Epson Perfection V750-M Pro Color Scanner

The Epson People have done a great job. I was going to buy another brand of scanner but reading the comparison on a review of the Brand X and the V750 it was an easy transaction.

When you want to do a job right, you need the right tools. About six years ago I was looking for a scanner that would could handle medium format negatives. I chose the Epson 3170. It work well for color negs but on black and white the crop would shift to the left about 3/8Th's of an inch. This was totally unacceptable. So, I told Epson and they had me take the scanner to their service rep. So I did. After their tech couldn't find anything they charged me $65. I went round and round with Epson and solved nothing. So I bought a Canon. The customer service was much better. The glass on the Canon was of a better quality and no cropping issue.

This year it was time to upgrade and Epson was on the bottom of my list. Canon no longer makes a Scanner that will meet the specs of the V750. Microtek stopped making scanners all together and Hasselblad was out of my price range. For the price, no one else makes a scanner that will do what this scanner does. Several things helped convince me that the V750 was the way to go.

First and foremost was optics. I have not seen one "Newton Ring". The Perfection 3170 and the Canoscan 8000F were plagued with "Newtons Rings". I was afraid that if I bought the V700 that optical quality might be an issue.

Second reason for going with the V750 was wet scanning. I usually dry scan everything and then if the image is worth it I might wet scan it. This is where Epson marketing falls short. They could be selling wet scanning supplies to us V750 owners. Instead, I spend my money elsewhere. You can get an aftermarket wet scan tray that is better than the tray provided with the V750. In fact you can use that tray with the V700 as well.

The third reason for buying the V750 was the bundled SilverFast Ai software. Epson likes to throw that in to sweeten the deal. This is also the reason they didn't get five stars out of me. I also upgraded my PC. I am now running Windows Vista Home Premium 64bit. SilverFast is not compatible with Vista 64bit. Epson, like in the past doesn't want to know anything and SilverFast has no plans on making a 64bit version of their self proclaimed superior software. What a couple of shysters, Epson and SilverFast, two companies that know how to reach over the dollar to pick up the change.

Now that I have scanned over 1000 negs on this machine I can say that it has performed better than I anticipated. The optical quality is superb and the Digital Ice works great on old Kodachrome slides. This thing will scan anything I throw at it. The dynamic range is far better than my old Canoscan. I was able to bring out the shadow detail in some very contrasty images without blowing out the highlights. The scanner is a bit noisy, but aren't they all. As far as the film holders go, they are flimsy but a big improvement from the Perfection 3170. After market film holders can also be purchased. I have had to use the Epson Scan software which looks like the same version that I used six years ago. You think they would at least give it a face lift but that might require Epson to spend some of their profits. When you are the only company making a machine like this you can do what ever you want and people will still buy it.

In conclusion, if you are serious about your work and want the best for your images, the V750 is a great choice. If you just want to scan some old family picture to share with some friends I'm sure the V700 will be fine. But, if you plan on using your scans for professional applications, you might want to consider the better optics of the V750. If service after the sale is a concern, your out of luck. However, the best customer service is the one you never have to use.

I was most disapointed with this almost $[...] scanner. It's made of 100% plastic and has no weight to it. I bought it to replace a failing 6 year old Microtek Artixscan 1800f, which must weigh almost twice the Epson. The Epson arrived defective out of the box, small pieces of grey plastic attached to the underside of the glass. I ran a few quick scans with it, and the scans look ok, but the cover for the transparency unit is white, which can cause a small amount of image flare(all other scanners use a black background to avoid this). I did not use the negative scanning unit since I still have a working Microtek which scans negatives and transparencies without having to remove a cover sheet and scan through glass . I am so sorry that Microtek is no longer selling in the US or I would have bought a M-1 from them. Now, there are no other choices availalbe for a pro level scanner except this one or its twin, the V-700

Recently purchased the V750 after reading all the hype. I was a little disappointed when I discovered the SilverFast Ai pro bundled is 32 bit,my computer system is 64 bit Vista home premium. Epson will not even discuss it. SilverFast reps were very nice saying they may be coming out with a 64 bit verson soon which they will exchange. Also, discovered you can not scan any 21\4 materials so all my Hassalblad files will remain in files.

I am impressed by the quality of scans the machine is capable of. If it gets fed the right information it performs very nicely, but rather slowly. If you are using it in conjunction with an old computer like mine Digital Ice takes a very long time. You can retouch in Photoshop faster by far. I think the image quality from it is just fine other wise. It is not a "snap" to use if you want top quality, but it does have the capability of doing very good scans. I use it for 35mm negs. and slides, 120,220 and 4x5 and some scanning of old photos and small art work. Of course the 4x5 is really nice, but I like what it does with the other formats too. It just takes a lot of patience. It is not a $10,000 machine, but I think it does extremely well for the price. I have had the unit for over a year and have not been disappointed. I'm not crazy about the software though. Probably just not enough user smarts.