Epson Perfection V700 Photo Color Scanner

Poor documentation for the Epson V700 scanner, in fact there is no written documentation.
For example, to get instructions for loading and scanning a film strip you have to wade through a cumbersome file-a so-called User Guide.
Considering the price of this scanner, the least Epson could have done is furnish a User Guide on a CD.

This is a great scanner. IT does more negatives at once then most other scanners. And has great image quality.

Let me say up front that, because the V700 ships with a SilverFast image management program, this is essentially a joint review of device and software.

We're a family of photographers with a lot of legacy negatives and slide material, some ours, some inherited from our parents. We've tried several scanners, with so-so results, and found them slow and somewhat clunky to use. Which meant we made little headway with the huge quantity of material we were trying to get into digital format.

The reviews convinced us to try the V700, and we've been delighted. First, I won't say it's perfect - at this price point, we didn't expect to have a totally professional experience. If it were possible, we'd probably give it a 4.5 instead of a 5. Some of the glitches noted by others can be at least mildly irritating. Still, even with the basic SilverFast software shipped with it, it works much better than anything else we've tried. (And using the SilverFast Studio Ai with ME makes it even better - you have to order this separately, but you can get it as a download.)

When used with the shipped SilverFast program, the device is intuitive, which results in a fast learning curve. (The videos on the SilverFast support site are extremely helpful should a question arise.)

What has impressed us the most is the adjustability of the import controls, especially the ability to adjust F-stops 3 up or down on negative imports, which literally brings most heretofore unviable negative images "back from the dead." As to transparencies, the adjustments provided for their import are also helpful. If you combine this adjustment capability with Photoshop controls, it is truly amazing how much life you can return to images so faded or discolored that they're almost invisible to the naked eye. Evidently there's a lot more information left on even the worst of old slides and negatives than our cursory examination led us to believe.

Also, we like the speed. The scan process is reasonable as to time required. Also, the ability to scan multiple images at once is cool. Which reminds me of the plastic holder issue. The V700 ships with a good assortment of sizes. Still, it would have been nice to have been offered the option of purchasing spares with the scanner at perhaps somewhat less than the rather breathtaking price charged by after-market vendors like SilverFast.

As to ICE, unlike the experience of other reviewers, we definitely notice a difference when using ICE, especially on images with large areas of solid color. If you want to use ICE, do go through the steps of specifying exactly how you want to use it, as this very much affects not only speed but also the end output. The degree of detection and correction sensitivity that you set is critical. If you set the sensitivity high, you can get rid of just about any dust, etc., but the tradeoff for this much "cleaning up" is a significant degree of image softening. A setting somewhere in the middle seems to work best. We don't use ICE for closeup people images, instead doing any cleanup in Photoshop. Also, at least in our opinion, we would not use ICE to clean up material that is going to be reproduced in print form.

There's more one could say, but I think the above is what we've observed from our experience that would matter to most users.

In summation, we really like this product and recommend it.

this scanner seems to be so good (after a months use) that I'm tempted to start shooting film again after 8 years of nothing but digital. At 4800dpi,(6400 seems like overkill and photo-i's reviews indicate 4800 seems to be optimal) from a 35mm transparency you get approximately a 50mb file! Unless your printing murals, this is probably overkill too. To get that kind of file and resolution from a digital slr, be ready to get into the 20-24megapixal and 7 to $8000 dollar range for a camera. Of course, this is speaking from a position of strictly dollar for dollar resolution and file size.
AI's software is adequate to get a image into photoshop. stay away from any manipulation in scanning software unless no other choice. Not at all impressed w/ Digital Ice. It removes dust on color photos only, but upon magnified inspection of scanned image, leaves large pixilation where the dust was.
Great scanner!

This is the second Epson scanner I've owned. I swore I'd never buy another after my first experience with Epson software, even though the scanner (under $100) did a beautiful job with 35mm slides.
After reading a lot of reviews on the V700 I changed my mind and purchased the unit a week ago.
Epson may know how to design scanners but they do not know how to write software to support them.
I have had problems saving custom scan settings for 6x6 negatives; it wants to reset to normal scan settings. I finally found that I have to deselect "thumbnail view." Unfortunately, thumbnail view is the best way to preview and crop. Custom settings are automatically named setting 1, etc. and you can not rename them to something recognizable.
The manual is worthless. If you do a search on a menu term it tells you the term is not found. The Epson website is not helpful either.
I've called support twice and both times had an extremely poor telephone connection; I had trouble hearing the tech and she had trouble hearing me.
I have scanned 35mm negatives, slides and 6x6 medium format B&W negatives and the results are great. If you're an experienced scanner and don't mind the lack of a manual or a decent telephone connection with tech support, then this may be the scanner for you.