Epson Perfection V600

Product	Format	Optical Resolution	Connectivity	Color Depth	Price
Epson Perfection V600	A4	6400 dpi	Hi-Speed USB 2.0	48-bit Color or 16-bit Grayscale	Click for more info

The Epson Perfection V600 photo scanner is our favorite Epson flatbed scanner. this is because it is a great balance between scanning speed, image resolution and price. it has a CCD sensor that can output digital images at an optical resolution of 6,400 DPI. this is without any interpolation. it takes just 6 seconds to scan a photo at 300 dots per inch. this image sensor is also backed by an efficient ReadyScan LED lamp that has 0 warm-up time.

You can connect this Epson flatbed scanner to your Windows PC or Mac through a USB 2.0 port and Epson provides Twain drivers available for download on their website.

In the box you will get this softeare package: Epson Easy Photo Fix, Epson Copy Utility, ArcSoft PhotoStudio, ABBYY FineReader Sprint Plus OCR (Optical Cahracter Recognition). it has everything for everyone: if you are scanning photos then you can use the Epson easy photo fix software which will apply digital ICE features like scratch or dust particles removal from your old photos and documents. We recommend that you use digital ice for film especially because the dust and scratches will become more noticeable when the film is scaled than with Digital ICE for prints. What is great about the app is that it does it automatically so you can apply the feature to your entire photo collection of prints and films without much manual work.

If you want to scan documents you can use the ABBYY to convert bitmap, JPEG, TIFF and PNG files to searchable PDFs, word docs, Excel XLS and epub format. The epson scanning software also provide some image enhancement features like automatic orientation and scan size detection. The software also provides One Touch photo restoration.

This Epson flatbed scanner can also scan film negatives as it comes with two sets of film holders. you can scan 35 mm negatives, 35 mm slides and also medium format film. You can also find some additional holders on Amazon for a small price if you want to be more productive.

Epson also makes a cheaper color photo scanner model almost identical to the Epson Perfection v600 color photo image film negative scanner. It is the epson perfection v550 photo scanner. It is mostly the same, it still scans film and photos and it also scans slides but without a Photoshop Elements license and the Digital ICE features only work for film scanning not for large photo scanning.

On the front you will find four customizing buttons. You have a dedicated button for scanning a document and sending it by email. there is also a copy button that can send the scan directly to an Epson printer. There is also a dedicated scan-to-PDF button.

Epson Perfection V800

Product	Format	Optical Resolution	Connectivity	Color Depth	Price
Epson Perfection V800	A4	6400 x 9600 dpi	Hi-Speed USB 2.0	48-bit Color	Click for more info

The Epson Perfection V800 photo scanner is another Epson flatbed scanner favorite of ours. It improves upon the old Epson Perfection V700 photo flatbed scanner. If the Epson V600 was the best compromise, this is no compromise. It is dedicated to provide the best image quality. This scanner also has an image resolution of 6,400 DPI, but it also has a dual lens system for the CCD which means it will capture sharper and more detailed images in the same amount of pixels at this 6400 dpi resolution. The principle is no different than the one with megapixels on digital cameras. The sensor also has a 4.0 D-Max which means that the scanner will be able to output very deep nuances of black. The concept is similar to dynamic range. This is something that is often overlooked but it makes a huge difference.

The Epson Perfection V800 flatbed photo scanner can also scan film slides and negatives and it comes with a transparency unit and four types of film holders: There is one for 3 strips of 35mm film negatives that can hold a total of 18 frames. There is one for 35mm mounted slides in which you can put 12 frames, a medium format one that can hold 1 big frame and one for a 4 by 5 inch frame.

The Epson V800 photo scanner is compatible with Windows 10 PCs and Macs. You connect it to them through its USB 2.0 port. The highlights of the software package are: Epson Scan, LaserSoft Imaging SilverFast SE photo editing software and the ABBYY FineReader Optical Character Recognition software. Silverfast is only available on high-end Epson Scanners like this one and it has some advanced features like creating 64-bit HDR, Descreening to remove any Moire effect (screen door effect), selective RGB color to grayscale conversion, frame detection and Nega-fix accurate negative to positive color conversion. Both the drivers and software are compatible with both major operating systems, this is a scanner for mac and pc.

The higher-end version of this photo flatbed scanner is the epson perfection v850 pro scanner which has faster scanning time and better scan quality due to better optics even though the maximum scanning resolution is the same, although in the real world we did not notice enough of a difference to justify the extra price for the Epson v850 given that they have the same optical density. The 2 sets of film holders and the color calibration target are a welcome addition.

If the maximum scan size of A4 is not enough, you can also get most of the features of this scanner in an A3 format with the epson expression 12000 XL-PH or XL-GA.

Epson Perfection V39

Product	Format	Optical Resolution	Connectivity	Color Depth	Price
Epson Perfection V39	A4	4800 dpi	Hi-Speed USB 2.0	48-bit Color or 16-bit Grayscale	Click for more info

The Epson Perfection V39 is the best bargain you can get with an Epson Flatbed Scanner. It offers a 4800 DPI pixel density with no interpolation from its CIS (Contact Image Sensor) and costs almost 10 times less than the V800. You get plenty of pixels per inch for even the most demanding photos. This flatbed scanner was designed to be low-cost and slim. It is just 1.5″ thick and it is also very lightweight at just 3.4 lbs in weight. It takes about 10 seconds to scan a document at 300 dpi optical. This Epson Flatbed Scanner comes with a 48-bit color depth when you scan in color and 16-bit when you scan in grayscale. You can scan any paper size up to A4. It is a USB Scanner and it is powered through the USB Cable, you don’t need an ac adapter or separate power cable.

This color document scanner does not have the ability to scan film negatives and 35mm slides, it doesn’t come with any film holders or software option for detecting frames and processing them. None of its Canon Canoscan Lide competitors can either. It could, because the resolution allows it, but Epson decided that, most probably from a marketing perspective.

This Epson Scanner has similar software to the V600: Epson Easy Photo Fix, Epson Event Manager, Epson Copy Utility, Epson Easy Photo Scan, Epson Document Capture Pro, ArcSoft Scan-n-Stitch Deluxe (Windows only). You don’t get an ABBYY license for OCR, but instead you use the integrated OCR in the Epson Scanning app which is and this is true, inferior. The Easy Photo fix is included, a software which can improve the scanned images in ways like you would do with Photoshop. You can make the colors more vivid, the text sharper so that you output high-quality scans. You can also sync your scanned images with Google Drive, Evernote and Dropbox so they get uploaded automatically. This color scanner is compatible with both operating systems, Windows 10 and Mac OS X.

The V39 is a bargain for all that it offers. But Epson makes an even cheaper version, the Epson Perfection v19 with a lower 2400 DPI scanning resolution.

Which is the best Epson Flatbed Scanner?

The Epson V600 is the best all-in-one that you can get from Epson america inc. : It scans photos at an excellent resolution, it can scan film and is pretty speedy when you scan documents with it. So it can do a lot for a reasonable price. If you want a good all rounder, then the V600 is the right Epson Flatbed Scanner for you. If you are a photographer or graphic artist and you need the best quality you can get, then the V800 is a solid choice and the V850 as well if you consider that the extra money is worth it. We did not. If you just want a scanner that will get the job done right but you are not obsessing over quality or film scanning, then the V39 will make you a happy user. If these flatbed scanners are too big and you need a portable photo scanner with a flatbed unit then have a look at the Doxie Flip. If you need a flatbed color scanner with a duplex document scanner, you should look at the Epson Workforce DS-1630 flatbed scanner or Epson Workforce ds-6500. Should you need to scan photos at a high speed, then the Epson FastFoto FF-640 (competitor to the Plustek ePhoto Z300) high-speed photo scanner or the Epson fastfoto ff-680w is the right choice because it has an automatic document feeder to scan your family photos. The feeder is adapted to work with photo paper, so even if you have gloss paper like the one from Photo printers, it should work.