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 is one of the top 6400 DPI scanners that you can buy today. It has everything you need for professional photo scanning. The optical resolution on the Epson Perfection V800 is 6400 dots per inch and is made possible by the integrated CCD (Charge-Coupled Device) sensor backed up by a ReadyScan LED light source. Epson says you can get that up to 12,800 dpi with interpolation but that doesn’t really matter, because there is no extra detail just more pixels per inch. It uses a ReadyScan LED light with instant scanning and no warm-up time and minimal power consumption, an upgrade from the fluorescent lights used on the previous models.

You can connect the Epson perfection v800 photo scanner to your computer using a USB 2.0 port and it’s compatible with both Windows and Mac OS. TWAIN drivers can be downloaded for it making it compatible with virtually any 3rd party scanning app.

The color depth is the same as on some other cheaper Epson scanners like the V600 which we will be reviewing below. But that doesn’t tell the whole story because the V800 has a 4.0 Dmax dynamic range. That’s a technical term for basically stating that the digital images that come out of the scanner have a high level of detail and the scanner can reproduces many shades of black. It is something that professional imaging requires.

It comes with Epson Scan, LaserSoft Imaging SilverFast SE and ABBYY FineReader. Silverfast one that helps you with improving the digital scanned images but on a higher level providing Digital ICE features and really fine adjustments to the image like to remove the appearance of dust and scratches from film when scanning slides and negatives. This software is not provided on the V600 or on lower priced scanners. This flatbed scanner can output high-quality digital scans in JPEG, TIFF, Multi-TIFF, Bitmap, PDF and PCT format. Together with the ABBYY software you can export it to Word Documents with editable text and Excel sheets.

You can scan 35mm film and medium format film using the included film holders with adjustable height control. The V800 is the successor to the Epson Perfection V700 photo scanner.

Epson Perfection V850

Product	Format	Optical Resolution	Connectivity	Color Depth	Price
Epson Perfection V850	A4	6400 dpi	Hi-Speed USB 2.0	48-bit Color or 16-bit Grayscale	Click for more info

The Epson V850 is very much like the Epson V800 with the same 6400 dpi scanning resolution, but with a few small differences. The Epson Perfection V850 Pro is a bit faster because of its faster image processor. Also, along with the same built-in transparency unit, not only is it just as capable of scanning slides, 35mm negatives and film but it also has 2 sets of film holders for converting film rather than just one, making it perfect for batch scan. It has 4 types of sets: for 35mm slides (which holds 12 frames), for 35mm film strips (which holds up to 18 frames), for medium-format film (which holds 1 frame that is up to 6 x 20cm) and a 4 inch by 5 inch frame. The time required for a 300 dpi scan is about 12 seconds.

Another key difference is that its software is the SilverFast SE Plus rather than the SilverFast SE that you get on the V800. Any SilverFast license should be upgradable, so you should be able to upgrade an SE to a Silverfast AI Studio license. You also get some calibration targets with the V850 that are compatible with the X-Rite i1 and which you can use to calibrate the color profile that your V850 outputs. Calibration doesn’t make your colors more vivid but it does make them more accurate when you scan photos. You can apply the RGB color profile from Photoshop too. We adjust the color accuracy of all the scanners we use and you would be surprised to see the difference.

Just to remind you, this flatbed scanner has the same pixel density of 6400 DPI, it uses a CCD sensor, it connects using a Hi-Speed USB 2.0 port. When you scan in color you can access a color depth of 48-bit and if you do that in grayscale it will be 16-bit. It weighs 14.6 lbs (6.6 kg), so it is a bit heavier than the V600 but certainly easy to carry around. In terms of form factor, it is not as compact as it is a very tall scanner. All those features have proven to take up more space.

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 V600 is the perfect balance between image quality and value for money. Both the Epson v600 and v800 have the 6400 dpi resolution but the differences between Epson Perfection V600 vs Epson V800 are that you don’t get the fancy dual lens system and it doesn’t have a 4.0 Dmax dynamic range, so not all details from the photos will be captured in such high-definition, but many tests have shown that you have to really look close to notice the differences. It does however have fast scan speeds, as it is capable of scanning documents in just 8 seconds at 300 dpi. Scanning film will take upwards of 3 minutes per film holder with mounted slides. These are actually really quick scan times.

You get the following software with it: Epson Easy Photo Fix, Epson Copy Utility, ArcSoft PhotoStudio and the ABBYY FineReader Sprint Plus Optical Character Recognition software. As you may have noticed, it doesn’t have the more advanced SilverFast software that the other 2 scanners have. But you won’t miss those features if you just want to digitize your family photo collection. You do get the ICE features in the scan software like an automated photo restorer that removes dust and scratches from your photos automatically.

The ABBYY software is a great choice for this Epson perfection scanner as the text recognition accuracy is the best among OCR software. It has a lot of the digital ICE technology features that you get on the V850 and V800 but without the very advanced ones. It will automatically detect and adjust the orientation of your photos, it will detect the scanning area but it cannot automatically adjust the color mode. You have to tell it if it’s a black & white, a grayscale (halftone) or color photo.

This flatbed photo and document scanner comes with TWAIN and WIA drivers for both operating systems: Windows 10 64-bit and Mac OS. You can connect the Epson perfection v600 photo scanner to your computer using the included USB 2.0 port. The included software can sync your photos with Google Drive, Evernote, DropBox and OneDrive. The scanner glass is illuminated by the same type of LED lamp that Epson puts in all of its flatbed scanners so this will not affect your choice in the Epson V800 vs V600 decision.

It has special film holders so that you can scan 35mm film, slides and medium format film that is up to 6 x 22cm and it can apply ICE features to the film as well because the film is a lot more sensitive to dust and scratches. It has 80% of the film scanning features of the other two, but with a slightly lower quality, so you can still obtain extraordinary enlargements from film negatives and photo slides with the same resolution, but less detail. It is office technology at a very good price.

Epson America Inc. offers a 1-year warranty for this flatbed color scanner. The V600 also has a cheaper version, the Epson Perfection V550 (the successor to the Epson Perfection V500 photo scanner). The Epson Perfection V550 photo color scanner
for example cannot apply the ICE features to color photos, only to film.

What is the best 6400 DPI Scanner – Epson V600 vs V800 vs V850?

Our final verdict? Our favorite 6400 DPI scanners in terms of imgae quality are the V800 and the V850 because they make no compromises with that. But if you want a scanner that is a great balance between price, features and picture quality, then the Epson V600 is a solid choice. In the Epson V600 vs Epson V800 question, the higher optics, much better software and additional film holders really make the difference with the V800, but if your budget is not there, then the V600 is clearly the best option. Be sure to check the prices on Amazon because discounts might tilt the balance between them. There is another 6400 DPI scanner and it is not an Epson Perfection photo scanner. It is the Canon Canoscan 9000f mkii and the reason it was not included is because Canon stopped making it. It has most of the functionality you get on the other scanners, great scan quality, it is a film scanner with slide holders that can convert slides and film too and this time at a resolution of up to 9600 DPI.