Modern print film wasn’t meant to have a baked in color like films of the past. Getting consistent results on color film scans is a new phenomena for me. Getting consistent results is near impossible And if you’re working with dense negatives, there’s even room to get more detail by combining exposures to make an HDR scan. Digital cameras shooting raw are able to capture far more colors and dynamic range in a single image than a flatbed scanner - no matter what model. The other benefit of scanning with a DSLR is the colors. Even for the time, they weren’t known for producing sharp results. The V550 and V600 are still using the same imaging sensors Epson developed back in 2009. Going any larger than the 1600 DPI setting is simply introducing extra bulk (up to 1Gb, to be precise) to the image without creating any extra details to work with in Lightroom or Photoshop. Meanwhile, the V600 scanner has a maximum effective resolution of around 1560 DPI, despite advertising that says it is capable of to scanning up to 6400 DPI. Just joking of course, but being able to see that much more detail from DSLR scans means that I can crop the images more without losing quality. Turns out I’m just bad at focusing manual lenses. So finally, I was able to tell that the reason my photos weren’t sharp wasn’t just film inherently being softer than digital. When I finally got my latest DSLR film scanning setup together, there was an immediate, noticeable difference. The images aren’t as sharp, and the files aren’t as flexible Otherwise the scan quality, film holders, size, shape, and weight all remain identical. The only benefit the V600 scanner has over the V550, is that the V600 has a software update allowing it to use Digital ICE to remove dust and scratches on prints and negatives, where the V550 can only perform dust removal on negatives. Professional photographers will be pushed to the Epson V750, or Epson V850 models, which have better film holders and are also capable of scanning 4×5 or 8×10 negatives. Both the V600 and V550 were cheap, reliable, and produced good enough results if you were cataloguing family negatives. When these models were released, were meant to help entry-level consumers digitize their collection of film photos. That said, the scanners both contain the same scanning technology from the 2009 version, and come with film holders capable of scanning 35mm and medium format film. The Epson V600 was originally released back in 2009, while the V550 weirdly came out in 2013. But if you already have a DSLR camera with a macro lens, then it may be worth spending a bit extra to get into scanning with your camera.īefore we get into it, let’s go over what exactly are the differences between the V550 and the V600 scanners The Epson V600 sitting on top of my shelf in the same place it’s been for the last 3 years Epson V550 and V600 Overview If you’re new to film photography and are thinking about purchasing one of these scanners, I absolutely recommend it. A big reason for that is because I bought the right equipment to make it work this time. ( Find out what gear I use to scan film with my digital camera here).īut even though I admit there are many reasons why DSLR scanning is superior to using a flatbed scanner, I do believe that this unit still has a place on the market. This time, I went for the V600 for no reason other than Amazon no longer stocked the $50 cheaper V550.īut now, a year later, I’ve revisited DSLR scanning, and have been loving the results I’m getting with my Sony A7III. Lacking a reliable way to mount my DSLR, and not having a dedicated macro lens, I went back to the Epson scanners. So I sold it, and elected to buy another after attempting low-budget DSLR scanning with the equipment I already had on hand. And since I was going by plane, it didn’t make sense to bring the scanner with me. I’m sure I pissed off more than a couple neighbours with the electronic whirring piercing through the thin walls of my Montreal apartment. I used that scanner for a couple years, scanning rolls for myself and my friends late into the night. One of my first purchases as a new film photographer was the Epson V550.
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