I have an Epson V600 and it produces superb color and B&W scans but when I got it, the scanner was not compatible with Windows 10. From reading on the web, apparently this manifests itself in different ways. In my case the buttons on the front (copy, email, etc.) do not work and thus I cannot do one step copying- a real inconvenience.

Some months ago I called Epson and the rep said "Yes that's right. We are waiting for the factory to come up with a solution".Many solutions are offered on the web but they have not worked for me.

It seems incomprehensible that a company like Epson would market such an excellent scanner as the V600 while it was still incompatible with the latest Windows.

Maybe I have missed it but has a solution been found?

There has been some discussion lately about the characteristics of macro lenses.I used the 55 mm F3 .5 “micro” Nikkor from 1962-2000 for the photography of gross pathological specimens in a veterinary autopsy laboratory. It was a wonderful lens and had a particular advantage for those of us who used a standardized set-up with lamps at fixed distances from a camera mounted on a vertical column. This setup allowed standardized exposures for specimens with the same reflectance regardless of the size of the field of view, but adjustment to the standardized exposure times for average specimens had to be made for the reflectance of the specimen, i.e. very bright (white) and very dark specimens.
In the mid-1960s, an automatically compensating diaphragm was added by Nikon, (lens numbers from 220,002- 273,000) . This is a mechanism which adjusts the aperture of the lens by the amount required by the “close-up” factor, so that the amount of light arriving at the film plane is the same as that as from the F stop marked on the lens, for the same subject, even though the lens has been focused on field sizes down to 1.5x3.0 inches, a magnification of RR=1:2. These lenses were supplied before the Nikon camera had through-the -lens metering but once that became were available, there was no longer any need to make any adjustment to the lens aperture for close-up factors, and the feature was discontinued. For the type of work, we were doing with pathological specimens whose density varied from very dark to very light and the majority of which did not have a 18% reflectance which made a reflected light meter very unreliable, it was a wonderful feature. Later I bought a 55mm F 2.8 Micro Nikkor which did not have that type of diaphragm but the Professional Camera Repair Service at 37 W. 47th St., New York fitted the mechanism to make the lens diaphragm automatically compensating.
With the size of the specimens we were taking- in the range of 24 x 18 inches down to 4 x6 inches, a 55 mm focal length lens made sense because it’s working distance allowed the operator to see the viewfinder image easily with the camera mounted on a vertical column, copy stand style. However, there were undesirable features with the 55 mm lens. Because of its short working distance, particularly with close-ups, there was always the danger of infectious bacteria, fungi etc. spreading from the specimen to the photographer. A 90-105 mm lens (with a longer working distance) was a better compromise except for large specimens where the camera had to be raised so high on the column, that it was necessary to use a small step ladder to be able to look thru the viewfinder. The alternative was to change to a 55 mm lens. Nowadays zoom lenses are available which can be used at the longer focal length to increase the working distance and a shorter focal length to reduce this distance an increase the size of the field of view required to accommodate large specimens.

It is not programmed for Windows 10 and somethings do not work-in my case the buttons on the scanner. Other problems have been reported. In a call to Epson they confirmed that there were problems with Windows 10 and they were working on it.

In my Users Manual the pages were unnumbered-a real inconvenience.

An unexpected nasty surprise was that to copy a single flat sheet of paper to print a duplicate is more complicated than putting the paper on the platen and pressing the button.

It does make beautiful prints from negatives, even underexposed ones.

I made a similar request to yours some months ago.

There can be no question that the Epson V600 makes superb prints and even good ones with underexposed negatives.

I had a couple of unexpected surprises-

My best stories are-

Sent payment to American Express in Dallas in their envelope. They even have their own ZIP.

Letter was returned after a week with envelope stamped "ADDRESSEE UNKNOWN"


Sent my Australian passport (this was 50 years ago before I had American citizenship) to the Australian Embassy in Washington DC by registered mail. There was no reply for several weeks and eventually I called the Australian Embassy and the clerk said to me "we have no record of ever having received your passport". I said, that I have the signed receipt here stating that it had been received. She said whose name is on that and I said "S. Klein". She said we have no "S Klein". So we disengaged and I sat there wondering what the next step was when the phone rang and it was the visa click again. She said "your passport has best been delivered to us-from the Austrian Embassy". Nuff Said"

I bought a V 600 several months ago. It does really beautiful scans of 35mm color negatives and black and white negatives as well as transparencies. The final prints from B&W negatives which were grossly underexposed were still beautiful- a quite remarkable performance.

However there are a few unexpected glitches. The program for this scanner is not fully compatible with Windows 10 and certain functions do not work. Exactly which these are, seems to vary from person to person judge by the reports that are on the web. In my case, the tabs on the scanner itself do not work and copying thus becomes a real chore. Normally one would only have to press the COPY button and it would spit out a copy. In this case it's necessary to scan file and print. One can only hope that Epson will bring at a fully compatible program for Windows 10 in the near future.

Getting a handle on the best way to do certain procedures was time-consuming. For example there were four scanning modes but it is only possible to scan black-and-white negatives in two of them. Also after scanning it is not possible to save the Settings into a folder for use next time. There are also some other minor annoyances,e.g. after previewing, if the operator would like to go back and reset a parameter, the scanned previewed image and its information is lost. When I spoke to Epson, they said that these are features of the V600 and Windows 10 and they cannot be corrected until a program for Windows 10 is available. I haven't checked for several months and it is possible that a new program is out and I just don't know it.

This raises the question of how durable and reliable are CG's, DVD's. A few years ago I checked out the literature on this, and the general consensus was that CDs and DVDs were not as reliable as everybody thought. Something like 5% failed within five years and the recommendation was that all of these discs should be copied before 5 years to ensure that images were not lost. Kew Gardens in London stated bluntly that they would not use DVDs, but they use some type of magnetic tape which is probably beyond us amateurs.

The consensus was that DVDs made by Taylo Yuden were the most reliable but they had ceased production (this was in May 2018) but allegedly a similar product was being made under license by a US company.

Does anybody have any information on the durability of images on flash drives (memory sticks etc.) Probably a bit difficult to be sure as memory sticks would not have been used for long term storage for very long periods.

Thanks Dennis. Will do.

I have had trouble knowing how to follow the prescribed procedures-despite the very complete instructions, so your remarks are timely and appreciated.
Donald

Could you post the reference describing it working?
Thanks

I think that one of the great benefits of these types of posted messages (and their responses), are the responses that cite historically accurate sources.

Thank you for the link.

That was an interesting post. All countries tend to embellish some previous historical event. I wonder if any fleet of that era could have reduced a fort. The Congrave rockets were notoriously inaccurate. Were the shells explosive? In other words could that fleet have been able to destroy that fort. In many ways the total number of ships would not matter-there is relatively little room to maneuver and these were sailing ships. The size of the guns would probably be more important.

Some ironic aspects to all of this are that the British supplied-
the event,
the rockets,
Scott Keyes with a grandstand view
and later the music (It was an old English drinking song)

I suspect some of you historians have some good references to this questions.

Depth of field is a function of the Magnification ( also called Ratio of Reproduction) and the Aperture (f stop).
This is a very helpful concept as it does away with having to initially consider- focal length and focusing distance.

Some months ago, members were very helpful when I requested information about a suitable flatbed scanner to scan 2 x 2 slides and black and white negatives. In response to those recommendations I bought an Epson Perfection V600 and it has produced excellent results on scanning both black and white negatives and transparencies.

However, I have had problems, possibly due to the fact that I’m operating on Windows 10 which is not mentioned in the user’s manual I have. Is there a new one?
The problems are-
1. The tabs on the front of the scanner-e.g. copy, email etc. do not work. They are not illuminated, and the computer keeps saying that the scanner is not recognized.
2. I have searched online for answers to “Problems with Windows 10” and tried to follow their recommendations. But when I do, either the screen that they recommend is not there, or else its drop-down menus are different from the ones that I have.
3. The printer works fine.
4. I continue to have problems with saving the images to a specific file-but perhaps that problem is mine not the computers. Again, any suggestions on how to simplify saving would be welcomed.

I would very much appreciate help with these problems.
mmcgavin@bellsouth.net

THanks to all of you for the advice. I bought the V600 and it is doing a beautiful job. The Users Manual has no pagination and some items are difficult to find. I still have not found the menu to select NEGATIVE film. Could somebody please advise.

What are the extra steps that one has to take with a focal plane shutter.

I have always found synchro-sun easier with a between lens shutter (Compur type) but the situation is very different for a focal focal plane shutter at speeds above the sync speed when both curtains are not fully open.

Was not the old advice to set the aperture based on the guide number of the flash unit and thus the distance to the subject, adjust the aperture so that the fill light exposure will be less than the one for ambient light by closing the aperture by say 1/2 stop and then set the shutter speed to give the correct exposure for the ambient lighting.The aperture controlled the fill lighting and the shutter speed the ambient lighting.