valtof Posted October 2, 2007 Share #1 Posted October 2, 2007 Advertisement (gone after registration) Hi, I finally made up my mind and bought the Epson V700 and I think i won't regret it. I planned to use it mainly to grab my 35mm B&W films ans so far the results are far better than I expected, that is almost perfect. I compared some frames I made scanned by a pro lab recently with their best Imacon and I just can hardly see any difference with what I get from the V700. When you think it takes you less than a minute to grab a contact sheet of 24 frames and around 3 minutes to scan a single frame at 6000x4000 pixels resolution... ! Moreover, the scanning software provided are not as good as the scanner itself. The Epson software is quite well done but the the fine tweaking to get the best result is not easy. I think I read somewhere here (Keith Cocker may be ?) that it was possible to use Silverfast to scan in HDR and then tweak the exposition in any software that can handle HRD files like CS3 for example ? This sounds to me a more powerful and yet quicker way to achieve the best results. Unfortunately I didn't succeed even if Silverfast SE seems to have the feature and above all the scans I get with Silverfast are out of focus whereas the results are spot on with the Epson soft. May be because I used the 35mm film holder but I supposed it's intended to work with both softwares included in the package. Can somebody help on this? Thanks Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted October 2, 2007 Posted October 2, 2007 Hi valtof, Take a look here Scanning 35mm with Epson V700. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
cocker Posted October 3, 2007 Share #2 Posted October 3, 2007 Hi, I finally made up my mind and bought the Epson V700 and I think i won't regret it. I planned to use it mainly to grab my 35mm B&W films ans so far the results are far better than I expected, that is almost perfect. I compared some frames I made scanned by a pro lab recently with their best Imacon and I just can hardly see any difference with what I get from the V700. When you think it takes you less than a minute to grab a contact sheet of 24 frames and around 3 minutes to scan a single frame at 6000x4000 pixels resolution... ! Moreover, the scanning software provided are not as good as the scanner itself. The Epson software is quite well done but the the fine tweaking to get the best result is not easy. I think I read somewhere here (Keith Cocker may be ?) that it was possible to use Silverfast to scan in HDR and then tweak the exposition in any software that can handle HRD files like CS3 for example ? This sounds to me a more powerful and yet quicker way to achieve the best results. Unfortunately I didn't succeed even if Silverfast SE seems to have the feature and above all the scans I get with Silverfast are out of focus whereas the results are spot on with the Epson soft. May be because I used the 35mm film holder but I supposed it's intended to work with both softwares included in the package. Can somebody help on this? Thanks Christophe - in terms of software yes I use Silverfast with my Epson V750 Pro (Not sure exactly what the differences are from the V700). To scan in HDR is a two stage process.First I scan as HDR 16 bit with Silverfast Ai Studio. I then open the tiffs in Silverfast HDR Studio (a separate software) and convert the Scans making appropriate adjustments. It works very well. I have no focus problems and I wonder if you need to experiment adjusting the height of your film carrier with the reversible spacers provided. best of luck. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dkCambridgeshire Posted October 3, 2007 Share #3 Posted October 3, 2007 Here are some reviews of the Epson scanners which might help you ... http://www.photo-i.co.uk/Reviews/scanners_page.htm dunk Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Hart Posted October 3, 2007 Share #4 Posted October 3, 2007 By happy coincidence my V700 arrived today. May I recommend Vuescan, produced by Ed Hamrick? It's outstanding software that knocks most of the alternatives into a huge cocked hat. And if you have any problems with it, Ed H is very quick to answer emails and is extremely helpful. http://www.hamrick.com/ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
valtof Posted October 4, 2007 Author Share #5 Posted October 4, 2007 Thanks for answering and sharing Keith, I felt a bit alone on this topic... I hope my experience will help here... Since I posted this thread I went on digging on the subject and found so far that indeed Silverfast produces better result than the Epson software even considering the HDR way. Less digital artifacts, less grain... more subtle results overall. As far as I see and understand, the Epson software with standard parameters sharpens the image whereas Silverfast does not, thus giving this "out of focus" feeling but it isn't ; just try and open a straight scan grabbed with Silverfast in CS3 and apply some appropriate sharpen mask and you'll get to the same results than the Epson software's. No need to say that I've been testing changing the spacers... this is not really the problem even if playing with them, I found that the standard position was not the best (orientated on "+" was better than on "O"). Let's talk about the HDR way, which is indeed really great. May be you'll think I'm fool on this but here is my opinion : The Silverfast ability to grab the high dynamic range of the V700/750 in a 16bit HDR TIFF file is ALL ABOUT IT. The Silverfast HDR software is only a "marketing smoke screen" that doesn't make more than what you can get when 16bit editing these files in Photoshop with "curves" and/or "levels" tools. That's may be why the only answer of the Silverfast support team concerning any problem related to the HDR exploitation is always : " the HDR files generated are intended to be used with our software"... My two cents Cheers Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
valtof Posted October 4, 2007 Author Share #6 Posted October 4, 2007 By happy coincidence my V700 arrived today. May I recommend Vuescan, produced by Ed Hamrick? It's outstanding software that knocks most of the alternatives into a huge cocked hat. And if you have any problems with it, Ed H is very quick to answer emails and is extremely helpful. VueScan Scanning Software Hi Paul, I have also downloaded this software and tried it but I'm really really not convinced ! I found it somehow "amateur" but may be you or someone else here could argue... Cheers Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
valtof Posted October 4, 2007 Author Share #7 Posted October 4, 2007 Advertisement (gone after registration) Here are some reviews of the Epson scanners which might help you ... Untitled Document dunk Thanks Dunk, I knew this review that definitely pushed me to get the V700... Cheers Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Hart Posted October 4, 2007 Share #8 Posted October 4, 2007 Hi Paul, I have also downloaded this software and tried it but I'm really really not convinced ! I found it somehow "amateur" but may be you or someone else here could argue... Cheers OK, I'll take up the suggestion! By 'amateur' I think you may be referring to the user interface rather than either the features or the results. If I'm right, then yes, I suppose it doesn't have quite the slick front end of something made by one of the big players. However, in terms of what it can get out of a negative, it is up there with the best and better than most, IMHO. In this review of the V700 http://www.imaging-resource.com/SCAN/V700/V700.HTM the author says it, "can squeeze more juice out of scan (sic) by accident than most programs can with infinite tweaking and twiddling" Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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