Epson Perfection V700 Photo

• Reviewed by: mprobst

  Strengths: Great value. Handles any negative (or positive) format/size.

  Weaknesses: Dust removal feature is poor.

  Overall: I've used this scanner side by side with a Nikon 5000D dedicated film/slide scanner for about two months. This scanner can handle many different negative formats without sacrificing resolution or color quality. Though it is not quite as fast as the Nikon and the color correction is not quite as good.... the fact that it is about 1/3 of the price makes this an excellent value. I highly recommend it.

• Reviewed by: MORE4MY$

  Strengths: Basic setup and usage is easy

  Weaknesses: Documentation leaves something to be desire; the setup illustration needs some improvement

  Overall: Ok let me say this: in less than 5 minutes after I installed the software and assembled the hardware, I had my first scan. Nothing could be simpler: press the power button, then the scan button on the V700. The Epson scanning software loads pressed the software scan button and the V700 did it's thing. Open the image in Photoshop and I was on my way. I felt that the V700 was a little slow in comparison to my ancient scanner but that one only did 400 ppi. Nonetheless, it still felt slow (guess that I'm in a hurry;> ) I scanned a 4 x 5 color negative and it looked great. Obviously with only a week's worth of experience, there's still a lot to learn. But so far I'm happy. For whatever reason, I prefer a hardcopy manual to these electronic versions. It's a bother opening the electronic help then going back to the application and then going back to the electronic help to solve your problem. Having a hardcopy manual come with the scanner makes problem resolution easier - you can look at both the manual and the screen simultaneously. And the illustrated Start Here guide needs more text and better illustrations. For example, you're told to unlock the transparency unit transportation lock but there's this plastic looking piece that prevents you from doing it. To make matters worse, there's no indication of how to remove this plastic piece and there's no tape that says pull me. You're left staring at the thing trying to figure out how to remove it without damaging the unit. (I finally got a tweezers and pulled it out). Despite these small complaints I'm looking forward to using the V700 - for both prints and digital negatives.

• Reviewed by: fvzepf

  Strengths: I find that this scanner is far superior to my seven year old scanner, in the type of control that you have over the outcome of the scan through its packaged software.

  Weaknesses: Although the scanner is well built. I find the film strip holder; slide holder and film area guide could be more substantial.

  Overall: The CCD on the V700 has an excellent depth of field, rendering an excellent copy of an object without assistance from a program. Many documents which proved difficult for my old scanner are now a snap. I was even able to successfully scan an old piece of film of my wife and myself that only measured 3/4 by 7/8 of an inch into a 4 by 6 portrait.This scanner satisfies a serious hobbyist like me.

• Reviewed by: chayes918

  Strengths: Very good at scanning and reconditioning old and faded film and 35mm slides.Digital ICE works great for removing spots of fungus and dust.Does a good job of scanning documents with 8 point font.

  Weaknesses: Poor documentation and user guides.

  Overall: After significant product research, I settled on the Epson Perfection V700 as a performance/cost tradeoff to convert and restore my pre-digital family photo film and 35mm slides. Of which some are 39 years old and very faded and defected by spots of fungus and dust. To date I have scanned over 200 35mm slides that were in the worst condition with very satisfying results. The Epson user interface allows the use of several features that include sharpness, grain, color restoration, and two modes of dust or spot removal. These features can be applied independently to each pre-scanned image (up to 12 35mm slides) to achieve the desired effect. The included software can be used to correct any defects remaining in the scanned image which so far on my scans have been minimal. I am very satisfied with the V700.