Epson Perfection V700 Photo Color Scanner

I have been using this scanner for a couple of months now to digitize more than 1,000 color slides from the 60s and 70s, and have found that it suits my needs perfectly. The biggest advantage is that I can set it up to work with 12 slides at a time using the supplied holder, and still get extraordinarily high resolution images of 5 to 8 mbytes - and I'm using the 6400dpi setting - there's still a 9600 and 12800. Each "run" takes about 40 minutes, so I can set it up, walk away and get things done in large blocks of time, instead of having to constantly return every 5 minutes to insert another slide. The scan quality is as good as I can imagine - but I'm not a professional photographer, perhaps a Nikon device would do it better. It does include Digital ICE, and I have found that to be effective a few times. Overall, this machine is a great combination of quality and efficiency, and it seems that there is enough of a resale market out there that buying one is almost like renting it - if you're careful with it and re-package it well, it will sell on the used market for close to what you bought it for. Recommended.

I was surprised how easy the scanner was to install and how little room it takes up on my desk. Very convenient to have it next to my computer.
The HELP? feature is easy to understand and I was scanning slides in no time.
The only problem I had was with the enclosed SilverFast software. It "blacked out" my MacBook twice...So, I stopped using it for correcting exposure, color, etc. The Epson software puts the scans directly on my desktop and from there I enter them into my iPhoto program where I manipulate the pictures. The results have been very good.
The scanner only works when directly plugged into my MAC.
I also found that the emulsion side of the slides have to be facing up for the scanner to "see" them.
It worked well with my Black&White negatives.
The scanned slides (some fifty years old) all look better than their original.
I highly recommend this Epson scanner.

I have had this scanner now for over a year and it has served me very well. I have completed a few thousand scans so far, the unit was purchased to scan my own slides and negatives and I'm now scanning my Dad's slides and negatives. It does an excellent job quality wise and to me the Digital Ice has been a huge benefit. I initially tried blowing off each side or negative with canned air but there is no way to get every dust grain and the program does it better and does not seem to affect quality. It does, however, hugely extend the scan time.

I did initial testing and for me scanning slides / negatives at 2400 DPI resulted in good quality for what I want to do (small prints and mainly display of photos via networked MacMini on large screen TV).

My concerns are with the software. As others have noted, it is clunky but gets the job done (mostly). I have had problems with it not identifying orientation of slides or abnormally clipping slides / negs especially with dark backgrounds. For example, a large number of pictures I have taken of my house in the dark with Christmas lights are clipped wrong. Luckily, I usually take several to bracket the exposure and at least one usually scans correctly. There should be a way to override the scanner's preview scan area.

My other concern with it was that a few months back it stopped working. No blue light on the top, no nothing. I was certain it was a hardware failure and contacted Epson (who actually seemed very responsive) and was given a place to send it for repair. I was using the scanner on an iMac at the time of the failure and on impulse before sending it back I hooked it up to my MacBook Pro which I had used for some initial testing with it so the software was installed already. Oddly, it made some funny noises and then worked. I hooked it back up to the iMac and it has been scanning along fine since. IF YOU USE THIS SCANNER WITH A MAC I RECOMMEND YOU NOT HAVE ANY OTHER ACTIVITY OVER FIREWIRE DURING SCANNING, as near as I can tell that was the source of the problem - when it failed I was in the background copying files from one disk to another. I hope this helps someone.

I bought this scanner to digatize old photos and slides. I think it does a great job. It's pretty putzie to go through all the steps to get the scans if you want high quality. Batch scan, frame, zoom to get frame exactly right, adjust color/exposure/contrast/repair/etc. and then final scan. The frames for slides works well and you can do 12 at a time. High quality scanner that fits the bill for me.

I purchased this because I was desperate to scan very old large format negatives from my mom's childhood.
This is an expensive scanner, but the only one that I could find to handle large format film--so I took a chance.
I've had a film scanner before (not an Epson), but it was cumbersome and tricky to operate, plus it could only scan one frame at a time. Since I have
over 6000 negatives & slides to scan, having the trays hold 12 slides or four film strips has been fantastic.
The operation is fairly quiet and very quick, even at high DPI's. Thankfully, the lid doesn't drop down on it's own when you are lining up the film, which is nice.
It comes with great editing software (I have the professional version of Photo Shop, but am now using the included programs instead.)
The trays have not proven to be a problem--it is true you need to be careful, but the film is equally delicate, so I don't see a problem.
I have two other scanners that handle photo's, but now I use this one for all my scanning needs.
Because it is long, it will take up a large amount of desk space, so make sure you have the room for it.
I'm happy that I didn't need to send out my old negatives, as you never know how careful a lab will be with irreplaceable film.
That made the cost bearable, but the product's quality has also eased my concern over the expense.