v700 for 35 & 120?

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noci

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well, so I've got plenty of 120 slides waiting to be scanned (that is, waiting for me to make up my mind in terms of which scanner to get..) - and I've been pondering that question for a while.

basically I don't know whether to get the Epson V500 or 700. the 500 is said to be "very good for its price" for 120, which is all I'd really need, but is said to suck with 35mm. Does the V700 perform better in that area?
Being as it is in life right now, I don't have that much time to manually feed my trusty Reflecta 35mm frame-by-frame anymore, so hoping to get some sort of batch scanning possibility for 35 (in vuescan!), also.

Or should I rather buy a dedicated 35mm neg scanner with a tray or so & a v500 for 120, both probably costing me as much together as a v700 would cost me individually. 😕

what do you think?

thanks,

max
 
I've found the V700 to be very good indeed for 35mm - the film and slide holders are a bit flimsy (the film holders are very bad at holding film flat, but I reverse wind mine onto a developing spool for a while first, which seems to do the trick), but that's really my only complaint.

I've never heard anyone say the V500 "sucks" for 35mm - do you have any links to reviews etc that say that?

Btw, can you really do batch scanning with VueScan?
 
nope, I can't provide a link to that from the top of my head, so I'd have to do some digging as to where that preconception of mine comes from.

as for vuescan, I am under the impression that you can just select several areas from the preview that it'd then scan for real - or?
 
I do all my scanning with the Epson V700, 135 & 120. The film holders are flimsy and for 135 I highly recommend using ANR glass inserts to hold the film flat (more critical than with 120 film) but the scans I got from 135 film were good enough (for me) to sell my Nikon Coolscan V ED. I use the Epson software and batch scanning 24 frames out of 6 stripes (135) in one go is a great advantage for me.
 
Get the scanner which allows you to periodically take it apart and clean the inside of the glass plate. My V700 has produced a murky fog after just a few months of use and afaik I will be able to easily disassemble and clean it myself.
 
My experience mirrors that of maddoc. I bought a V700 when they were first launched because I wanted to be able to scan both 120 and 135, and had read reviews online which placed its 35mm performance within a whisker of the Nikon V ED. I quickly found that the 135 holders were fine with perfectly flat negs or negs that want to curl across their length, but sucked severely with films that tend to curl across their width. So I went and got four lengths of ANR glass and it not only helped keep problem negs flat, but added a useful degree of sharpness to all my negs.

The 120 holders don't inspire much confidence - they feel flimsy and crappy - but they actually seem to perform ok. If 120 were my priority (I scan about 80% 135 to 20% 120), then I'd pony up for a set of better holders from betterscanning.com.

Again like maddoc, I find the ability to batch scan 24 frames of 135 (or six of 6x6) a real boon. Just set the scanner going, go do something more interesting for a while (like catch the latest episode of The Wire), come back and it's all done. Wonderful.

Can't comment on the V500 as I've never used one, but AFAIK it's a single lens design (the V700 and V750 use a dual lens system to maximize performance when scanning small-format transparencies) so its 135 performance is likely to be significantly behind its big brothers.
 
I used to have an Epson V700 for scanning 35mm. I then did a swap with a professional photographer, he got my 700 and I got his Coolscan V - he needed the MF scanning capability of the Epson and I wanted the smaller size of the Nikon.

Quality-wise, I did not see any dramatic difference between the two for 35mm. Much of a muchness really.
 
What Maddoc says. I sold my Nikon V after I got V700. I think it does a very good job for both 35mm and 120. No experience with V500.
 
The ANR glass for 35mm and holders for 120 from betterscanning.com really improve the scanner. I do everything with my V750. It is better than any enlarger.
 
I will disagree with the above gentlemen. I think using a RF camera with first rate glass and a flatbed scanner plainly does not make sense - I have the Epson V750, but since I have bought the Nikon CS 9000, I use that one exclusively. In medium format the difference may seem smaller, but it seems so only due to a smaller enlargement factor. In fact, even with Doug Fisher's mf film holders with glass, it is not possible to obtain a sufficient film flatness to reproduce evenly the whole frame of a 6x6 negative. My suggestion is: buy a good scanner, and if you think you cannot afford it, sell your Leica and Zeiss lenses to fund it, and buy cheap lenses instead ( you can always stop them down somewhat - you cannot stop down the scanner...). The combination will deliver better results than the other way round.
 
What is the depth of field of a scanner lens? I have never had any problems with my Epson 4990 (fore-runner to the 500, 700 and 750), even using the stock film holders, which are flimsy but work better than you'd think. But perhaps I don't look closely enough.

/T
 
Yep, the V500 really sucks for 35mm! Notice the horrible edge softness here with a 35mm Tri-X neg.

ManDog.jpg
 
I'm happy with my V500 35mm scans, but only after I changed the setting of the height adjuster tabs on the film holder. There are three positions, and you have to experiment; I guess it depends on how flat a particular negative is.
 
To make a seemingly complex subject simple, I will only say this: I have never seen sharp grain from any kind of film scanned on my Epson V750 - with holders or without, at any resolution. I DO see sharp grain instead from my Nikon film scanner. This is precisely the point to aim for: grain sharp scans - the rest is secondary, although a good Dmax helps too.
 
wray said:
Yep, the V500 really sucks for 35mm! Notice the horrible edge softness here with a 35mm Tri-X neg.

ManDog.jpg
Click to expand...

That is, incredibly impressive!

I must be doing something wrong with my V750 I have never gotten results like that with 135

Please do elaborate on what holder and how you scanned this.

//Jan
 
mh2000 said:
it is very hard to convey differences in scanner quality with web posts.
Click to expand...

Yes indeed, but THAT does not look like the results that I have been getting.

I am very intrigued to know what you guys are doing.

Where are you getting strips of ANR glass? How do you fit it into the Epson holder?

I wish to know about software and settings.
//Jan
 
Here are some more samples- although, like mentioned above, it hard to determine true quality from the web. I have the V700- which can be picked up for $350 if you watch for sales- and am quite happy with it. I only use it for the web and smallish prints.

The first is Delta 400 120, the second Fuji Superia 35mm. I am not a perfectionist so these scans were 'put 'em in and turn on the machine' type scans. Not bad results, really. I have since played around a lot more with holder heights, etc.
 
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