I bought this to replace my Epson Perfection (lol) 3200.
I was hoping that a new machine, plus new software might produce better results primarily when copying slides and black and white negatives.
There is no doubt that it can produce good results and is an improvement on the earlier model, but it is a very slow and erratic process.
This is not high tech. The scanner is a little sleeker than the 3200 but it is still a large, heavy machine, curiously clumsy in its operation.
The film carriers are very low tech. Flimsy bits of plastic that don't hold the film or slides very precisely.
You can only scan 4 mounted slides at a time, or 2 strips of 6 negatives.
Processing time is very slow. About 5 or 6 minutes is a typical time for a single slide at high resolution. Scanning a box of 36 slides is a couple of hours work.
Quite unaccountably the scanner does not always scan the full frame, often cropping it quite drastically. This seems to be a particular problem with the plastic mounted Agfa slides; cardboard mounted Kodachrome seems to fair better.
With black and white negatives I discovered that 2 negatives from a strip were displaying a band of lines right across the finished photo. No reason I could see for this at all. (See attached) The exposure was pretty erratic, some negatives coming out very dark, others over-exposed. Again this was pretty much at random.
The supplied EpsonScan programme is easier enough to use, but I wasn't impressed with some of the editing facilities. The preview scan is too small to see what you are doing. You have to edit the picture in photoshop after the event if you want to do anything worthwhile. You can crop the scan before scanning, which is useful, but I found the other functions were pretty hit and miss.
The software often doesn't start or gives you a message saying that the scanner is not recognised or isn't switched on.
All in all this is not a very slick device. I guess if you want something that is seriously good you need to spend much more. This will do the job, but it's not exactly brilliant.
| Brand | Epson |
|---|---|
| Product Dimensions | 16.9 x 29.6 x 17.6 cm; 3.7 Kilograms |
| Item model number | B11B237401BY |
| Manufacturer | Epson |
| Are Batteries Included | No |
| Item Weight | 3.7 kg |
