan software - it's straightforward too; especially if you look up videos on the internet of others using the scanner.Very well made and good quality except for the film holders that are a bit flexible and make you feel like you need to be very careful with them. I find the included sheet of plastic very useful for keeping my 120 film flat when it is being scanned - I don't remember ever reading about this small sheet of plastic before I bought the scanner but it's a good idea and seems to work well.I have only scanned 120 film so can't vouch for 35mm; however, the scans are superb,

6.9.2011

I am pleased to report that setting up the Epson V600 on my Mac was simplicity itself. I had been concerned because some scanners do not yet have up to date drivers for OSX Lion but Epson seem to have risen to the challenge and provided them.Having unpacked the scanner and removed the protective tape and films, all I had to do was connect the 2 metre A-B USB lead and turn it on. I ran the Apple Software Update Tool and was immediately told that there was new software available for "Epson Printers and Scanners". Once the software had downloaded, I restarted the Mac even though I did not need to - a fresh start is always a good idea when using new hardware for the first time.

25.2.2016

Admittedly, I've only been using this a few days, so can't yet rate its durability, but my gosh, the scans I'm getting of my ink and graphite drawings are amazing!!My drawings are sized A3, whilst the scanner is A4 sized, so I scan only a part each time, and then in Adobe Photoshop, I do File - Automate - Photo Merge and it magically merges the scans together, even filling in the empty bits with cloned background. I can't tell at all where the stitching occurred. And, when I choose the 'remove vignette' option, it also gets rid of the darkening that may otherwise appear along the edge of the scans.In the Epson Scan software, I use "Professional Mode", set the DPI to 300 (it can go higher),

27.4.2015

Had this a couple of weeks and I love it. I only use professional mode, 48bit colour, 6400 resolution, unsharp mask and grain reduction and digital ICE. JPEGS seem sharper than TIFFS. Just do the preview, enter above settings and scan.Nice sharp pictures. I don't bother adjusting colours etc Id far rather go in Photoshop Elements to do that if I feel the need. The results are generally better with medium format. I need 35mm, 6x4.5, 6x6, 6x7 and it does all those straight out of the box. Remember to pull out the white thing in the lid before you start scanning film. The software loads very quickly on PC. There is a big elephant in the room Im amazed no one has mentioned.

26.8.2017

I particularly needed a scanner for transferring negatives and old family photographs to a digital format. This product arrived the day after placing the order - can't ask better than that really! I followed the set up instructions using the disc provided but the scanner could not be recognised by my PC ( Windows 10). I looked at various reviews on the internet and found that other people had also experienced a problem, so I went to the Epson website and downloaded the necessary software and drivers. I then did the usual switch-off and switch-on again and hey-presto it sprang to life. The trays that hold the negatives are a little flimsy but as long as you are careful and not in a hurry they are fine.

1.12.2012

In the past, I've used scanners with a real maximum resolution of 600dpi. Any higher resolutions were interpolated and had predictably disappointing results. Not so with the V600. I've only done a few colour photo and 35mm colour negative scans so far but damn, what a difference. The clarity and fine detail resolution is amazing. It's early days yet, but I think scans of a negatives are actually better than scans from the photo. This is probably down to age of the photo and ink/print quality.Since going over to DSLR, I am planning to archive all my old 35mm photos. The scanning software that came with it seems fine although, "Full Auto Mode" failed to recognise 35mm negatives and gave me an A4 scan of the carrier and negatives.

27.5.2011

In June 2010 I took delivery of an Epson V600 scanner from AMAZON. The scanner worked well for copying and photographs. On 17th May this year when the scanner was 11 months old. For the first time I attempted to scan colour negative film. Each scan resulted in a magenta line across the centre of the image. It was impossible to scan without the magenta line appearing.On May 18th I contacted Amazon and explained the problem to them. They directed me to Epson and provided the E Mail link. I provided Epson with all the details they required including images of the problem.On 21st May Epson required the scanner to be taken to one of their Express repair centres.

Epson Perfection V600 Photo - Reviews

Info

Analysis

Detail