Customer Reviews
Hard to believe cost/quality.
Bought an Epson 4990 on Amazon 2 weeks ago (...)--with 3 to 5 day shipping. It arrived with little apparent abuse of the packaging and perfect product box within. The scanner is surprisingly small and light.
This is a first impression review from firing up the scanner for the first time last evening. I skipped installing Photoshop Elements, since I have both Photoshop 7 and CS on my Apple G-5. Just loaded the Epson software, then the Silverfast. Attempted to plug the Epson software into Photoshop CS, but it landed in Photoshop 7 anyway--which is fine.
The scanner can be accessed either through the separate Silverfast icon or by Epson software through import under file on Photoshop 7. Wonderful scans of 120 and 4x5 B&W negative film by either route--which together give a wide tonal range of initial scan results that fairly easily can be adjusted to look much alike. The B&W neg. setting in professional mode in the Epson software seems to capture the finer highlights in the film and Silverfast does well also.
Quality of scans--range of values and sharpness? Having until now used a Microtek 1800F, I thought I was getting satisfactory results. Bought the Epson 4990 in hopes of squeezing better scans from my 120 neg and color film. Well, the Epson scans more than match the Microtek 1800F--I compared results from identical 4x5 B&W negatives. Using autosharpening in Epson software, my first response to direct comparison of sharpness was simply....HOLY CRAP! The resolution the Epson is getting from the sharp negatives is simply remarkable--noticebly sharper than anything I've been getting using the Microtek. Both these scanners have fixed focus--but the Epson removes all doubt that the focus is on the mark.
This Epson 4990 is going to resurrect my years of accumulated 120 film that required, until now, a chemical darkroom to produce high-quality images. And I'm wondering what's going to happen when I scan 5x7 B&W negatives--which for various flaws in the glass carrier and bugs in the scanning never produced usable results in the Microtek 1800F.
Haven't attempted color work yet, so too early to rave beyond the B&W results. But last night's tests proved the worth of the scanner to me for this purpose alone.
Scanning Negatives
I purchased top of line Epson scanner after comparing reviews of Epson and Canon. I picked it because of Digital ICE technology and because software was easier to use.
I have in the last thirty days scanned nearly 700 35mm negatives -- the scanner is going almost day and night.
It has met my expectations.
The only thing I like to see improved is the negative holder which is a bit flimsy.
Nice images, old software, lots of film holders
I got this Epson scanner recently to replace an older HP Scan Jet that did fine scans of photos but was limited on size and quantity of film handling.
The Epson comes with film holders/frames for:
35mm mounted slides (8 per)...this is a grid of plastic that you put on the glass, then put the slides in it to hold them in place. This is a bit clunky as you have to dig the slides out or pick up the holder and then the loose slides after scanning (wear gloves or clean the glass frequently). Also, unfortunately, about a millimeter of the top and bottom of the image gets cut off.
35mm negs (4 strips x 7 negs per) - there are two loose frames that snap down on 2 strips each...
120 negs (3 strips x 2 images though film strip can be longer) with attached hinged frame over each strip...
4x5 negs (2) with individual attached hinged frame...
A "film image area frame" that defines the 8x10 area that will scan if you want to just put a bunch of loose negs on the glass.
Although it is nice to have all the film-handling holders, you'll need to figure out where you will keep them all when not in use. Don't forget you'll need to find a place for the cover you'll remove from the lid to expose the lamp for film scans, as well. With the little "door handles" on some frames, the soft plastic-covered foam side of the removable cover, and the somewhat flimsy nature of the film area frame, you'll have an inch high stack of frames to handle and protect.
I have not delved into all aspects of the included software, but here are a few observations:
Epson Scan has a simple "Home" mode for scans with minimal adjustments, or a "Professional" mode with a selection of tweaks if needed.
The Adobe Elements is V2.0 (2 versions out of date), but it allows scanning a bunch of images into it (not all programs can do that), so it is fine for that purpose (and the only thing I use it for).
SilverFast SE 6 seems to be an older version, and a "lite" one as well. Have not used it so I have no other comments except the manual is in 6 languages (usually a bad sign). In fact, the instructions are on only 17 small pages per language. You'll probably learn by doing...
Also included is ABBYY FineReader Sprint OCR sofware to scan text into editable text documents. It works, though as with any OCR software, you'll normally need to correct some typos.
In some type of small glitch, after scanning a batch of images into Elements, I have to close Epson Scan before I can perform any function in Elements, such as saving a file. So, after I scan and save 16 or so images, I have to "acquire" Epson Scan again. This is not really a big deal, though I have to re-select the source every time, and there is no way to change the default from "PDF" to "Perfection 4990". If I did not have to close it every time, it would still be set for the scanner.
I was a little skeptical of the image quality I would get by scanning negatives, but I'm quite happy with the output - except for the image getting cut off on 35mm slides. I scan at 600 dpi, which produces 4x6/5x7-ish sized images (from 35mm). I touch up the 600k-or-so sized JPGs (you can save as other formats such as TIFs in Elements if you need it) as needed using Firehand Ember. This reduces the size to around 100K, but keeps the dimensions and makes nice "proof prints" on the monitor.
It takes perhaps 5-8 minutes to scan about 16 negs at 600 dpi. You can scan at 4800 or more even, though your scan time goes way up. If you use the ICE feature, you'll want to find something to do between scans as the time is 10 minutes or so each.
It's a little pricey if you just want paper scans (you can do that for $100), but I'm happy with the output, film handling (except 35mm slides), and general ease of use. However, if you want cutting edge software, you'll need to get that separately, or upgrade, I suppose.
