Epson Perfection V500 Photo Scanner

Epson Perfection V500 Photo Scanner Review

Faced with the task of scanning slides, prints, and negatives I researched and bought my first scanner. As the bulk were slides and negatives I picked the V500 because of the Digital Ice feature. However, based upon scan times I doubt I'll use Digital Ice. I'm still impressed with the product, which came with Photoshop Elements 6, which by itself is a great product.

Since I'm new to this I tried to educate myself. The website [...] is a great place to visit. His printing / scanning calculator is a great tool.

The first thing I did was scan a small number of prints, negatives, and slides at various resolutions to get timings and file sizes. Then I made some prints to see what the results looked like before I started scanning in earnest. Here are the results:

SCANNING:
Scanning times will depend upon the power of your computer. The Epson scan driver uses a lot of CPU when it is running. My times are with a 2.80Ghz Celeron.

You can scan directly into Photoshop Elements after the Epson software has scanned it and done any desired corrections. However, I didn't see the need as Photoshop Elements takes a long time to load. I just saved the scans and will use Photoshop Elements as a separate step.

Prints: Only scanned 4x6 prints at 300 dpi, with and without software dust removal. Per print scan averages: 20 seconds without dust removal, 24 seconds with dust removal. File sizes were about 260KB. NOTE: the v500 will only scan three 4x6 photos at a time. You can fit four on the glass, but there isn't enough separation for each to be individually recognized.

35mm Slides: Scanned at 600, 1200, 1600, and 2400 dpi, with and without Digital Ice. Digital Ice, while doing a good job, takes forever. At 1200 dpi a single slide scan takes 136 seconds with DI, vs. 40 seconds without DI. Per slide scan averages, without DI, for 600, 1200, 1600, and 2400 dpi were 24, 40, 51, and 87 seconds. File sizes were 84, 296, 506, and 1,082 KB.

35mm Negatives: Scanned at 600, 1200, 1600, and 2400 dpi without Digital Ice. Per negative scan averages were 23, 35, 45, and 75 seconds. File sizes were 148, 438, 708, and 1,309 KB.

RESULTANT PRINTS:
Prints: Dust removal did a decent job. 4x6 prints looked as good as the originals.

35mm Slides: I made 5x7 prints of the 1600 and 2400 dpi scans. [...] indicates that 1600 dpi is sufficient for 5x7 prints and 2400 dpi is almost sufficient for 8x10. Since these are primarily snapshots I decided that 1600 dpi was as good as I needed. If I was going to make 8x10s I'd scan at 3200 dpi. I could tell no difference between the prints made from 1600 or 2400 dpi scans.

35mm Negatives: Again 5x7 prints of the 1600 and 2400 dpi scans. Again, no discernible difference in the resultant prints.

I haven't tried to scan documents or to convert a scanned document to text.

All in all I'm very pleased with the product. I'm only just now realizing how much time it is going to take to scan my collection.

Epson Perfection V500 Photo Scanner Feature

• Create crystal-clear photo enlargements and scan slides, negatives, and medium-format film
• Easy Photo Fix quickly restores faded photos with one touch
• Digital Ice technology removes dust particles and scratches from images
• Energy-efficient LED light eliminates warm-up time while allowing faster scans
• 1-year limited manufacturer's warranty

Epson Perfection V500 Photo Scanner Overview

The Epson Perfection V500 Photo features a built-in transparency unit for positive or negative film up to medium format. It scans 12 frames of 35mm filmstrip, four frames of mounted 35mm slides or 1 frame of 6x12cm medium format film at once, ideal for preserving old family images. Four easy access buttons are located on the front of the scanner to initiate scan to application, scan to PDF, scan to email and copy. They offer a quick and easy way to scan an image without the need to access settings on the computer. The scan to PDF function allows an image or multiple pages to be scanned and automatically saved to a specified PDF file, while the scan to email button allows documents or images to be copied and sent anywhere in the world at the touch of a button. Software provided with the Perfection V500 Photo includes the new Epson Scan 3.2 and Epson Creativity Suite. Epson Scan is designed to make scanning easy with its automatic mode and home mode. The needs of the advanced user are addressed with the professional mode. Epson Scan 3.2 offers high compression multi-page PDF scanning and allows ICC profiles to be embedded into the scanned files. Colour reproduction for negative scanning delivers superior image quality in critical or mixed lighting conditions. It also offers an advanced backlight correction to improve the overall visibility in the image. Digital ICE Technology ensures dust and scratches are completely removed from colour films, creating high-quality results. Additional software includes Adobe PhotoShop Elements 4 (PC) and 3 (Mac) and ABBYY FineReader Sprint 6 Plus. An optional Automatic Document Feeder (ADF) is available for small offices that wish to use the Perfection V500 Photo for higher volumes of document scanning. Full software package - Epson Scan 3.2, Epson Creativity Suite, Digital ICE, Adobe Elements 4 (PC) and 3(Mac) and ABBYY FineReader Sprint 6 Plus Mac and PC compatible

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*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Dec 03, 2009 01:56:49