After making the switch to shooting film, it was getting costly to have film developed and scanned at local labs. Beyond getting costly, the scans were sub-par, only ~2MP.
So, I began checking for a film scanner. I began looking for something decent, but didn't want to drop $>300. Needless to say, after some research, I ended up with this scanner, refurbished, for $150!
I've scanned about ~200 negatives, color and black and white, so far. Quality has been acceptable, and much better than I was getting from various local labs.
Scans are a little slow, but I'm ok with that. Usually ~30 minutes for 8 negatives, 2400 dpi, with dust removal.
The built-in software works alright. I run Windows in Virtualbox to do the scanning, since I run Gentoo. In any case, there are options to crop, correct color, etc. Gimp's tools are definitely nicer, but in a pinch, these tool work alright.
More importantly, the scanner does decently with color correction, without blowing contrast or color way out of proportion (as happens with some lab scans).
The film holder works decent, but it can be a little tedious to load and unload.
I'm happy with this scanner. I bought it for scanning film, and for that, it works well enough. I'm an amateur hobbyist photographer. If you'd like to see sample scans, everything recent in my film set has been scanned by the V500:
flickr.com/photos/thtroyer/
Would definitely purchase again, as this is exactly what I was looking for.
This scanner is one of the most frustrating scanners I've used. It's optical resolution seems fuzzy for 6400 Dpi. and as well the included software is a productivity LEACH demanding a ridiculous number of "OK"'s to get your work done. It even defaults to "CANCEL" after a mandatory warning on "high resolution scans" like I friggin don't know that having BOUGHT A 6400 Dpi SCANNER in the first place!
It defaults to serial file names (imgoo1.etc) and can't just enter a filename without adding the "001" limiting file naming and frustrating me.
As for speed, it's obvious that a FIREWIRE interface is required for a 200 Mb scan... the single USB 2.0 interface is barely tolerable.
The "PRO" scanners come with Silverfast AI... I think it's worth the extra cash to get that software interface... epson's is pretty terrible.
Thanks epson... but this goes back to AMAZON tomorrow.
Very good scanner, with one pretty big flaw, and a few minor ones.
Pretty fast at lower resolutions, very nice images, nice batch handling of images; i.e. put in 5 photos, the scanner will automatically separate them AND auto-rotate them! Don't know exactly how it does this, but it seems to work 90% of the time. If it fails, you can just rotate the failed one manually. Then it will save all the individual photos it has detected into separate files. Pretty easy overall to use; software pretty reasonable (not great)
As someone else has said int his forum, scanner does NOT SCAN TO EDGE OF GLASS, no matter where you put the photo (ive tried on all sides/ corners). The scannable area is at least 3/8ths off the edge, and this really is a big pain. If you manually try to move the photo inwards, to the scannable area, it becomes rotated slightly, and this of course is a problem too. I may have to return it based on this factor, and try the Canon canoscan F8800, which seems to be getting nice reviews. I just hope it doesn't have the same problem....
Additionally, the software on OSX at least is a the buggy. For example, there is a bug with the save settings command, so you have to reenter your settings every time you use the machine! This is a pain, in practice, actually... On OS X, you can't just hit the scan to PDF button on the scanner. It won't save a PDF automatically...
A previous user gave this machine 2 out of 10 because there were no drivers available for Mac OS X 10.5 (aka Leopard). While that is unfortunate, they are now available from Epson's website and seem to work great.
I took it out of the box, set it up using the included instructions (I did not install any optional software, just what I needed to operate the scanner)and started using it.
I have tried color and BW negatives, slides, photographs and coins set directly on the platten.
The scanning software recognizes the type of negative and the options for correcting problems with dust, scratches, color etc... work as good as using photoshop to correct them later.
The scans are clear, sharp and quick at reasonable resolutions (600dpi).
Obviously when scanning at the higher resolutions it takes longer but there is no reason to unless you make billboards.
My last scanner was an ancient Microtek C6 USB. The V500 is lightyears ahead of it. I don't know if the computer makes a diference in scanner performance, my computer is big and fast, it's main use is video editing.
I would have given it a 10 if it had been faster.
Coming from an old Epson Perfection 1240, this is the scanner that I've always wanted. The scans are fast because there's no warm up time. I used to have to wait 30 seconds to a minute for the first scan because the lamp had to warm up. No more. The preview scan starts within a couple of seconds is finished within 10 seconds. Scans are fast. Also the colour of the scans is very accurate.
I bought this scanner to archive my library of negatives. The 6400 dpi resolution of this scanner is way more than I'll need for 35mm film. Scanning 35mm negatives taken with my point and shoot camera, I only need to scan at 2400 dpi. A higher scan resolution exceeds the resolution of my images. You can load up to 12 negatives (2 strips of six) but in reality most of my negatives are cut in strips of 4 so I usually can only scan 8 negatives at a time. My only gripe is that I wish the scanner could process more negatives at once. I love how the software previews the negatives and spits out a bunch of thumbnails with colour and exposure that are spot on right away without having to adjust any settings. Beautiful, all I have to do is press scan. Just the way it should be. Digital ICE is an absolute dream feature that scans the negatives a second time and removes dust from the scan. Although the scan times are quadrupled with Digital ICE selected, it's well worth it as it saves me a lot of time in Photoshop cleaning up scans.
I love this scanner. It does what it's supposed to do quickly and with beautiful results.
My old Umax Astra 2200 scanner died recently. Was disappointed and confused by the reviews of scanners -- but we really needed one asap, so I bought this one.
I have been pleasantly surprised.
It was easy to set up. The setup sheet is very clear. (I did attach it to an older XP computer -- and it only has USB 1.1 -- but the scanner works.)
I didn't have to program any of the buttons on the scanner -- they just work.
There are three levels of menu: Automatic, Home, Professional
Even the automatic produced good results - doing all the thinking. Home and Professional give you the marquee to define areas to scan. Professional gives you a lot of options - including defining the target finish size.
The slides I scanned were beautiful - and I didn't fuss with any settings except to pick "film-positive". (Oh, yes -- I did scan one at a time -- when I scanned the four in the holder at once my slow computer stumbled.)
The PDF was fast and fine.
Scans of photos have been very good.
The included OCR software did a great job scanning a color newspaper ad with a listng of restaurants, missing only two headings that were in a dark yellow color.
Last night I scanned a 60 year-old, 2x4inch, black and white negative in the required holder. The result was spectacular. (But it scanned as two halves--I hope I can figure this out.)
I do think I need a faster computer with USB2 and more memory to really let me enjoy this scanner to its fullest capabilities.
It does buzz and hum a little while in use -- no more so than my old scanner. I will have to find a safe place to store the film and slide holders (which were very easy to use and yes, they are plastic.)
I am very happy with the quality of the output from this scanner.
M.
This scanner is worth the money, you just need to load the software, plug in the scanner and you are ready to scan. No reboot required. I'm scanning slides at 2400 dbi and the quality is excellent and you don't need to know alot about photos. The ICE makes the corrections and you have excellent scans. Worth the money.
Loved the price..$150 direct from the Epson Store (refurbished with full warranty). Had been waiting a long time for a lower priced scanner for medium format film with high optical quality. The V500 has it! Easy to use, excellent quality film and photo scans, much better than my old Umax which the V500 replaced. Scanning text is good but not excellent but that's a minor point as I bought it for scanning the tons of professional film I've had laying around from my old photojournalist days! Some reviews say you can only scan one medium format negative at a time which is not correct...you can scan several.
All in all Epson has done an excellent job with this scanner!
Months after releasing the V500 Epson has yet to release Leopard Drivers while huge amounts of people are switching to Macs. My old cano scan works fine so does an HP.
Epson is not seriously supporting Macs and I am returning V500. PS note that the box indicates that it works with Mac 10..8 or later which is a total lie!