Epson Perfection V500 Photo Scanner Reviews

• What a GREAT scanner!!!!!!

  
  By A2CLZWIG9V45RE on 2007-09-15
  I just purchased this scanner - primarily to scan my 1000+ slides. At first, I was a bit reluctant because this model is brand new to the market and I was concerned about those inital bugs. But I know that Epson makes a good product so I took the chance. And am I glad that I did. It has some outstanding features:
  1. Very simple to set-up and then operate. I scanned my first photo within 30 minutes of unwrapping the package. No problems with the software and the on-line User's Manual is really easy to follow.
  2. Very fast scanning. The scan (including preview) of photos is unbelievably fast. But I was really surprised at the speed of scanning slides. A normal scan (without using Digital ICE correction) of 4 slides took less than 5 minutes. Compared to some of the other products, I've been reading about this is lightning speed.
  3. Very quiet. When scanning photos, you can barely hear it. A little more noise when scanning slides, but certainly not bothersome.
  4. Offers 3 modes to choose from - Auto, Home, and Professional. The Auto is the easiest and results in a very good photo. The Home and Professional offer a number of correcting features (more with the Professional mode). I am an intermediate Photoshop user and the Professional mode was as close to using an editing software as I've ever seen. The scan time slows down a bit when you use these correcting tools, but again - no big deal). Once I get the hang of it, I'm sure it will speed up the amount of time I will need with Photoshop.
  5. Digital ICE is fantastic! This feature is used when only scanning film or slides. I first scanned slides without using it. The waulity was very good, but my slides are almost 30 years old so there was enough noise (mostly dust)and fade in them to be noticeable (something I was resigned to fix in Photoshop). I then scanned them using ICE and was amazed! The noise was completely gone and the colors were remarkably restored. The Photoshop work is going to be a piece of cake.
  6. The price is unbelievable for what you get. I've seen scanners costing much, much more that aren't nearly as good as this one.
  In summary, Epson has come up with a real winner. I really can't find anything negative to say. If you're looking for a quality scanner at a great price, look no further. This is the one!
  
  

• Slow. Really Slow.

  
  By A3O2Z6SBIGGTCL on 2007-09-29
  Installing the V500 is a snap, and the scans it generates are excellent. So why am I returning it after just a day? It's too slow by a longshot, for me at least. You might have better luck or more patience.
  
  Plain scans (no dust removal, no ICE) of 35mm negatives (24-bit color, 3200dpi) took 15 minutes each, not 2-3 minutes, like many people report from similar scanners.
  
  The V500 scans paper or photos faster, but still not as fast, and with no better results, than my 1999-vintage HP6100C, including warm-up time for the HP lamp.
  
  From reports on the web, it looks like other Epson scanners have similar problems - they work well for some users but are horribly slow for others. I'm apparently one of the others. Because I didn't find any happy endings for the unlucky owners, I'm not tempted to spend more time troubleshooting. My scanner is going back.
  
  Here are some more details: a preview alone of film took anywhere from 30 seconds to more than 2 minutes. During that time, like during a full scan, Windows Task Manager shows the Epson Scan program using 99% of the CPU and loads of I/O, but not too much memory (over 2GB of RAM remained available).
  
  There could a fix, but I checked for software and driver updates, and all the Epson support site suggested was that I scan with lower resolution. The computer has good specs: XPSP2 Pro, 3GHz Pentium 4 (HT disabled), 3GB RAM, unfragmented SATA drive with lots of space, 256MB GeForce 6800 video, and nothing else on the USB 2.0 hub with the scanner. Epson technical support is only open during regular business hours M-F.
  
  
  
  
  
  

• Great scanner, *HORRIBLE* software

  
  By A21KNRUAA5RK5E on 2007-11-21
  Initially I was disappointed in this scanner. I was getting artifacts in my scans: posterizing, strange banding (like an old dot matrix scanner) and scans above 2400dpi didn't seem to have any additional detail. For a while I was convinced the optical resolution was 2400 instead of the advertised 6400.
  
  Eventually I discovered that the Epson software sucks. I would recommend only using the Color Restoration (which seems to be first rate oddly) and Digital Ice options. Everything else seemed to ruin the photos upon close inspection. You will need to make any adjustments in photo shop.
  
  In addition to this, the software is difficult to use. It has an option to save your scanning settings -- but it doesn't work (on OSX at least). I have to set the option manually for every scan. When you preview your scan, sometimes it only selects one photo when you mean to change the settings for them all. Between these two problems, I find myself scanning photos with the wrong settings on a regular basis. As a SW Engineer myself -- this is inexcusable.
  
  Some people have complained the scanner is slow -- it is -- but if you compare specs it seemed to be in line with other scanners of this price.
  
  Despite these problems I give the scanner 4 stars. I own a Canon scanner and the software is *far* worse *and* the image quality sucks, so Epson wins by default: Marginal Software and excellent image quality seem to be a winning combination.
  
  
  

• A winner for slide scanning

  
  By A1NQ3OG5CIYM1U on 2008-02-05
  After extensive research I had the good fortune of looking for a photo scanner at the same time the Epson Perfection V500 became available. After scanning the first batch of 60 slides, I can heartily recommend this unit. The most significant capability of this unit, especially for the price, is the built-in ICE technology for scratch and dust removal. It is, in a word, astonishing. And, it is saving me many hours of extra work manually doing the same job. There is software-based scratch and dust removal included in the Epson software, but it is ineffective and cannot compare to ICE. I am scanning at 2,400 dpi, more than enough resolution for any practical use other than heavy cropping and enlargement. I use compressed air to "clean" the slides before scanning. When scanning with ICE turned off, the amount of dust marks are amazing. Turn ICE on and 98% of the dust is gone. It does take longer to scan with ICE, but the offset is the time saved many times over not having to manually remove the dust post-scan. Photoshop Elements 4.0 is included. I use Elements 6.0.
  
  So far, the unit has worked flawlessly. Software installed cleanly on first try. Front panel buttons can be reprogrammed for other than the default (e.g., I changed the button for email attachment to launch the OCR to text software included.)
  
  A tip for those who buy this unit for slide and/or film scanning with ICE and scanning 2-4 slides at a time: Click the "All" button in the preview window after prescanning (previewing) the multiple slides to select all slides, then click the checkbox for ICE to insure that all slides are processed by ICE. You won't find this in the documentation or on Epson's website. I spent time figuring out why all 4 slides weren't being processed by ICE (I thought the unit was defective at first because only the first slide, which is selected by default, was being processed by ICE), so now you know without spending the time I did. I have used the scanner for photographs and documents, and have converted articles to editable text, all with no problems and excellent results. Still, slides/film is where it shines, thanks to ICE.
  
  

• An almost perfect scanner

  
  By A21LYKM4704WO0 on 2007-10-02
  The color quality and speed of this scanner is amazing. The actual scan speed is about double that of Epson's previous Perfection scanners.
  
  This is an amazing scanner. It adapts its light for the best color rendition on almost any surface. In my experiments it handled matt, glossy, and highly reflective surfaces without any problems.
  
  The one problem I have had is installing the drivers on my twenty inch intel Mac. I've been unable as yet to get the front panel buttons to work. I'm sure that Epson will come out with the new install software soon.
  
  I have been using scanners now for twenty years, the color rendition of this scanner matches some of the best I've ever seen.
  
  
• Way to slow and it stalls
  By A1UHE5LV0LBL5A on 2007-10-03
  I wish I had read the review by Steve Kass below instead of spending 3 days on the phone with tech support. Scanning a 2 1/4 negative to 11x11 file went from 3 minutes with my old Epson 1650 to almost 12 minutes with the V500. It stalled at the 2 minute mark while the scanner stopped responding for 4 minutes before picking back up. The scan looked good but when you multiply that time by a sheet of negatives it's unrealistic. Returning the V500 and hooking the 1650 back up until I find something better.
  
  
• Epson V500 - working well for negatives
  By A3SN6SI6C6LM9M on 2007-12-13
  When I read the poor reviews here on Amazon, I was hesitant to purchase this scanner. I have had the scanner for 2 days now and I have done about 15 scans -- all of which have been medium format negative film (color and b/w). I am importing directly into Photoshop CS, scanning 6"x6" at 300 dpi.
  
  So far, I have been happy w/the speed of the scans and scan quality, especially considering the price of the scanner. 6x6 at 300 dpi w/no ICE takes about 1 to 1.5 min to scan. If I turn on the ICE feature, it seems like the scans take about 2.5-3.5 min. My first attempt w/ICE came out poorly b/c I was scanning a black and white negative, I later found out that ICE does not work for black and white negs on the Epson site. I tried ICE again today with color negatives and it worked well -- no banding, mystery marks, etc.
  
  Only complaint so far - as noted by another reviewer - is that the negative carriers are flimsy and feel very cheap.
  
  From my experience, I give the V500 a thumbs up.
  
  
• Excellent scanner!
  By A2FRPGKIJJQI3E on 2008-04-04
  With thousands of B/W film negatives (2-1/4" square, 35mm and half-frame 35mm) and an equal number of 35mm color slides, I was mainly interested in how well this scanner would handle such transparent media. The answer is: very well! Scanning is still tedious, of course, as only 4 slides or 2 medium format negatives can be scanned with each pass, but the results are excellent. I've got many hours of work ahead of me, but it's great to know that I'm not compromising on the quality of the output.
  
  
• ATTENTION PHOTOSHOP USERS! TWAIN MALFUNCTION
  By A1TPYQWE1F3B34 on 2007-12-08
  I bought this scanner for a business trip, when I knew I would absolutely need to scan images, and couldn't bring my all-in-one Epson printer with me.
  The set-up was really easy, but THEN...
  I have a Mac Powerbook G 4. I usually scan directly into photoshop, using the twain import function. I tried to do the same with this scanner, and lo and behold... Photoshop would not recognize the scanner for some time, until it crashed entirely: not only could I not scan the images I needed to work on urgently, but I could not even open photoshop anymore. It crashed, everytime I tried to open it, while opening twain...
  I called customer service as soon as I realized that photoshop wasn't recognizing the scanner. It was the beiginning of a 6 hours adventure on the phone with various customer services at Epson and Photoshop. Epson kept putting me on hold.... for 30 to 60 min. at a time, passing me on to various useless cutomer service representatives, to whom I had to repeat the same information over and over again, until I finally got to the "specialist" (the same one each time). It was when I was on the phone with him the first time that Photoshop crashed entirely. When it happened and I communicated that to him, the line miraculously broke off! I had to call again, put on hold again, passed through all the loops again, got that same specialist, gave my "case number" again, started menionning the photoshop problem and.... THE LINE CUT OFF AGAIN!!
  This happened three times in total.
  They finally said "the scanner is working, it is a problem with photoshop... call them"
  The worst part of it is: the scanner comes with a cd of photoshop elements 3.0... I would think that since they send the photoshop cd along with the scanner, the two are compatible! I installed the photoshop elements hoping that I could at least use that during my stay out of town... same problem. When I called photoshop to try to understand what the problem was, they asked me to register the Photoshop Elements 3.0... I gave the serial number, and they refused to help me out because the product had already been registered... BY EPSON!!
  
  Did I hear someone mention Kafka?
  
  SOLUTION: if this problem happened to you, I finally found a semi-resolution on the internet, in five minutes (after my lost day on the phone): you have to disable twain from your Photoshop Applications folder:
  Mac HD> Applications > Adobe Photoshop > Plug-ins > Import/Export > Twain
  Just rename the Twain by adding a ~ infront of it (call it ~twain) and it disables it... you won't be able to import anything via phhotoshop, but at least your photoshop will be working again!
  
  Apart from that, the scanner works fine.
  Moral of the story: back from my business trip, I found my Epson all-in-one printer having died during my trip (an interesting coincidence). I bought an HP in replacement and will return the scanner as well. I am done with Epson forever.
  
  
• Great resolution, software needs work
  By A3LO23Z4EF6OE4 on 2008-02-08
  I've been using the scanner to scan negatives and slides. I think this scanner works quite well, however there are several software pitfalls waiting for the advanced user who wants total scanner control. First if you use "At Home Mode" the scanner automatically applies the unsharp mask even though there is no indication it is doing so. Not all unsharp masks are equal and if you zoom to pixels level you can see that this one is a bit heavy handed. It is much better to capture the raw scan data and then apply the unsharp mask (to your liking) in Photoshop. The second pitfall is the apparent inability of the program to maintain your settings in "Professional Mode". For example in professional mode there is a check box for Unsharp Mask. Uncheck Unsharp Mask and then do a preview scan. The check on Unsharp Mask reappears as if the machine is unhappy with your selection. If you recall saved settings it demands that you redo the preview scan and your back to square one. Hopefully there is fix in the works. Anyway if you are a casual user you probably won't notice the flaws.
  
  
• Great for B/W
  By A291S9ZCA0JYVN on 2007-12-11
  I just got this scanner as an early Christmas present and I couldn't be happier. I'm running OS X on an intel Mac and had no trouble installing the drivers or using it with Photoshop. With black and white negatives, scanning has been a snap in Home Mode. Color negatives have been a bit more difficult. I've had to switch to Professional Mode and then do a bit of altering in Photoshop to get the colors to really pop. I haven't tried slide film or scanning photos/documents yet.
  
  My only complaint is with the negative holders. They seem a bit too flimsy... and like they could break at any moment. Also, the Medium Format holder isn't nearly long enough. I can only scan two images at a time. Three would be better.
  
  
• Wonderful Results!
  By AUK4AT2RVU0BC on 2007-12-27
  A few reviews mentioned a weakness of this scanner was that it was slow. I however had absolutely zero issues with how long it took to scan in fact it is extremely fast on my machine (under 8 seconds for a 4X6 on 600 Res)even when using the digital ice technology and other enhancement options (under 15 seconds). The scanner does a beautiful job and everything I have scanned so far has been great.
  
  Can also be used to scan directly into Photoshop CS2 which is a huge benefit when doing lots of older pictures that need restoration work. Film scans looked good, not great, but it does offer high quality film scans considering this is not an independent film scanner.
  
  I personally liked the software that came with the Epson, very easy to use. Some people mentioned that settings did not remain in place when scanning multiple photos which is incorrect. If you set the scanner options the way you want, there is a check box that says reset settings after each scan. Uncheck that and your ready to go!
  
  The Epson V500 can scan multiple images at once and separate them into their own files, another huge advantage when using CS2. I did not use the supplied copy of Adobe Elements and I strongly recomend not using it because it is very limited in what enhancements you can do to your photos.
  
  All in all, this is a great scanner. Very powerful and fantastic results. Works wonderful in Vista and is extremely fast depending on your setup.
  
  
• So far so good!
  By A3U3NQLTKR5U99 on 2008-01-07
  I've only used my Epson V500 scanner a few times, but so far it's everything I was expecting. Perfect size, easy to use, and I've fixed a couple of old photos that were faded to look almost as good as new with it. I have no doubt that as I continue to use it I will continue to be satisfied. I did a lot of research before purchasing this. I'm a commercial illustrator, so my colors need to be right on from the scans!Very very pleased.
  
  
• Almost perfection
  By A2VYP16S0R8MVN on 2008-02-09
  I researched slide and film scanners for quite a while. This came out to be the best product for money on the market in terms of features, specs and other reviewers on a lot of web sites. The install went without a problem. Software installed with no glitches. Scanned in a bunch of slides, even the old poorly maintained ones came out great ( I'm talking 50 year old slides!). With my Canon, these old ones were so covered in dust as to be almost unusable. ICE did a great job cleaning these up. Loved how it took the 4 slides and automatically created 4 seperate files. NO CROPPING!
  
  If I have any knocks, it would be the included Photoshop Elements version 4 software. Other scanners are shipping with version 5. Epson went a little cheap here. A hard copy manual would be really nice addition. Instead, you have an "online help system". I really prefer a book.
  
  Final recomendation.... Look no futher unless you have a lot more money to burn, this is the product. Buy it.
  
  
• I Really Wanted This To Work - Flimsy Film Holders
  By AUIZCHYZLLQCX on 2008-07-02
  Right out of the box, this was clearly a nice unit. Set-up was hassle free. I had about 300 old slides to scan, as well as 30 rolls of old black and white 35mm film negatives. The software that came with the scanner had some really nice features as well.
  
  I wasn't sure what resolution to set the scans at, so I went on line to get some advice. The prevailing wisdom was 2400 dpi, if you wanted 8 x 10 prints. This resulted in a 20MB file!!! There was a compression setting as well, and I had no idea at all what to set it to, so I experimented, and finally figured out settings that worked. There wasn't really anything in the Epson manual that was very helpful.
  
  The actual scans were good - crisp pictures, worthy of printing. However, after about two rolls of film, I unplugged the scanner, boxed it up, and sent it back. My unresolvable gripe? The film holder would not consistently keep the negatives in place. I had to cut the film into 6 negative sections. This film was from the 40's and 50's, and wanted to stay rolled up. I would put it in the film holders, and quite frequently, they would pop open - quite unexpectedly, and I would have to start all over again. The problem is with the design of the film holder. The top sections that hold the film in place have thin sides, and they flex quite a bit, and won't stay locked into place. For me, this was frustrating, wasn't going to get better, and was a deal breaker.
  
  I ended up getting a Canon CanoScan 8800F, and it is flawless! The film holders are more robust, and I had no popping open issues at all. The quality was every bit as good as the Epson, and interestingly enough, at a high dpi scan rate (2400), I ended up with about a 2MB file - I am really much happier with this unit.
  
  
• Epson V500
  By AREF5OPA1MTEA on 2007-11-29
  The scanner underperformed to my disappointment. First of all, the scanning area for the transperancy area, which was the main reason I purchased this item was too small. Even if you wanted to scan something in two passes and then paste it, the scanner would not allow you to have anything overhanging from the edges, or it would not scan. Also, it consistantly failed to be recognized after the initial preview scan, so scanning was a very long and frustrating process. I returned it after 2 weeks.
  
  
• Best buy for the money!
  By A14IP2MTVQ1O0Z on 2008-01-07
  After doing some research on the best low to mid-level priced scanners for use with my Mac, I decided to purchase the Epson Perfection V500 from Amazon. My daughter is working on a project in which she is scanning all of our print photos from our collection of photo albums. I have Adobe Photoshop Elements, but we found that the Epson software for the Mac does a much better automated workflow. She has it set up so she simply puts 3 photos on the scanner and the scanner and software takes it from there. Also, when the price dropped $50 shortly after I purchased the V500, Amazon credited me for the difference - nice price protection!
  
  
• Epson Perfection V500 = Perfect Nightmare
  By AE1D5EFMUAMPP on 2008-03-21
  About one week ago, I bought the Epson Perfection V500 Photo scanner from Staples. I had planned on buying a Canon but Staples was out of the Canon and I impulsively bought the Epson. I am paying dearly for my impulsivity. I have wasted about 10 to 15 hours trying to make this Epson V500 function properly. It is atrocious. Here are some of the problems:
  
  1. The Adobe Photoshop Elements software corrupted all my exiting pdf files. It took hours to fix. I finally uninstalled the Epson Adobe software and then reinstalled my pdf software. Thank goodness, my existing pdf files survived the the fiasco so that I can once again make pdf's and read my pdf's.
  
  2. A lot of my work involves inserting photographs into text files, WordPerfect or Word. I can find no way to make Epson cooperate in this task.
  
  2-A: It takes a very, very long time to scan a photo. I have to get up leave, go outside do some gardening (fortunately this is Southern California and the flower planting season is in full swing) and then come back to the computer.
  
  2-B: Photos scanned by Epson will not insert into the text files.
  
  3. In order to make my presentations, I now have to print out the text, manually attach the photos to the paper, and then scan it with my color copy machine. I used to be able to do this process with a few key strokes.
  
  4. Epson V500 won't Scan to Print.
  
  5. I cannot make the Epson V500 enlarge or crop images.
  
  I routinely enlarge and crop sections from books, newspapers, letters and then print the enlarged cropped section. Since Epson does not Scan to Print and it does not enlarge nor does it Crop, I can no longer place a book on the scanner and then enlarge a single paragraph to print out.
  
  6. It has no written manual, making it impossible for me to flip through the pages. The CD manual is of virtually useless. Maybe the CD manual has the information about enlargement and cropping hidden somewhere. My old machine, HP Scanjet, had it on the screen as soon as I called up the program.
  
  7. I had to remove the scanned Epson photos as they were interferring with my computer's speed -- if I tried to use an Epson scanned photo, my entire computer slowed down to the point I thought it was totally locked up.
  
  There may be some specialized work for which this Epson is appropriate, but it is a Perfect Nightmare for me. I am taking my HP Scanjet to the repair shop and hopefully it is something repairable.
  
  
  
  
• Worth every penny!
  By A1UXED8CUY7XSZ on 2008-03-25
  I have just finished scanning 1800 slides into my computer and the process was so amazingly easy and fast! I couldn't ask for anything more in a scanner! Most of our slides were from the 1970s, but some went back to the 1940s and now are safely preserved in digital form. I used the 'Auto' scan with dust removal for most of the later slides and added the color restoration feature when necessary. The slides from the 1940s and 50s required the 'Home' mode with Digital ICE feature and color restoration in effect. ALL are beautifully bright and clear. The installation was quick and I too, was scanning within 30 minutes. I did notice, as others have said, the buttons on the front of the scanner did not do what I needed, but the on-screen menu replaced them and was easy to navigate. The dust removal saved a lot of time touching up in iPhoto or Photoshop and old rose tinged or green or blue tinted photos were color corrected to a natural, realistic range. I could not ask for anything more in a scanner and at the Amazon price, it has paid for itself many times over already. Now I want to tackle our old photos . . .
  
  
• Exceeded Expectations
  By A28KNKV5EE7UV8 on 2007-11-09
  Primarily purchased to archive a 35mm slide collection. Results are terrific. Price was reasonable. Support from Epson left something to be desired, but Amazon solved a problem for me quickly.
  
  
• Scanner device type unknown and Epson support no help whatsoever
  By APO7X5M6CQ0N2 on 2008-01-03
  Velocity Micro XP Pro with 4 Gb memory and Quad Core.
  
  Using the USB cable that came with the scanner and connecting directly to a USB controller on the mobo that has no other devices. Tried multiple short very high quality USB-2 cables working like a charm, including one that works with an Epson R1800 Printer.
  
  The scanner sofware driver claims it installs. When the scanner is hooked up and powered on directly to the usb port, Device Manager says the hardware is available. Device Manager driver details says the unit is operating properly [which just means it can communicate and read some Vendor info]. Device Manager knows it it an Epson Perfection V500.
  
  Device Manager says the Device Type is Unknown.
  
  Attempting to start Epson Scan directly says that Epson Scan cannot start.
  
  Removed all hardware, removed all drivers.
  Downloaded latest drive on Epson web site which is exactly same version as on CD.
  
  No help same issue.
  
  Took another computer and did a clean wipe install of XP Pro, then installed just the Epson scanner and driver, driver first, then connect and power on. Same Result.
  
  Sent Epson support the debug output of Device Manager and detailed output of Microsoft USBVIEW.EXE
  
  Asked them if the scanner is just defective. So far havent found a specialist that is even aware of what USBVIEW is.
  
  Will be returning this unit, would be interested if this is just a very poor driver [although signed] or a problem scanner and I might be better off going back to Canon scanners.
  
  
  
  
• Epson v500 Scanner
  By A23MXQYTN94OK2 on 2008-01-27
  Bought it to copy slides..Read about it in Consumers. The article failed to mention however, that it is for the advanced, which I am not. The instructions are not detailed enough, and I found the phone support non existent. When I called, no one answered or returned my call when I left a message. So, I am stuck with a scanner that neither I or my friends can figure out.
  
  
• Nice scanner
  By AC11GZAL5N99C on 2008-09-23
  I primarily picked up this scanner because I want to digitize my photos via their negatives. I was also pleasantly surprised by some of the other things that I can do with this scanner as well. But first: putting it together.
  
  It's fairly easy to set up the scanner. Simply take it out of the box, plug in the plug to power the top of the unit (if you're using this to scan negatives, you'll need this backlight, for everything else you can keep it unplugged), plug in the power cord and get the USB ready. Note: there is a lock that covers the USB, probably to help protect it if you were going to be traveling a lot with you scanner (who would do that, I don't know, it's too big for easy travel), so you will probably have to slide that over so you could access the USB port. Be sure to take off all the blue tape, both outside of the unit as well as on the inside cover of the top. Also note that the inside top cover has a lock as well; this is for the scanner head, and you may have to unlock it prior to actually scanning (I did).
  
  Before plugging in the USB to my computer, I installed the various driver and application components on the CD. This actually took a lot longer than expected. I have a fairly fast PC with a 52X ROM, and it took close to five minutes to install the various applications (Creativity Suite, FineReader 6.0 Spirit (an OCR program), the scanning application and the User's Guide). There is also an accompanying CD with Adobe Photoshop Elements (4.0 for Windows, 3.0 for Mac), but as a Photoshop CS3 user, I didn't bother to install this.
  
  Registering the product is fairly easy. The unit's ID can be found on the back left of the unit. Be warned that you will be taken to a Web page offering a discount on an unrelated product with a big download button; you don't actually need the product and don't need to download more stuff.
  
  Since I picked this primarily for scanning negatives, this was what I first tried with the unit. The scanner comes with two holder plates, and you can do 35mm film negatives and slides on one plate, and medium film on the other. I was scanning 35mm color negatives, and so I placed them in the appropriate holder and snapped on the top of the holder. Scanning the negatives straight away is fairly straightforward. You simply press the scan button on the front of the unit. This will start the Epson Scan application, and you'll be able to set various things that will allow you to get the best scan possible (more on this below).
  
  I'm going to take a break here and detail the error I made in my first attempt to scan negatives so that you, kind reader, do not make the same mistake. After putting the negative holder on the glass, I removed the reflective back from the top of the unit to expose the light area (fairly simple to remove it and put it back on, even has a handy little handle at the top, too). What I didn't notice was that each section of the holder has a letter corresponding to where you should place the tab on the corresponding indent on the unit. 35mm negatives use the "A" section, and I had placed the holder on the "C" section. I kept getting an error message saying that it couldn't see that there was a document to scan. This confused me for a bit, and I wound up using the Home and Professional modes to see if I could get my negatives to scan. When I had unchecked the thumbnails feature for preview, I saw that only the slides area was being scanned. I then realized my error, and adjusted the position of the holder on the tab indents accordingly. The top unit only has a small glass area for the top light, and so the scanner, obviously, will only scan that small area. You can actually see this in the photograph of the unit on the Amazon page. Once I corrected my error, I had no problem scanning my negatives.
  
  Back to the Epson Scan application. There are three options for you to choose from: Auto, Home and Professional. Auto simply auto-detects the type of document you are trying to scan and uses default settings to produce the preview of the document. Home and Professional are for photos and negatives. The difference between the two is that Professional provides you with more options to choose from so that you can get the best scan you require for your needs. Unless you're into heavily working your photos, your best bet is to go with the Auto feature.
  
  Scanning photos and documents is also quite easy. You need to make sure that the reflective piece is on the top of the unit. This will also ensure that your document does not move around on the glass. Scanning, again, is simple as pressing a button.
  
  I wanted to try out FineReader with this unit, as well as the PDF button. For FineReader, I loaded up the program, and pressed a button within it (Scan), to get the document scanned and loaded into FineReader. I was easily able to get the OCR to work nicely with the document without problem.
  
  For PDFs, I simply pressed the PDF button. This brought up a different PDF-specific application with a different dialog than the scanning application. Because the unit does not have a feeder, you will have to manually scan individual pages yourself. Creating the PDF then requires you to simply press the finish button; the document is then placed in your My Pictures directory if you are a Windows user. It would be nice to be able to state where you want the file to save, but that's a minor flaw.
  
  I also attempted to import a scan within Photoshop. I've done this before with other scanners, and Photoshop had zero issues with the scanner application, and everything worked smoothly.
  
  There is a third button for email, by the way, however, I don't have email set up on my machine and so I did not test this feature out.
  
  I'm very pleased with this product. I found the scans to be quite sharp, and the scan process to be intuitive. I can see a novice with scanners not having too much of a problem with this unit, save for the holder issue I discussed earlier.
  
  
• Excellent quality for negative scans, but could take a while to scan a lot of negatives.
  By A22I55P15NSAOX on 2008-09-27
  
  
  
  I was eager to try out this scanner. Several years ago we bought a Canonscan 9950F to convert all our film into digital. At that time I converted 12,000 negatives into digital format. Since then I have used my Canonscan mainly as a flatbed scanner, although occasionally I need to convert a few negatives, for other people or when we use a disposable camera.
  
  I set it up on a Dell Dimension 8100 on an external powered usb port. No problems with installation, I was up and running in under 10 minutes.
  
  To compare I took a new set of negatives and scanned 6 shots in both the Canonscan and the Epson both at the same resolution and using the dust and scratch removal programs for both. Here are my comparisons
  
  The Canonscan is faster, it took about 7 minutes to scan the 6 shots.
  The Epson took a little longer, 9 minutes for 6 shots. The quality of the Epson was better, dust removal was more precise and the Epson software was better able to pick up where the edges of a very light photo were than the Canon. I wonder if the LED, (being one wavelength) helps with this clarity.
  
  However, the Epson only has 2 slots for putting your negatives into on the plastic mask. Theoretically it can hold 12 images, but that is only if that is how your negatives are cut.
  If your negatives have, say, 5 images each, you are only going to be able to do 10 a time unless you are willing to cut up the negatives.
  
  The Canonscan mask has 5 slots, each for 6 negatives. In theory you could do 30, but I found that because of how the negatives were cut I could usually do 24 to 28.
  
  Not an issue if you are just doing a few, but if you have a backlog of thousands it can make a real difference in how long the project would take. The scan time is not hugely different but the time involved in physically placing the negatives into the slots and setting up the scan would take longer with the Epson. The mask with the Epson is more difficult to work with than the Canon mask. The Canon has a hinge on one side, the Epson the whole front snaps out. It seems a bit flimsy, but so did the Canon and it lasted through the 12,000 scans.
  
  
  I really like the LED instant on being the impatient person that I am. You do not have to wait for the scanner to warm up, great for a quicker scanning of a couple documents.
  
  The Epson is much more intuitive. It took me about 10 minutes to figure out how to scan a negative (I, too, made the error of not putting the mask in the correct place). With the Canon I remember it taking me an hour to get the general idea and a couple hours to figure out exactly how to get it to do what I wanted.
  
  
  I also could not get the front buttons to work, but you can do it all from the software. Being able to scan to a PDF is really nice.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Great Scanner
  By A287OAI71FK0Y0 on 2008-01-12
  This is a great scanner. It seems to be able to do everything well. Of course it is slow at high resolution rates, but at those high resolutions the result is flawless. The dust/scratch removal capability is great, and doesn't seem to add any extra time at higher resolution rates. 35mm negatives and slides scan especially easily and I was quickly able to determine the resolution needed to capture all of the resolution in the original film.
  
  It connected very easily to Vista. The instructions leave a little to be desired and I still cannot determine the purpose of some options, but it does what I want.
  
  
• It's a 5 star only because that's as high as it goes!
  By AHI6JB5MO3UKD on 2008-03-21
  First review I've ever written! I'm analytical by nature and drive myself nuts gathering info necessary to make an educated decision. I've started a preservation project, aiming to scan a couple of thousand photos onto DVDs for my family. As the gatekeeper I wanted to create a quality heirloom. I am only working with photos, not film or slides, so can only speak for the results in front of me. Some of my photos are a hundred years old, and many from the last 50 years have that yellow film that comes with age. As far as I am concerned this scanner is MAGIC! Most of my friends have seen the results and all want the name of the scanner to buy one like it! The film of age is literally removed during the scan...reminds me of one of the TV commercials. In addition, Amazon had the lowest price along with free shipping! A double win!
  
  
• Works great on slides
  By A3VS0SJKYHOZFM on 2008-07-26
  It took me a while to figure out. Once the software is loaded and the scanner is attached via the included USB cable you can click a shortcut on your desktop to read the manual. In order to scan slides and negatives you need to slide the white cover on the lid out and leave the black "slide" holder in. At first I couldn't figure out how to use the digital ice, but it is easy in "Home mode". Simply click the button for "Digital ice". The scans I did were 56 years old, pretty faded and full of artifacts. The program did a nice job. I have not tried photos yet, although it does scan them. I believe that the "digital ice" will only work on negative and slide scanning. It is slow to scan, but when you take into account the hours without the "ice" cleaning up the dust; scratches and particles found in scans; it is worth it. (you just don't have to do the work) When I scan 4 slides I leave for 10 minutes and come back and they are usually done. It is easy to install and worked great once I read the manual available via shortcut. NOTE: I have Windows XP. The scanner gets 5 stars for performance, but loses a star for slow scans. (at least at 720 dpi with "ice".)
  
  
• Good scanner
  By A35F0R7LNMWH3M on 2008-01-21
  I bought this scanner for my fussy techie brother in law who assumed that any scanner worth it's weight should be in the $8-900 range. But a salesman at a camera shop told him not to sell the unit short, so he gave me the go-ahead to buy it. Well, he is happy, enthused, even! He has been busily transferring his slides/negatives over using the scanner and hasn't a single "negative" comment to make about the unit. Sounds like a bargain to me.
  
  
• I should have listened to the previous customer comments
  By A30DZWWV5LMRBM on 2008-02-08
  Could not get the software to load. There appears to be a code conflict with Windows XP. I spent hours with tech support to no avail.
  
  Next time I will listen to previous customer comments.
  
  
• V500 Photo copier
  By AU2UK523C1SOL on 2008-02-27
  The product does a good job EXCEPT it puts a blue vertical line across the
  left side of each photo about one inch from the edge of a 4x6 print. I have
  reloaded the software and added a new driver to no avail. I need help but
  have not yet found any.
  
  

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