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 V600 is one of the best scanners for film that you can buy because it is a great balance between film scanning features, image resolution and price.

The scanner has an optical resolution of 6400 dpi from a CCD sensor with no interpolation. This is important because for film we want the best type of image sensor and that is the CCD. It has a color depth of 48-bit when you scan in color and 16-bit when you do so in grayscale. The sensor works with a ReadyScan LED lamp that doesn’t need to warm up. It connects to your computer using a standard Hi-Speed USB 2.0 port. The scanner weighs approximately 9 lbs, so it is easy to carry around. It also has a speedy scanning time of approximately 6 seconds at 300 dpi, not that you will be scanning film at that resolution. For film we always recommend you scan in the biggest possible pixel density you can.

Now for the film part: This flatbed film scanner is compatible with 35mm film format and medium format film. It comes a transparency unit that allows you to scan up to 12 frames of negative film (You can also use positive film). You can put independent frames or complete film strips. You can adjust all the options like exposure and gamma. There is also another film holder for 120 / 220 film.

It is certainly not as good as the V800 or V850 but you have to keep in mind that it costs far less than them. The Epson Perfection V600 photo scanner comes with a software bundle that contains: Epson Easy Photo Fix, Epson Copy Utility, ArcSoft PhotoStudio, ABBYY FineReader Sprint Plus OCR. The software provides Digital ICE features for removing scratches and dust from film.

It can also automatically detect the correct orientation of your photos and adjust them. The software also syncs with cloud storage providers like Google Drive, Dropbox or Evernote. Epson provides TWAIN drivers on their website so you can use the scanner with any scanning app that you want, not just their proprietary software.

All the Epson software is compatible with the major operating systems, Windows 10 and Mac OS X. If you need a flatbed scanner for slides, negatives and medium format film but the budget for the V600 is too much, try the Epson Perfection V550 photo image film negative scanner which offers the same optical density, features, led light source and quality for film but for a lower price. It can’t apply ICE features for scanning photos but you get most of what is on the V600.

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 V800 is a professional flatbed scanner for film and photos. It was designed for photographers who shoot in film. Before we talk about the film aspect, let’s have a look at the specs and features. It has a CCD (Charge-Coupled Device) sensor but this time with a dual-lens system that can capture at a pixel density of 6400 dots per inch. The dual-lens system will provide sharper and more detailed images even if it has the same pixel density as the V600. It also has a 4.0 Dmax density that will bring out much deeper blacks in your photos compared to the V600. Dmax is not to be confused with dynamic range as it refers to density of black. The bigger the number, the better image quality in darker areas of the photo. The principle is similar to digital cameras. When you look at it on an LCD screen you will be able to tell the difference. The color depth is the same, with the scanner being capable of outputting 48-bit color scanned images. It uses the same USB 2.0 port that you will find on the V600.

Regarding film, the V800 is also a film and slide scanner and comes with a set of 4 film holders. The 35mm mounted slides holder can take up to 12 frames, the 35mm film strip holder can take 3 strips of 35mm negatives and and 35mm slides which means up to 18 frames, the medium-format strip holds one big frame up to 6 x 20cm and the last one is the 4 inch by 5 inch frame holder. The film to digital converter feature takes a while. To capture an entire holder can take a minimum of 5 minutes.

The software bundle that comes with this flatbed photo scanner also includes the Silverfast SE software in addition to what the V600 has. Silverfast SE has much more advanced Digital ICE technology features like automatic frame detection, unsharp masking, features for batch scanning of color photos, Color tone adjustment, advanced dust and scratch removal, GANE for eliminating noise and film grain from digital images that come from digitized film and NEGA fix for grayscale to color film conversion in slides and negatives together with features for improving the vividness of the colors. These can substitute the need for photo editing in Photoshop up to certain point. The software is compatible with mac and pc.

The software can export to different RGB photography file formats such as Bitmap, JPEG, TIFF and PNG. Canon’s competitor for this scanner is the Canon Canoscan 9000f mkii, one of the best film scanners ever made. The problem is that the Canon CanoScan 9000f mark ii was discontinued.

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 perfection v850 pro is very similar to the V800 but it has some advantages but which also come with a higher price. It has the same number of pixels per inch, a 6400 DPI resolution and the same 48-bit color depth. The USB 2.0 port is the same for connecting to Windows and Mac devices.

The V850 is also a digital film scanner and has the same set of photo film holders like the V800 negatives film scanner but it has two of each, so you can be more productive. While one film holder is being scanned you can load films slides on the other one. While it is more productive than the V800 it’s not as productive as dedicated film scanners. You also get calibration targets so that you can calibrate the scanner using the X-rite i1 calibration device. Epson say that they also improved the photo scan quality with extra scanner features like a special coating on the lens system.

The software provided with the V850 flatbed film scanner consists of: Epson Easy Photo Fix that removes dust and scratches automatically from slides and films, LaserSoft Imaging SilverFast SE PLUS, X-rite i1 Scanner. You will notice that the SilverFast version is different, it has a few extra features. Silverfast provide a comparison table on their website regarding the discrete differences between the two. If you want a summary, you get additional auto frame alignment, printer calibration, features for Kodochrome and Multi-Exposure.

Which is the Best Flatbed Scanner for Film?

Final words: If you just want to digitize your family photos that you have left from your old film camera, then the Epson V600 is a great option for you because you don’t have to invest that much. It also has OCR and it is a good photo and document scanner. If you are a professional photographer that likes to work with photographic film then you need to look at the V800 and V850 as they will cater to your needs a lot better not only through their dual-lens system and 4.0 Dmax but also with the integrated post-processing software. These scanners are guaranteed to produce high-quality color and black-and-white scans. There is also the option of buying a dedicated 35mm film scanner for negatives and slides like the plustek opticfilm 8200i SE or OpticFilm 8200i Ai, Magnasonic All-in-One High Resolution 22MP Film Scanner, jumble 22mp film scanner, kodak scanza digital film scanner, pacific image primefilm, nikon coolscans, the braun multimag slidescan which can handle 35mm slide and negative or the Wolverine F2D Titan 8-in-1 20MP High Resolution Film to Digital Converter made by Wolverine Data, the company that makes the Wolverine Data 8mm and super 8 movie Reels2Digital Movie Maker. They are more towards scanning speeds than better quality than scanners like the V800 and V850. Any dedicated film and negative scanner scans 35mm film and some of them can save the images to a memory card like an SD card. In terms of scan resolution, it is not necessarily bigger, just that you can scan entire rolls in minutes. If you decided that all you need is a fast photo scanner, Epson makes a great device called the epson fastfoto ff-680w. Scanners like the Epson perfection v370 and canon canoscan lide 9600 mkii are missing from the list because they are discontinued.