Photo Scanner

[Lynda]

HI Brian

Do you have any suggestions on the best photo scanner? 

I usually photograph work to reproduce, but i'm getting some interesting pieces that I think would benefit from using a flatbed scanner of my own. Primarily it would be used for pictures no bigger than A5 and even that would be on the big side. 

Thanks  

[Damien Symonds]

I can vouch for the Epson range.  My V700 is amazing.

[Lynda]

Awesome thanks Damien

[Brian]

The latest and greatest, the Epson V850.

Both Canon and Epson make good stuff when it comes to scanners. It all depends on your budget.

[Brian]

If you would like to save a few hundred, perhaps getting last year's model, the Epson V800? It seems that the V700 is no longer available.

[Damien Symonds]

4 minutes ago, Brian said:

It seems that the V700 is no longer available.

Lol, I'm not surprised!  Mine is SO old now, but still going strong.  One of my best investments ever.

[Collette]

Would this be worth it? https://www.vistek.ca/store/ProPhotoScanners/246675/epson-v600-perfection-photo-scanner.aspx

It is an older one for sure.

[Damien Symonds]

3.4 Dmax is nowhere near the awesome 4.0 of the newer models, but the V600 would do a good job in most circumstances, that's for sure.

Just make sure you've satisfied yourself that it will run on your version of Windows.

[Collette]

Good point. I would have to research if it will run on Windows 10. I'm not going to rush into this one.

[Collette]

One more thing about this dmax. That is the dynamic range? And the difference between 3.6 and 4.0 would be significant for slides? Just asking because I have a Plustek 8100 slide/negative scanner and the price of an Epson V800 is about $1000. My Plustek dynamic range is 3.6. I am looking at this for getting better light into slides as I am finding them a bit dark and it is hard to get brightness without washing them out with my scanner. Also thinking this would be the "do all" for slides, negatives, and prints. I can't seem to find the v700 in Canada.

Edited February 11, 2018 by Collette

[Damien Symonds]

I think the Dmax is more noticeable for negatives than slides, but yes 3.6->4.0 is an important difference in dark areas.

Are you saying that the Plustek isn't getting enough light into the slides?

[Collette]

Honestly I don't have a slide projector to do an honest comparison but this is quite dark. I am making sure the scanner histogram is a tad outside of dark and bright as per your suggestions. I can bump up the midtone brightness but it still seems dark. So this is the scan with the Silverfast histogram corrections to ensure I don't clip anything. The brighter image has some basic Photoshop correction too. Obviously I am just mucking around because the colour is way off on these old images.

[Damien Symonds]

The most important question is, does the Plustek allow 48-bit scanning?

[Collette]

Yes, it is set to 48 bit scanning as per the top few icons. My worry here is that I have set the densitometer to be 16 bit but my images show something else but not sure if that is the same thing.

[Damien Symonds]

Yeah, you're right!  It's losing its high-bit data between scanning and Bridge.  You definitely need to figure that out.

[Collette]

Thanks, I figured so. Will ask on Silverfast forum and report back. Honestly not hopeful at this point but we will see.

[Collette]

I have to upgrade my software to access 16 bit histogram. Off hand, would you know about Vuescan software? Some people are using that and I know both software applications can work with my current scanner and Epson V800.

Edited February 11, 2018 by Collette

[Damien Symonds]

I'm so sorry, no, I don't.

[Brian]

I've got nothing to offer either. Sorry.

Sounds like you will need to upgrade the software to get the full power out of the scanner. Which really stinks.