Ken Sloan

Hey, what's up? I'm considering getting an Epson scanner. I'm looking at either a V600, which I can afford, or something like the V750 or V800, which cost a few more bucks. My question is how fast do Epson scanners scan 35mm slides? The reason I ask is that the V600 will hold four slides. The V750 and V800 will hold twelve. I have tons of slides I want to scan and would like to do any many as possible, which is why I'm leaning towards to more expensive scanners. But does the amount of slides being scanned at one time affect the speed of the scanner? I'd like to scan in Professional mode and about 48000 dpi. Any help, suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Ken

pmsc70d Loc: Post Falls, Idaho

I have a V600. The scanning speed depends upon the settings you choose, most notably the resolution. If found that if I set it at the maximum resolution, my computer crashes. It doesn't have the memory. But the scanner's maximum is far greater than the resolution of the firm itself, so there's no need to do that. If you choose dust fixing, it takes longer. If you choose ICE it takes forever. I set mine at 3200 dpi without the ICE. It takes about four minutes for four slides.

Ken Sloan

Which amount to one minute per slide. Not bad. I guess I can assume it would take that amount of time if I were scanning twelve slides in one batch. Thanks for answering.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

Check out these two books, they are by the guy who puts out the Vuescan Software (works with 100s of different scanners including some older models without drivers for the new OSs. Both have a lot of good info, such as the max resolution to scan in order to not go too slow or fill up your hard drive. (he says above certain limits the eye or printer can't tell the difference, the resolutions do take into account the print size wanted).

The VueScan Bible: Everything You Need to Know for Perfect Scanning by Sascha Steinhoff this one is Vuescan specific

Scanning Negatives and Slides: Digitizing Your Photographic Archives by Sascha Steinhoff this one is just scanning

rook2c4 Loc: Philadelphia, PA USA

This has been my experience, too.

I also don't use the ICE option, as I achieve superior results removing dust spots manually in editing rather than allowing ICE do the task.

JRFINN Loc: Plymouth, MA

I use to represent Epson at local electronic stores performing demonstrations of their products.
With that the scanners are great and as stated in another reply higher settings can require you to go out for coffee or lunch. My suggestion is to play with the strings as you may find a setting that is suitable, not take as much storage and save some time. I would assume that you're not throwing your slides out so this is a good time to catalog them if not done already and if you require a higher resolution to save it for printing later.

Good luck, John

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

4,000 dpi seems to be the common recommendation for scanning and getting good results. The resolution determines the speed, but you probably want quality rather than speed.
http://howtoscan.ca/scanning-tips/best-slide-scan-resolution.php

Jeffcs Loc: Myrtle Beach South Carolina

So I'm still not sure what I want to purchase it will be an epson
I need to scan a virity of mediums prints, slides, negatives( both B&W - color)
So I'm leaning towards the V800
Where I'm most confused is what software
I'm an IOS user and plan to scan directly into a WD 4gig external hard drive

suntouched Loc: Sierra Vista AZ

FYI- I have an Epson V 700 film scanner for sale in UHH classifieds right now if that is of any interest. I just put it in classifieds a couple of days ago so it should be easy to find. I bought it new several years ago but haven't done film for a couple of years. It is a workhorse!

ColonelButler Loc: Niagara-on-the-Lake ON Canada

Here is another good article on scanning resolution. https://www.scanyourentirelife.com/qa-whats-best-dpi-or-resolution-scan-your-film-negatives/

ORpilot Loc: Prineville, Or

I have an Epson Scanner can't remember which one but I use it mostly for my 21/4 and 4x5 work. But it is slow. I find that my old slide copier attachment for my camera or as I demonstrate to my students, a setup made of foam core and a macro lens on my DSLR is much faster to use. That way you can zoom, crop, change white balance, etc all in your familiar DSLR. Quick and easy to do. Happy Shooting

Kuzano

Don't use any fancy scanner software. Just use the Epson Scan software and get an image captured. Why scan in scanner software and do any post processing there, when you are very likely to post process again in the software you know.....

Scanning with a flat bed is achingly slow no matter how much you spend on the scanner. It's the nature of flatbeds to make you miserable with the process. I only scan those images I plan to truly do something more important to do with the image, like print large and hang or whatever. Otherwise your images are safer in the archive method you have used all this time.

Scanning just puts images in a media that you now have to organize, or migrate to another media due to evolution of the digital world.

In fact, I have completely done away with scanning except for drum scans for higher purposes, and that by professionals. And I have switched to using my digital camera and a macro lens. The camera is an Olympus OM-D E-M5 II which has the sensor shift mode merging 8 captures in one shot and providing either a 40 Mp jpeg or an 80 Mp RAW. No tricks there. No scanner software, just a capture.

And I can capture any format from a slide/neg in 35mm, and medium format and even 4X5 film.

Post process that and then, only if you need to.

Pentax also offers a similar mode, which they call pixel shift giving similar high resolution. It came out in the Pentax K3 II and also now in the new KP which also has the 819,200 ISO. Hell of a camera.

Digitize your film images with your camera and forego the agony of flatbed scanning. I've bought new various epson flatbed and a couple of Canons. I've used Nikon Super Cool Scan 5000 and 8000 dedicated scanners. A drum scanner is not in my budget.

The current method is faster and better than all the various scanners I've used. Just get equipped (you already may be) and snap a picture to digitize your film stuff.

Ken Sloan

Thanks for responding. Today I went to B&H in New York and bought a Epson V550 scanner. I was going to buy the V600, but the salesman talked me into the less expensive model, which he says does everything the V600 does. It was easy to set up and I even scanned a few slides. So far, so good. The trouble, however, is there are no instructions on just how to scan slides or photos. The salesman jotted down some settings I should use: Photo, 300 dpi; slides, 2400 dpi to 3200 dpi; Un-sharp mask "on;" Auto-exposure "on." I'm going to have to play around with it.

By the way, I tried using a slide duplicator that I attached to my Nikon D90, thinking that would be economical. I was not satisfied with the results. The images were too dark, even when I aimed the lens straight at a slide projector bulb. And there was way too much cropping. I compose my pictures carefully and don't like when things are chopped out. That's one reason I prefer slides film over print.

ORpilot Loc: Prineville, Or

You should have tried the +/- exposure compensation or gone into manual mode. Film camera slide duplicators are for Full Frame digital cameras otherwise they will automatically crop the image. That is where using a true Macro Lens will be the best choice on a crop format camera to copy slides. I use both, a macro lens and a slide copier on my Full Fame camera without any problems.