A look at the Epson V850 Pro

[keithcooper]

If it's of interest, Epson UK have lent me a V850 for a while to try out.

I've written up some notes covering my testing of it at:

http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/reviews/scanner/epson_v850.html

Since film isn't part of my professional work any more, I'd really welcome observations and questions from those with more current knowledge.

I'm not sure how much longer I've got the scanner for, but if anyone near Leicester in the UK has a larger format image they wanted to try (and don't mmd me including in the review), please let me now?

 

[lawrence]

I wonder if the improved carriers are available separately for the V750? I like the V750 very much but I don't like the glass inserts from Betterscanning because you need to cut the film into strips of five frames and for the past forty years I have cut into strips of six. I also have the fs4000 which is an excellent scanner but of course you can only scan a single strip at a time.

 

[c.poulton]

Thanks Keith, a very interesting review.

I'm currently scanning my 6x6 negs with a Canon CanoScan 8800F and Betterscanning ANR glass neg holder. (35mm negs I scan using a Plustek Opticfilm 7500i)

Although I'm fairly pleased with the CanoScan, I do wonder if I could achieve better results using a more up-to-date scanner and the Epson V850 does look tempting, especially considering that you can buy it for around £650. Of course this would only be for Medium Format scanning as I still don't believe that you would get the quality scanning 35mm negs.

The other option is the Plustek OpticFilm 120, but that retails for over £1,700! For that price I could get both the Epson V850 and a new Plustek 8200i all for under £1,000!

 

[keithcooper]

Flatbed performance

Flatbed performance

It's been interesting to see how the V850 compares with my old FS4000.

With the FS4000, the dynamic range is less (in a single scan) and the apparent sharpness of the grain much greater. However, with all such things there is the difference between what is actually there in the negative and what a scanner returns (and that's before you apply any types of sharpening).

Someone kindly offered to do a full res drum scan of one of the images I tested (the house on the beach), so at some point I'll publish a direct comparison between what I've got.

Of course the relevance of fine scan detail to a final print is quite another matter altogether ;-)

 

[V-12]

Yes nice article Keith, is there any indication the V850 can scan 8x10 (or other intermediate formats larger than 4x5) with a 'film area guide' (mask) like the V700 can?

V

 

[keithcooper]

Yes - the guide is the plastic 'bar' you can see in the annotated picture

Note too where I've just laid a few 120 slides across the scanning area and how they fit in the maximum scan area (for transparency) in the scan preview below (the one showing colour correction)

 

[Ranchu]

Many thanks for the review!