Vuescan with Epson V500

SolaresLarrave

SolaresLarrave

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As many of you know, Apple issued its new OS Catalina, and Epson drop the ball here because they didn't update the driver for their V500 Photo scanner (and they had been good at keeping up with Apple for a long time). I downloaded some software from Epson's support site, but it's just not doing its job. In fact, my scanner, once glorious and reliable, is now in the hands of a very rudimentary scanning software that has no "save" button! :eek:

After reading some stuff online I found that Vuescan could come to the rescue. Between plunking down $99 for software or upwards of $150 for a new scanner (if not more) that could potentially give me the same problem in the future, my mind is almost made in favor of the software (the site offers free unlimited updates and abilities to scan film and documents). I hate to have lost the Epson software: I liked it, I finally had figured it out...

What's been your experience with Vuescan at all? Does anyone here have the same scanner I have, the Epson V500, and runs it with Vuescan? BTW, I'd be using it in an iMac from September 2019, with Catalina.

Thanks in advance!
 
Well I've been using Vuescan for 10 years so the $99 is a no brainer. No experience with Epson yet (looking at flatbeds for Medium Format) but I'm sure it will work fine. Oh by the way I scan my 35mm with a Minolta Dimage Scan III.
 
Does it adapt well to your scanner's capabilities? I'm asking because the original software of mine was supposed to work on 120 film and I still have some transparency in medium format that I'd like to scan.
 
SolaresLarrave said:
Does it adapt well to your scanner's capabilities? I'm asking because the original software of mine was supposed to work on 120 film and I still have some transparency in medium format that I'd like to scan.
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Very well. Opens up a ton of possibilities, even dng raw files.
 
analoged said:
Well I've been using Vuescan for 10 years so the $99 is a no brainer. No experience with Epson yet (looking at flatbeds for Medium Format) but I'm sure it will work fine. Oh by the way I scan my 35mm with a Minolta Dimage Scan III.
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My license, bought in 2002, was $40. Best money I ever spent considering I still get free upgrades. And, I used it with my original Minolta Dimage Scan III. Only reason I ever sold that scanner was I bought my Minolta Multiscan to scan 120 negs. I also use Vuescan with my Epson V600 for occasional 4x5 negs.

BTW, I seem to remember that Chris Crawford has an excellent tutorial for using Vuescan.
 
You can download a free copy. Why not just try it? I've used it forever (though I do prefer my V700 Epson software). Best thing is works with every scanner in the world.
 
Bob Michaels said:
My license, bought in 2002, was $40. Best money I ever spent considering I still get free upgrades. And, I used it with my original Minolta Dimage Scan III. Only reason I ever sold that scanner was I bought my Minolta Multiscan to scan 120 negs. I also use Vuescan with my Epson V600 for occasional 4x5 negs.

BTW, I seem to remember that Chris Crawford has an excellent tutorial for using Vuescan.
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Yes, I do have two film scanning tutorials for Vuescan. One for B&W negatives and the other for color slides.

I have used Vuescan for nearly 20 yrs now with my Nikon 8000ED scanner. The software delivers wonderful image quality and is far more stable than the software Nikon included (Nikon Scan), which constantly crashed. I have not used it with an Epson scanner, but here are my thoughts on Vuescan anyway:

The interface sucks; it is not very intuitive, which is why my tutorials for it are so popular. Fortunately, most of the settings are things you'll set once and never mess with again. I think Vuescan is worth the bother of learning because they keep it updated for the latest computers and operating systems, so your scanner will work with any computer you own in the future and if you own multiple scanners, Vuescan supports a huge number of them.

I believe you must buy the "Pro" version to do film scans. I think the cheaper versions do not support it even if your scanner does.

Here are my tutorials:
Intro To Film Scanning
B&W Negative Scanning
Color Transparency Scanning

The settings I give should work for most scanners.
 
Thanks a lot to all of you! :) And, of course, I intend to purchase the Pro edition because it's the one that allows me to do what I want: negatives and slides.

One final question: can you copy it into another computer? Say, I will download it to my iMac, but what if I have to replace that computer in... say, six or seven years?

Thanks for the testimonials. As for the tutorials, I will sure watch them. These days, I want to scan a bunch of slides and negatives I have. Who knows? Maybe I'll start developing again! :) And that's when the scanner will come in handy.
 
SolaresLarrave said:
Thanks a lot to all of you! :) And, of course, I intend to purchase the Pro edition because it's the one that allows me to do what I want: negatives and slides.

One final question: can you copy it into another computer? Say, I will download it to my iMac, but what if I have to replace that computer in... say, six or seven years?

Thanks for the testimonials. As for the tutorials, I will sure watch them. These days, I want to scan a bunch of slides and negatives I have. Who knows? Maybe I'll start developing again! :) And that's when the scanner will come in handy.
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Yes, you can move Vuescan to a new computer. I have used my license on 5 computers I have owned in the last 20 yrs. Just downloaded and installed the software and input the serial number and it worked. Some of the computers have used Windows and some were Macs. Didn't matter, it just worked!
 
I use Vuescan on both my Nikon 5000ed and my Epson V600 which I assume very similer to the V500.

It's ok on both scanners.
 
I used Vuescan with a V500 for many years (also with a V700 and Minolta Dimage III and IV). As said, the interface is, well, not good. Plan on going through a tutorial or two like Chris's above. Once you learn some of the settings and the basic workflow, you don't need to make many changes at all.

I also used the Epson software in other settings. Very different experience. The Epson software gets results right off the bat. I see Vuescan as a 'RAW' file generating program, meaning that I basically turn off most of its automatic functions, generate as full a range file as I can, and plan on making usable image in post processing.

If scanning B&W negatives, you get the option to select different films and developers (small selection). Play with these to see what give you the best range for your negatives. You can also change black and white points with sliders. Another helpful setting is called either 'border' or boundary' I think? It makes the exposure system ignore the outer edge of an image by a percent you set. This helps avoid blank film having a strong effect on exposure, helpful if you do something like make your own film holder or scrape the edges of Epson's holder to get full frame with black edges.

Oh, maybe it has changed, but the DNG format from Vuescan is really just a TIFF file. You can change the extension to .tif and it loads exactly the same. Never did understand what is was for.
 
The DNG tif file option allows you to open the file in Adobe Camera Raw, to make adjustments, but it is a TIFF. Think of it as a TIFF with a DNG wrapper.

I haven’t tried, but I am guessing you could make changes to the file, and re-save as a DNG, keeping xmp data inside the “wrapper.”
 
The Vuescan user interface becomes much simpler when you acknowledge that many of the adjustments and options provided can be ignored. They are there for those who will not do subsequent adjustments in an image editor such as Lightroom or Photoshop and want an acceptably adjusted file straight from the scanner software.

Vuescan shines for those who finally accept that fact that all you really want from the scanner software is a digital file that contains all the data from the film. It makes no difference how close to the final product the image from the scanner software looks. Too many evaluate scanner software by how good the initial file looks. This is because the scanner software makes automatic adjustments that you cannot see or later reverse. These are much better done manually by you with your image editor so you can control them. Vuescan allows you to eliminate all those automatic adjustments, manufacturers software give you no ability to do so.

Or, simply put: you can get the best looking file to input into your image editor from the Epson or Nikon software. But, you get the best looking final images from the flat unadjusted files you input into your image editor. That means ignoring all those menu options available in Vuescan.
 
I used the trial version of VueScan several years back with my V500. At that time I felt that the Epson software offered everything I needed so I didn't buy VueScan but that's not because VueScan didn't deliver. VueScan offered far more flexibility than EpsonScan did. It just wasn't flexibility I needed. As I'm pretty happy with my V500 I will probably buy VueScan when I run into compatibility issues with my Mac.
 
Francisco - my exact dilemma! I couldn't believe the title of this thread. I loved the Epson software, it was so easy, but I plunked down the $99.00 for Vuescan seeing no other option. Have been watching tutorials on the web but I'm very thankful for your thread and the responses above. While we are all sheltered in place - what a good time to catch up on some scanning! BTW Vuescan mentioned that I could use the software on up to 4 computers.
 
Bob Michaels said:
The Vuescan user interface becomes much simpler when you acknowledge that many of the adjustments and options provided can be ignored. They are there for those who will not do subsequent adjustments in an image editor such as Lightroom or Photoshop and want an acceptably adjusted file straight from the scanner software.

Vuescan shines for those who finally accept that fact that all you really want from the scanner software is a digital file that contains all the data from the film. It makes no difference how close to the final product the image from the scanner software looks. Too many evaluate scanner software by how good the initial file looks. This is because the scanner software makes automatic adjustments that you cannot see or later reverse. These are much better done manually by you with your image editor so you can control them. Vuescan allows you to eliminate all those automatic adjustments, manufacturers software give you no ability to do so.

Or, simply put: you can get the best looking file to input into your image editor from the Epson or Nikon software. But, you get the best looking final images from the flat unadjusted files you input into your image editor. That means ignoring all those menu options available in Vuescan.
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Very wise words. You only need the basic setting (B&W, dpi, etc) to get a good scan. I continue to use the Epson software because it will scan 24 35mm negatives once I hit go. Can't figure out how to do that in Vuescan. I use Vuescan for MF & LF and my Minolta Dimage Scan Dual IV.
 
Beemermark said:
Very wise words. You only need the basic setting (B&W, dpi, etc) to get a good scan. I continue to use the Epson software because it will scan 24 35mm negatives once I hit go. Can't figure out how to do that in Vuescan. I use Vuescan for MF & LF and my Minolta Dimage Scan Dual IV.
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I have a tutorial for doing batch scanning of film in Vuescan. I don't know if it work on the Epson scanners; it does on Nikon scanners. Try it and see!

Vuescan Batch Scan Tutorial
 
It's cheap, but I never was able to get consistently good color from scanned color negatives with Vuescan: I think the assumption is that you will remove the cyan cast with other software. I had better luck scanning slides and black and white negatives.

Licensing terms are generous, allowing use of a variety of scanner hardware and OSes.
 
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