Epson v700 review

I've had my Epson v700 for about a week now and finally got it plugged in and scanning yesterday. I have to say, I'm delighted with the results.

So you know a little bit about me, I've worked in the graphic design and print industry for the past twenty years and have also worked part time as a professional photographer over the last 8 years.

In my spare time I love photography and until the last few years done all my printing using a dark room. However, as I seem to have less and less spare time these days, the mixing of chemicals etc has stopped me taking photos because I never have the time to print them so I decided to look at going digital (I'm digital at work but I love film for my 'hobby' photography).

I had a dilemma recently whether to ditch the film cameras and go totally digital or keep the much loved film cameras and buy a scanner.


I settled on buying a film scanner to allow me to keep playing with old and toy cameras but speed up the printing process.

I've had two photographic exhibitions and I'm trying to get back into selling my work again.

So, with that in mind, here is my very quick review of the Epson v700.

What's in the box?

The scanner comes with 3 software CD's:- The Epson Scan Software CD, SIlverfast SE and Photoshop Elements. USB Cable, Power Cable, Scanning Mat (which protects the top scan bed when not scanning film), 120 film holder, 35mm slide holder, 3mm film strip holder, 5x4 holder and a film area guide to allow for the scanning of big films up to about 10 x 8".

Was it easy to set up?

I work on a Mac so, yes, it was mind numbingly easy to set up. I was scanning within 45 minutes (some of the software takes a while to install).

So what are my first impressions?

I shoot mostly on 120 Ilford XP2 and my preferred format is 6x6 so I went straight for the 120 tray and scanned in a negative that was one of the last photos I hand printed several years ago because I wanted something I could compare like for like with.

I used the Silverfast Software rather than the Epson software and after a bit of clicking around (not one to read manuals) I found that I could select the film type I had used to capture the photo and very quickly I was looking at a very fine quality scan of a giant attacking a building in Dublin.

Below is roughly a 3.5cm x 3.5cm crop from the original image (see my previous post for the full image).


Note: It looks to me that it has suffered some jpeg deterioration as I've just checked it on the published version and I suspect the blog software has compressed the image a little. If anyone knows how to stop that happening please let me know.

100% crop from a 6x6 negative scanned to 55cm x 55cm at 300 dpi on an Epson v700 - click to enlarge

It's not pin sharp but nor would it be had I hand printed it. The image contains about the same amount of details as the hand printed version and unless I get a magnifying glass out, there isn't a huge amount of difference.

What's next?


I'm still having a bit of a play around to compare the Epson Software with the SilverFast and I'm hoping to get an example image printed off at a local company to see if they are (in my opinion) a saleable quality of image.


Stay tuned.