Re: Epson V700

Earl,

I have had the same two scanners for years. (Nikon Super Coolscan 9000 and an Epson V750 Pro). The Nikon line of scanners were the best option for scanning film, short of horribly expensive Imacon (now Hasselblad) or drum scanning. There were others (Polaroid and Microtek for example) but all are now only available on the used market at high prices. There are new film scanners out there (Plustek and Pacific Image for example) I have no experience with them, but their low prices make me doubt if they live up to their advertised specifications. That brings us to the current Epson flatbeds. I have had excellent service from my Epson and would buy it again. The Epson line down to the V600 is quite good for scanning film. The important number for any scanner is Dmax. (higher numbers are better) This refers to the ability of the scanner to record the maximum density areas of the film. IOW, how well it deals with the shadow detail. The V600 advertises a Dmax of 3.4. The V700 and V750 advertise 4.0. My Nikon 9000 advertises a Dmax of 4.8

If I were going to buy one of the Epsons today, it would probably be the V700. I know there is a big price difference with the V600 at $205 and the V700 at $629. However the Dmax is higher on the V700 and the construction and operation is also different. (it uses two lenses to optimize the focus and coverage of the scanned area.) One last item in favor of the flatbeds. You can scan virtually any film size (I bought mine to scan my 4x5 negs) and use them to scan any other item you can get on the bed.

As far as the DPI (dots per inch), around 4000 DPI is about the highest needed for 35mm. If you have any larger negs, generally you will wind up scanning at less than that. Above 4000 DPI, you are mostly scanning the grain in the film and you will not see any real improvement in detail from a slide. DPI is one of the numbers manufacturers abuse all the time in advertising. They often use a "digital" resolution number which is nothing but creating pixels by interpolation to get a "higher" resolution number. Always look for the optical resolution.