Epson Perfection V850 Pro scanner

BLUF: This scanner is versatile, easy to install and use, and capable of handling most scanning needs. Stand out features are the ability to scan slides and negatives, thick books, both letter-sized and A4 documents at very high resolution. Scanning is smooth and reasonably fast. The latest Epson scanning software is available as a free download and in professional mode, it gives a substantial degree of control over all aspects of the scan. Scan output is excellent quality. MORE DETAILS... SLIDES & NEGATIVES: The first thing you notice is how thick the lid is. That's because it's designed to allow scanning of slides and negatives (requiring a light source inside the lid). Some scanners advertise the ability to scan slides & negatives, but only have a narrow opening in the lid that can scan one short strip of 35mm negatives or 4 slides at a time. This can scan 12 slides at a time. It also is designed to handle 35mm and two different medium-format negatives. If you skip using the holders, you can also scan large-format negatives, but you'll need something to hold them flat (I used a piece of plate glass). THICK BOOKS: The next thing you'll probably notice about the lid is that its hinge can be raised a couple inches. In fact, you even lift it off entirely without disabling the scanner. this means that a large book can be placed on the scanner bed easily, without a permanently attached lid getting in the way. DURABILITY: This is a well-built piece of equipment. I first used one at work, and never had any problems with it. I wound up buying one of my own when I started scanning old medium-format negatives. I've had this scanner now for about a decade and it continues to work flawlessly. PORTABILTY: This is for desktop use. It's large and heavy enough that you won't want to lug it around. You could, but it would be kind of a pain. SETUP: Easy plug and play for the most part, using a USB connection. You will want to download the latest Epson scanning software (free download) to get the most out of it. I got lucky: because I'd already been using Epson scanning software, it immediately recognized the scanner and I have the option to select between two scanner types (I use the other scanner when I travel; it's less capable, but much smaller & lighter).

Literally, I'm very much impressed with this scanner. I've been a photographer since 1983 and have taken many 35mm images of professional bands. Looking at original prints from photo labs by which I had brought the negatives to (back in the day) which had poor color calibration and sloppy edits, these scanner puts you in control. With the included software by SilverFast, you can choose the film used such as Kodak Plus ISO 200 (just look at your film strip to ID the film type). The built in template auto calibrates and images turn out accurately. There are other options such as dust removal. The negatives scan fast even at 48bit 2400DPI. It's convenient to have 2 film trays as once is scanning you can load the other. Each tray can hold up 3 strips of film. I am glad to have gotten rid of an older outdated CanoScan 4400 which could take hours and was unable to produce accurate reproductions. Only word of caution is the assembly in connecting the top lid cover with the bottom platen glass section. There's a small cable built in to the top of the scanner which has about 9 pins. There's no marker letting you know which side is up or down on the cable itself. Just be sure to align correctly before inserting so that the pins don't get bent. Use a flashlight if necessary to get a closer look. Overall a great buy. Windows 10 and 11 drivers are on the Epson website. Don't both with the Epson CD unless you have the older Windows 8 or Windows 7.

I bought this scanner primarily to scan 120 medium format negatives, mostly black and white, and that remains my sole use of the equipment. As such, it performs entirely satisfactorily. The film holder for 120 film is robust plastic with anti-Newton Ring glass. Loading the film is a little tricky as it is difficult, particularly in the case of curling film, to get the film both flat and centered in the the holder (I typically scan three 6cm x 6cm images at a time), but once achieved the holder does hold the film tight and flat. The holder is easily positioned on the scanner. Epson supply two scanning programs, Epson Scan and Silverfast SE Plus. For 8-bit scans, the Silverfast software is adequate, but to work with 16-bit images, you would need the full Studio AI version of Silverfast's software to get proper control over your scanning. Thus for 16-bit scans, I use the supplied Epson Scan, a much more limited program than Studio AI, but entirely capable of producing a contrast and levels balanced 16-bit RGB image which is my preferred scanning method for both color and black and white negatives. Importing this image into Photoshop CC allows me to make the types of contrast and curve adjustments that I would be able to do with Silverfast Studio AI during the scan. Typically, simply to control file size, I scan my negatives as 8-bit RGB (24-bit) via Silverfast SE Plus, but for images I prize above others I will use the Epson Scan for full 16-bit images for a marginal increase in scanning quality (most manifest in shadow area detail). Quality is excellent, with details rendered clearly and grain (always reduced for medium format compared to 35mm) present in a realistic manner. Tonal range is good, likely lacking somewhat compared to rendering the negative's image with an enlarger and photosensitive paper, but more than adequate for most purposes. Scan times are about 2 minutes for a 6cm x 6cm image scanned at 3200 dpi which is certainly fast enough for me.

At $1200, the Epson v850 is definitely priced in the professional scanner category. You would expect every single feature of this scanner to perform better than a scanner that costs under $200. However, this scanner disappoints in a major way that Epson still has not been able to resolve. This makes the scanner a complete waste of money for the prosumer who is photo archiving old photos, slides and negatives. The Major Issue: -When scanning from the Epson v850, you have several options, including one of the most important known as the “Dust & Scratches” filter. TWhen enabled, this feature allows the scanner and its software to analyze the image to remove small flecks of dust, scratches or tears which may exist on the photo or negative. -When you enabled this feature on the Epson scanner, the result is extremely disappointing. The result is an image with MAJOR COLOR COMPRESSION throughout the entire photo, which causes serious defect to the scanned image. It doesn't matter which level of D&S you use, the compression is always present. The compression does not exist with any other feature, it only exists with the Dust & Scratches filter. -This is an extremely horrible side effect that completely ruins the scanned image. What makes this such an important consideration is that the D&S filter is probably the most important filter for scanning old photos, slides and negatives to both prosumer and consumer alike. Without the ability to use the built in D&S filter, the scanner becomes effectively useless to all but professionals who have quality aftermarket software and are willing to put in the additional time to clean up their scans. -NOTE: It is likely that the Epson D&S filter issue is software related, and impacts all of Epson scanners which use this same software package. We hope it is resolved, but have little hope since the software has been in use for years and seen multiple updates without resolving this significant issue. Other Comments: -For professionals who won’t need to use the D&S filter, there is one area where the Epson excels, and that is dark area image quality and detail. However, this is still balanced by the fact that in general, the Epson tends to deliver less detail over all from its scans then Cannon scanners. It’s a give and take situation, there is no clear winner. You can either have good detail throughout from a Cannon, or softer Epson scans with greater black area detail. All of our tests were done at optical resolutions of 600dpi on photos and negatives. We compared hundreds of scans of the same image using a variety of scanner driver features. The Epson tends to scan a softer image that has more red bias and less yellow overall. The Cannon scanners provide full image detail (akin to looking at the image under a magnifying lens), and provide richer color. If you are scanning photos only (not negatives or slides), then amazingly, the very inexpensive ($90) newer Cannon Lide400 scanner delivers low res scans (600dpi or less) equal to or better than the Epson v850 pro. It also scans more quickly through its USB 3.0 interface. Unless you are using the v850 for its advanced features (including negative scanning), its hard to see why anybody should shell out the $1200 price tag for it. The D&S filter issue, all but makes the scanner useless for the average consumer, and for professionals, is unable to replace every other scanner on your workbench.

While this scanner offers a fantastic upgrade in capacity over the V600 by allowing you to batch scan far more slides and negatives, the quality and features simply do not justify the cost. This scanner is absolutely not worth the $1600 price tag. The required film holders are cumbersome, difficult to keep dust-free, and add unnecessary frustration to the scanning process. It’s a capable machine, but dramatically overpriced for what it delivers.

I got this scanner because I have a lot of family photos that I would like to digitize. Of course it is possible to send them out to a service to be scanned, but 1) I can do a better job than they will, and 2) Why do I want to risk my precious heritage getting lost in the mail or jammed in the machine of some uncaring entity. I have been using this machine for a couple of months now. I have scanned negatives, photos, and slides. Over 6000 pictures in all. I use the Silverfast software, which is included. I have also used freeware software called Naps2. I am using a Mac to control it, and everything works quite smoothly. The scanner comes with some plastic fixtures that you can use to hold slides and negatives. These work quite well, but you need to be careful to keep them clean of dust (not an easy task). There are two of each kind. The negative one can hold 18 negatives, but in practice, I got about 12 because my negatives were usually in strips of four. The slide holder holds 12 slides. I was able to scan at very high resolutions (typically 3200 ppi) and got digital photos of comparable quality and size as a phone camera. In many cases, I found that the scanner produced better pictures than the devices used to make prints from the negatives did originally (which was admittedly about 40 years ago). I also scanned a lot of print photos, and the device worked equally well. The only real complaint that I have is that the scanner does not operate quite to the edge of the glass. This is not a scam or anything, as the boundary is marked very clearly on the edge of the glass frame, but it makes me wonder why the glass is larger than the scannable area. You have to be careful when scanning prints to not put anything in the unscanned region. The other thing to be aware of is that scanning negatives and slides can be very time-consuming. With my settings, one rack of negatives would take about 30 minutes to scan. You don't have to sit around the whole time, though, as the entire process is automated. But don't expect you are going to scan your whole negative collection in a day.

Great resolution and scan quality. Easy to use for color slides, prints, negatives, etc. I knew when I purchased the V850 that it lacked wireless capabilities. I waited as long as possible, predicting that a wireless model would be coming out just after the Amazon return date, but this hasn't happened as of today. I recommend VueScan software vs Epson Scan 2, although the latter can set the scanner to auto-turnoff. 12 color slides can be processed with the multi-holder, but scanning more than 2-3 5x7s is difficult. For the price, I couldn't find a comparable or better scanner. Have a zillion slides/prints to digitize, but running the numbers, I decided that the V850 offered better results and would be less expensive than sending to a photo lab and paying $$$ for hi res scans.

So far, great scanner. Higher quality than my old Umax pro scanner. I was a pro advertising photographer in Manhattan over 40 years. Bought this to archive my 4x5 and 8x10" transparencies. Paired with Silverfast 9 Ai.