Epson Perfection 2580 PHOTO Flatbed Scanner (2400x4800, USB 2.0, PC/Mac)

Epson Perfection 2580 Photo

Perfection 2580 PHOTO Flatbed Scanner (2400x4800, USB 2.0, PC/Mac) Review, by Richard Jantz January 25, 2005

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• Reviewed by: daydaydvd

  Strengths: auto film scanning, auto position just

  Weaknesses: a little noisy when scanning

  Overall: This scanner is for people who want to use auto film scanning without paying much more money to buy a professional film scanner. It did scan film automatically, and get a good result, though slower than professional film scanner.(of course, it just worth 1/15). In flat scanning, one thing should be notify that it can automatical just the postition of pictures you do not put into scanner vertical straight. so just through your picture into scanner, it will do rest to give you a vertical strait picture. very good function. anyway, I just paid $39 for it, and I am very happy what I get. Hope you enjoy it also.

• Reviewed by: mlmckenzie

  Strengths: Film feeder, low price, good results

  Weaknesses: rather loud, scans slowly, film scanner lid broke after 11 negatives

  Overall: I bought the Epson 2580 with an Epson rebate. In it's price class it seemed as least as good if not better than the others. It also had very good expert reviews, so I thought I'd give it a chance. The negative feeder in the lid was a real incentive for me. I'm replacing an 8 year old professional HP model. The software included isn't overly obvious to work with and there are no printed manuals. You're give an webpage type (html) help system to work with--nothing that could easily be printed. The Epson Scan does work well, but you have to change modes in order to have any control over the scanning. The other software really didn't interest me since I use other imaging software that I'm quite happy with, so I can't really state how well that works. Using the flatbed was easy. You set your photo on, press a button on the scanner to pull up the Epson Scan software and then press a button on the software. It automatically scans and crops the image and saves it to a numbered file (or a name if you want to override it). It was a bit slow and noisy compared to my old scanner, but the end result was a very clear scan. It also will split out multiple images and sae them separately if you scan more than one at a time. The negative scanner also worked quite well--at first. It automatically senses the number of frames on the negative and saves each to it's own file. I mainly used the default settings but the end scans were quite clear. I had a few times that the automatic feeder did not pick up the negative. Most of the time, it never jammed, I just had to press the negative eject button and try again. Then, after about 11 negatives it no longer worked. If you're just looking for a flatbed scanner, this is a good buy. If, like me, you bought it because of the negative feeder, I'd recommend looking for something else.

• Reviewed by: lambition

  Strengths: Cheap. Good quality scanning.

  Weaknesses: Film loader broke just after few uses.

  Overall: I bought this scanner because it was cheap and featured. After few tried, I was satisfied with its quality. However film loader stopped working after about 4 uses. Film loader does not pickup the film anymore. After examining the film loader, I found what was wrong with it. There is a soft type over the track that film moves on to keep film from scratching. That film turns out to be too soft. It was damaged by edge of film, which caused film to stock at the entrance. I'm about to return it.

• Reviewed by: wuyh

  Strengths: 1. The image quality looks good for its price range.2. Easy to set up3. Easy, Fast scan if you don't need to adjust any option

  Weaknesses: 1. The size is kind of big compare to same level other brand scanners.2. Quite loud when scanning3. The software is not easy to use and very confusing.4. The top cover is not very secure.

  Overall: It is very good for home user or people need to deal huge amount of images or just documentary because the instant scan feature. The image quality is good, at least fare for its price range, but not recommended for advanced user or photographer. The software is good when you only need to do instant scan, but when you need to adjust other options, it is just painful to find where those functions are because there is no detail manual only set up and very basic instant scan instruction. Still, if you just need to have a basic scanning equipment at home, it does good job and is a good buy.

• Reviewed by: ann505

  Strengths: Film scans look great for the price

  Weaknesses: Included software is just sad.

  Overall: So I did a lot of looking around at the more expensive scanners, then this one caught my attention. It was given a best buy award from PC World, and four other top review sites gave it good ratings. I thought cheap price and good ratings, wow, that can't be true. I ended up buying this scanner with a rebate. I got it home and setting it up was a snap. It does seem a little flimsy in comparison to my 6 year old Hp 5200C (which was enormous). The included software is really a joke. I agree with the poster who said it can be confusing. So until you want a headache, my advice is the stick with the desktop icon "Epson Scan". Also for your first scans stay with "Home Mode" not Professional. Now on to the scans, first I scanned a 4 by 6 colored photo at 300dpi, and it looked fine. To my surprise, it looked about the same as my 6-year-old scanner. The colors were true, skin tones were great, but dark and light areas had just a tad too much contrast. Easy to fix with Photoshop (or other photo editor). Then I tried the film scanner, which I have NO prior experience. Now I should mention I was using the Professional Mode and scanning at 600DPI. My first scan was horrible!! The picture was so soft it appeared to be out of focus!! My daughters' blue dress appeared purple, and over exposed. After many more tries I started to wonder why it got such High ratings? There had to be something wrong. The next day, I started the scanner in "Home Mode", played with nothing, and on the first scan got a picture that actually had More detail than the original print. Other than changing to "Home Mode", I don't know what could have been the problem. I've now scanned 60 35mm filmstrips with what I would consider great results. The film feeder works great but not flawless. No filmstrips have been damaged, and I find that lining your filmstrip edges up with the metel bar as your putting it in the scanner works best. If the scanner won't take in the film, you may have it the wrong way as it's hard to tell (with old film) what side is up and what side to put towards the scanner. Also, I'm scanning now, as I'm online typing! So it doesn't hog your system like some programs. Lastly one reviewer said you'll be taking scans of dust, and it's true if there is dust and prints on your filmstrip. Then there will be dust on your digitized image too. I find a lent cloth works great for taking prints and dust off a negative. The only other thing I want to mention is the life span of this scanner is only 10,000 cycles, the more expensive scanners have about 36,000 cycles. My conclusion is, that for the price it's a great buy. I would have given it five stars if it won't for the software issues.