| Scanners Reviews : Slide and Photo |
 | Epson Perfection V700 Photo Color Scanner
Epson v700 -- 2008-12-29
I bought this refurbished from epson and it's been great. The only complaint I have is that there is some dust in the inside of the machine--but that's really not bad for a refurb item at all. I decided to purchase this model because it is one of the scanners we have at school (I'm an MFA in photography student).
I mostly scan negatives on this machine and the occasional document. It does a very good job and is easy enough to do. I do not rely on the machine's software since I have the professional software needed already. It came with a 35mm slide holder, 4x5 negative holder, 35mm negative holder, and 2 film guides. It also came with an additional scanning software disc (silverfast) and a copy of photoshop elements. I found this to be a great deal for the price I paid.
Overall I recommend this flat bed for anyone who wants to get good resolution scans of their photographs, negatives, and even documents. The only better jump would be to purchase a imacon hasselblad scanner and I personally do not have the $13,000 to do that. Considering the abilities of this scanner for the price you pay I think it's a great deal.
Very functional, nice, easy -- 2008-11-27
The V700 is a very functional piece of equipment. Installation was shockingly simple, as simple as much lower-end scanners. I love it when a new device integrates with no issues. I set up the scanner, ran the install software, turned it on and got the drivers from the disk. It was immediately available from Photoshop. So I grabbed a picture off the desk and scanned it. It came through, with nothing but default settings, at a higher quality than I expected. The V700 is demonstrating it's worth right out of the box.
When scanning, you can take control of the method and image. It has a full-auto mode, which I used on that first scan, a home mode, which gives you some control, and a professional mode, which gives you a pretty high-end set of controls over the scanning method, image types, image quality, etc. It's all intuitive and easy to use, which is good since there is no printed manual. There is an online guide though. Reading through the guide, the instructions are clear and concise, so doing something like setting up negatives for scanning is easy. You can start scans from the V700 as well as from software. My wife, the graphic artist in the house (I'm tech support), prefers to pull the scans from Adobe Photoshop, which worked like a charm.
The scanner comes with templates for use with film. There are several for most standard sizes of negative. There is also a slide template. They're a bit difficult to orient correctly at first, but the documentation cleared up any issues.
Setting really high quality scans did result in longer scan times (MUCH longr), but the output was simply amazing. I was able to scan negatives (and it's not something I've had good luck doing in the past). Actually, scanning the negatives was fun. You have to get the right side up though. Again, image quality coming out of the scanner was pretty stunning.
Overall, this was an outstanding experience. The V700 is so easy to set up and use, it's kind of hard to believe it's nearly a professional level machine.
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 | Nikon Super CoolScan 5000 ED Film Scanner
Mac users beware... -- 2009-01-04
I've owned this scanner for several years. I did quite a bit of research when I purchased it and felt that it was the best value for the money at the time. I'm not aware of any new negative scanners coming onto the market in the past few years that would change that assessment.
I also have an Epson Perfection V500 Photo Scanner which I use for large format negatives. I've tried it for 35mm and I can tell you that the Nikon delivers superior results - no question.
I scan color slides as well as color & b+w negatives. The results are good with all of them. The scans are not as good as professional drum scans, but from a cost-per-scan standpoint this is the way to go. The main difference is edge focus which isn't perfect with the Nikon.
For my old 35mm color negs (which are generally from an old point and shoot) this scanner (along with the NikonScan software) does a great job. The software dust removal does a great job as well.
For my fine art 35mm b+w negatives it delivers good quality, high resolution scans. The dust removal software doesn't work on B+w however, so there's always some post clean-up involved.
I'm a Mac user and I have to warn you all that Nikon's included software just doesn't work on an Intel Mac. They seem completely uninterested in helping their Mac users and I have found the whole situation quite frustrating. However, I have had good, consistent success running NikonScan on Windows via Parallels. It seems crazy but it works pretty well. Sure it's inconvenient but after all the crashing in OSX I just gave up.
Nikon's support sucks so pray that you don't have a problem. I did and it took forever to get it handled. Still, since then my scanner has worked like a trooper.
I've demo'd other plugins like Silverfast but I don't like them very much so I use NikonScan in Windows.
I've often considered selling this scanner and getting something else, but I haven't found a better tool in this price range.
Much better than expected!! Works great with OS X 10.5 on the Mac -- 2009-01-03
I have used the coolscan 4000 for a while with mixed results and recently had a horrible time with it on a friends mac running OsX 10.5 with the newest cool scan 4.02 software.
Well I'm very happy to report that I picked up the 5000 over the weekend along with the 210 auto feeder and have been extremely impressed with the results.
Running the coolscan 4000 and 4.02 nikon scan software, I experienced crashes every 7 slides or so. Not so with the Coolscan 5000, nikon scan 4.02 running on an iMac with 2 gigs ram and sys 10.5.
I've easily bulk scanned 50 slides in a sitting without jam or crash. Now that I've tweaked my settings, the result have been excellent.
Right now I'm scanning kodachromes mostly. I would recommend
Digital Ice on (magically removes all scratches)
Enable Digital DEE shadow adj 40 highlight 10 threshold 100 (lightens dark shadows, drops highlights)
I am not using post processing ROC or GEM
Also in preferences make sure you set advance colr settings to a sample point size of 5x5 and drop contrast calculations to 0 for both black and white. This will prevent the auto contrast function from blowing out your highlights.
I also have auto focus and exposure on in my batch settings.
You will need to tweak the settings obviously depending on what you're scanning, but the above seem to work well for most of my batched images.
Good luck.
For those that have had problems with the 210 feeder jamming, I had a few hiccups at the outset but these calmed down after an hour or so. I think the spring loaded plate can put too much pressure on the right side of the slides causing the uppermost slide to catch on the one below. I put a small felt floor protector on the left side to minimize pressure on the right and enhance on the left and the problem disappeared. Since then, I've removed the pad and have not experienced a single jam scanning hundreds.
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 | Epson Perfection V750-M Pro Color Scanner
didn't work, HORRIBLE customer service -- 2008-10-02
I am a big fan of Epson's printers. But this scanner has been a nightmare. I bought it in June of 2008, and started scanning my vast archive of negatives. I soon noticed that there were color bands showing up on the right side of my images, detrimental to more subtle images with washes of cloudy sky, etc.
I called Epson, and they referred me to a service center. so I drove the 45 minutes and dropped it off. They spent a month replacing part after part, and then couldn't test the scanner to see if it worked or not, and wanted me to drive up there and give them some negatives to test. Don't you think a service center should be able to test a scanner? Wow.
So I call customer service and tell them that I am not willing to spend another afternoon and gas money to deal with their faulty scanner. Meanwhile, I had paid 700 dollars and hadn't gotten a single good scan in the 2 months I owned it.
Epson wouldn't give me a refund, and told me that I had to drive all the way over to the service center, pick it up, and ship it to them myself for a replacement to be sent to me. I begged for them to have the service center deal with it, and told her over and over again that it was unfair to make me spend more money and put more time into getting a scanner that worked. But they wouldn't have it. So I was finally able to take a day off work and instead of using it for something positive in my life, I drove all the way up to Oakland (I was no longer living in the city, but further south, but epson didn't seem to care how long it was going to take me to drive there, it was evidently my problem)
When I get the scanner home, I notice that the repair center didn't lock the laser into place, so the whole car ride, it was unlocked. Strike one.
Then I made some scans, and the same exact problem was still there. 3 months after investing 700 dollars into this scanner, and still not a single decent scan. I began to wonder what it takes to get a functional scanner from Epson.
So I called customer service back, (and each time i called them, i had to take time off and spend an hour on the phone waiting on hold, explaining the whole situation again, etc) and they said I needed to speak with the same person I talked to before, so they had me leave a message. No call back. A week later, I call them again, she's not here, another message, no call back. Now I have moved on to other projects, I am living in a different state, and I don't have time to deal with them. I call back about 3 weeks later, she's finally there!
She says that the service center should have given me a replacement and I didn't need to pick it up and ship it to Epson myself! After making me drive all the way up to the service center and saying that I needed to ship it to Epson directly (she told me this about 20 times on the phone, because I repated over and over that I thought it was disrespectful and rediculous). And they still won't give me a refund, and 5 months later, I still have not gotten a good scan.
Meanwhile, I have paid for gas, taken hours off work, paid for rental time and shops to scan negatives for me when I already paid for my own scanner.
EPSON HAS NO RESPECT FOR THEIR CUSTOMERS TIME. IS THIS WHAT IT TAKES TO GET A GOOD SCANNER FROM EPSON? AGAIN, I LOVE THEIR PRINTERS, BUT I WILL NEVER BUY ANOTHER EPSON PRODUCT. I have lost at least twice the cost of the scanner in the time and money I have spent trying to get it fixed, and having to go elsewhere for scanning services.
Sweet -- 2008-09-11
Could be a bit faster for film but the scans and the software are great
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 | Nikon Super CoolScan 9000 ED Film Scanner
No 64-bit drivers -- 2008-12-12
This item will not work with 64-bit Vista. I had bought a new PC specifically for scanning and enhancing a large number of transparencies and was a very unhappy camper when I found out that I had to keep my old machine just to use with this scanner. If Nikon is not willing to keep the drivers up to date, the product should be considered to be abandoned.
Incidentally the old 32-bit drivers aren't that hot either. Firewire is supposed to be plug and play, but Nikon warns that this scanner isn't, and may conflict if you have another Firewire device installed. I found another issue - if I turn off the scanner before I shut down Windows, Windows hangs on shut-down.
One final bug - if I use the hardware eject button on the front of the machine rather than ejecting through software it reports that I have an unrecognized carrier type when I re-insert it. It's a pity that decent hardware is ruined by sloppy software/firmware.
For medium format negatives, easily better than my local pro lab -- 2006-12-20
I was astonished at what this scanner could do, in terms of preserving the gentle tones of my black and white negatives. My only regret is that there is no equivalent to Digital ICE for black and white. That problem is not unique to this scanner, of course.
The quality of the images I get from this scanner, with negatives from a basic 1970-vintage twin lens camera, trounces the images I get with a Canon 5D SLR. I also have used it with 35MM negatives, which work beautifully, and with both 4.5cm x 4.5cm negatives and 110 negatives, which require that I jury-rig a special mask for the glass-covered medium format carriage (FH-869GR, not included).
The 9000ED comes with a 35MM carriage, 35MM slide carriage, and basic MF carriage. For the price, I would have preferred if they had included the glass-covered, rotating 120 unit as well.
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 | Epson Expression 10000XL Large-Format Flatbed Photo Scanner
AWESOME!!! -- 2008-11-25
This is a awesome scanner. We are using it in our photo lab as a replacement to an old agfa duoscan. WOW...I love that several photos can be placed on the bed and scanned in two clicks!! Great color & well worth every penny!!
Go with this scanner! -- 2008-10-27
This scanner is wonderful! I work for my local historical society and this is the scanner that we use to do all of our digital preservation. We use it to scan large format negatives and it works like a dream.
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 | Visioneer OneTouch 9520 Photo scanner
Good Scanner, beware of Vista Compatibility -- 2007-12-13
This is a solid and reliable scanner.
The only drawback is having to download drivers directly from the website to use the device on a Windows Vista machine.
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 | Minolta DiMAGE Scan Dual III High Speed
don't buy -- 2008-01-18
Came DOA from "marketplace" seller. Had trouble returning it.
Get a PLUSTEK instead - I did, for half the money, and it works great! I've scanned 1000 slides so far with excellent results.
Minolta scanner -- 2007-05-06
Arrived DOA. Returned. Avoid.
Gets zero star rating from me.
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 | Konica Minolta DiMAGE Scan Speed Film Scanner
OK scanner, but no Digital ICE for image cleaning after scan -- 2001-03-01
The title of the review says it all.Do NOT get this scanner. Get the Minolta Dimage Scan Elite for a little more with Digital Ice. I did quite a bit of research before deciding on this scanner, so I'll sum up for you what took me many hours. I also considered a couple of the lower end Minolta Dimage scanners, as well as the Nikon Coolscan and the HP Photosmart S20. Essentially, they all promise to scan 35mm film, and with an adapter, it can also do APS. However, promises are just that - empty for most of these scanners. This one is OK if you dont mind some bad scans b/c of no Digital Ice. If you spend another $100 you can get the Scan Elite which has the Digital Ice. A MUST have.
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 | Epson Perfection 4180 Photo Scanner
It may have been a great scanner -- 2008-06-17
It may have been a great scanner if it wasn't always out of stock every time I tried to order one. Jody Bissoon
Used to be great, but now an anchor.... -- 2008-03-19
I used this scanner for over two years without as much as a hickup, it was much better than the huge HP flatbed I had before. Then I reimaged my HD, reloaded XP (the same I had before)and updated to SP2 from the microsoft website. The packaged software "Epson Scan" no longer functions. I scan using the copy utility but nothing else. Their support site led me through the same routine many times, removing, re-installing, direct connect over and over again. Kicked to the curb, craziness. I just can't believe there are no fixes out on the web for this....
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 | Epson Perfection 2480 Photo Flatbed Scanner
Won't scann entire platter. -- 2006-11-24
Although the Epson Perfection 2480 Photo (this one came along with Multi Phoot Feeder) keeps colors fairly accurate, I am disapointed when it comes to scanning photos, papers and the like on the flatbed. In this case, the area scanned is smaller than the glass plate indicates. Aligning any object to either side of the glass plate (using it's borders as the aligment tool) will unavoidably cut of part of the scanned image (as shown in the customer photos I uploaded.)
The only `workaround' for this problem is to use a ruler and align it to the platter's borders and than to align the photo to the ruler. Unfortunately this will not work with larger objects, such as a letter-sized sheet of paper.
Also, the scanners utility software (Espon Scan V2.65A) does not allow you to save your settings with a custom name (such as "Bob's Slides"); instead you have to overwrite an existing template, or choose the default name given (such as "Setting 1, Setting 2, etc.).
Finaly, I need to point out that the driver software launched from inside a graphics application (such as Paint Shop Pro or PhotoShop Elements) crashes frequently if I make a larger number of 300dpi scans.
All said, this scanner is too expensive to be purchased - so I'm going to replace it with a Cannon.
Really Good Scanner for about 18 months -- 2006-07-26
For a while, this 2480 was a really good scanner and buy for light usage. Now after 18 months of ownership, there are cloudy markings on the underside of the glass from 2 to 4 inches in that makes that part of the glass unusable.
I really like the software and quality of scans, and I am thinking about buying another Epson 2480 if they can be had for under $99.
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