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October 04, 2007
[REVIEW—EPSON V500 SCANNER]
Price: $500
Pleasantly surprising
The low-down: This is a flatbed scanner with the facility for scanning film material as well as print pages. Epson says that this scanner is the first in the world to use “a CCD (Charge–Coupled Device) scanner using LED (Light Emitting Diode) technology.” They claim that it is better for the environment, uses less energy and is more reliable. It functions as a conventional flatbed scanner with reflective objects and it also works as a film scanner, handling 35mm slides and colour and black and white strips. There is a carrier for medium format 6X6 film. The film is trans-illuminated from a light in the scanner lid. A resolution of up to 6400 dpi is claimed but not many users will test the claim because of the inordinate time it takes to scan and process at this resolution. Scans at lesser resolutions are fast enough.
Like: This is the first dual purpose flatbed/film scanner from which we have taken respectable film scans. In fact we were surprised by the quality of reproduction from all media. We tried colour transparencies, black and white negatives and medium format negatives with uniformly excellent results. 10 by 15cm prints from all sources were very good. Above that degree of enlargement quality drops off.
Dislike: This is quite a complicated piece of machinery and not at all intuitive in setup and operation, so why not provide a printed user’s manual? It is a pain to have to have the scanner software open on the computer while at the same time trying to find the necessary instructions in an HTML document on screen. This is unacceptable cheap skatery.
Verdict: The Epson V500 is a very good scanner. It may look expensive but you get a lot for the money. The controlling software is excellent, even if it is a little cranky when run in Windows Vista. We were pleasantly surprised by its exceptional versatility.
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Posted by terry at October 4, 2007 07:54 AM
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Comments
As for me use of searh while "trying to find the necessary instructions in an HTML document on screen" is way much easier than all that mess with pages of printed manual ;)
Posted by: scanman at November 20, 2007 01:20 AM
I have just spent a very pleasant evening looking at slides of Egypt, Africa, France and the Galapagos Islands taken as far back as 1985. I would love to scan them to make iMovies with my Mac but the software sounds tricky. Is this scanner OK for a Mac and are there any others I should consider Terry? David of Red Hill
Posted by: David Lloyd at January 30, 2008 04:43 AM
David: The Epson V500 is the first flat bed scanner that I have tried that can make a really decent scan of a slide. Having said that it is still not as good as a dedicated slide scanner, but they are expensive and have only a single purpose. For most people the V500 represents much better value for money and versatility. Terry
Posted by: Terry at January 30, 2008 10:13 PM
I am looking to a film scanner for b&w 35mm negatives, to be printed up to A3. V500, V700/750, Coolscan V, or do I print in the darkroom to 8x10 and scan hose prints? The last option is there because I did just that, on an HP all-in-one and the resulting scan printed to A3 with amazing results.
I just don't really want to set up my darkroom again...
Thanks for any comments.
Posted by: Manolis Kroussaniotakis at February 14, 2008 12:46 PM
Manolis: In my experience a dedicated film scanner does the best job. However it tends to be an expensive solution for a one-off project.
Of all the flatbed scanners that I have tested that purport to also scan film the Epson V500 is the only one that I would say really works. TL
Posted by: Terry at February 14, 2008 09:47 PM
I'm looking for a scanner to scan 35mm slides. The ones I've narrowed down to are the Epson V500, or a used Minolta Dimage Scan Dual III or IV from eBay. Both work out roughly the same price. Does anyone have experience of using both of these, and can advise on which would be best? If not, it would be really useful if someone could post links to some sample scans they've done from a V500. Thanks!
Posted by: Michael at March 27, 2008 09:14 PM