Epson Perfection V700 Photo

Let me say up front that, because the V700 ships with a SilverFast image management program, this is essentially a joint review of device and software. We're a family of photographers with a lot of legacy… negatives and slide material, some ours, some inherited from our parents. We've tried several scanners, with so-so results, and found them slow and somewhat clunky to use. Which meant we made little headway with the huge quantity of material we were trying to get into digital format. The reviews convinced us to try the V700, and we've been delighted. First, I won't say it's perfect - at this price point, we didn't expect to have a totally professional experience. If it were possible, we'd probably give it a 4.5 instead of a 5. Some of the glitches noted by others can be at least mildly irritating. Still, even with the basic SilverFast software shipped with it, it works much better than anything else we've tried. (And using the SilverFast Studio Ai with ME makes it even better - you have to order this separately, but you can get it as a download.) When used with the shipped SilverFast program, the device is intuitive, which results in a fast learning curve. (The videos on the SilverFast support site are extremely helpful should a question arise.) What has impressed us the most is the adjustability of the import controls, especially the ability to adjust F-stops 3 up or down on negative imports, which literally brings most heretofore unviable negative images "back from the dead." As to transparencies, the adjustments provided for their import are also helpful. If you combine this adjustment capability with Photoshop controls, it is truly amazing how much life you can return to images so faded or discolored that they're almost invisible to the naked eye. Evidently there's a lot more information left on even the worst of old slides and negatives than our cursory examination led us to believe. Also, we like the speed. The scan process is reasonable as to time required. Also, the ability to scan multiple images at once is cool. Which reminds me of the plastic holder issue. The V700 ships with a good assortment of sizes. Still, it would have been nice to have been offered the option of purchasing spares with the scanner at perhaps somewhat less than the rather breathtaking price charged by after-market vendors like SilverFast. As to ICE, unlike the experience of other reviewers, we definitely notice a difference when using ICE, especially on images with large areas of solid color. If you want to use ICE, do go through the steps of specifying exactly how you want to use it, as this very much affects not only speed but also the end output. The degree of detection and correction sensitivity that you set is critical. If you set the sensitivity high, you can get rid of just about any dust, etc., but the tradeoff for this much "cleaning up" is a significant degree of image softening. A setting somewhere in the middle seems to work best. We don't use ICE for closeup people images, instead doing any cleanup in Photoshop. Also, at least in our opinion, we would not use ICE to clean up material that is going to be reproduced in print form. There's more one could say, but I think the above is what we've observed from our experience that would matter to most users. In summation, we really like this product and recommend it.

expand

collapse