Railfan Technology > Epson scanners

I've had an Epson V700 for quite a few years now and have scanned piles of large format negs.  I wonder if the bulb slowly loses it's intensity or if instead of that will just go out?    I wonder what the advantage would be to step up the a V800?  I know the light source is an LED and instant warmup.  Other than that I think the technical details are basically the same as the V700.   The V850 is higher priced, but I think the reason is additional software.
Anybody want to comment?   I'm very satisfied with the V700, although the glass has a couple of scratches that bother me.   I don't see any signs of them on the scanned negatives.

I think the V700 uses a cold cathode fluorescent light source, in which case it's probably about a 50000 hour lifespan.  It will dim a little bit over time, and then eventually probably fail to light, but it will last a very long time in normal use.  Honestly there's as much chance the driver circuit will fail before the tube does.  Back when CCFLs were used on most LCD monitors, often times you could bring "dead" ones back by just swapping out the CCFL driver board. 

I haven't used my V700 in a few months, but it's a remarkable scanner.  Every now and then I get the itch to upgrade to a V800 or V850, but just can't ever quite justify it.  For doing medium and large format, there's nothing quite like it in the desktop scanner space.

I've always liked mine too.  I did order a V800 from Amazon since they are $200 less than Epson or other dealers and free shipping.  It is supposed to arrive tomorrow. 
I've always used Epson scanning software.  This comes with Lasersoft LE or something like that.  I'll see what that is like.  Looks like the negative holders are different on it too.  I made my own for 616 and PC size negs.  It does a good job and I hope the V800 is as good or better.

What are the advantages of a V700 or V800 over a V550 ?

My application is primarily color slides, plus a few B&W negs,
either 35mm or 2 1/4 square.

Frisco1522 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I've always liked mine too.  I did order a V800
> from Amazon since they are $200 less than Epson or
> other dealers and free shipping.  It is supposed
> to arrive tomorrow. 
> I've always used Epson scanning software.  This
> comes with Lasersoft LE or something like that. 
> I'll see what that is like.  Looks like the
> negative holders are different on it too.  I made
> my own for 616 and PC size negs.  It does a good
> job and I hope the V800 is as good or better.
Well, as has happened with a couple of other high dollar items ordered from Amazon, I've gotten two emails, one saying it was damaged in transit and returned from an intermediate point, Erlanger, KY  and the other shows it arriving at our Hazlewood facility.   I don't know what Hazlewood's problem is, but when the dust settles I'll cancel the order and keep using my V700.

NKP715 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> What are the advantages of a V700 or V800 over a
> V550 ?
>
> My application is primarily color slides, plus a
> few B&W negs,
> either 35mm or 2 1/4 square.

Larger area for scanning negatives. You can load the whole bed with slides, rather than just the strip in the middle.
 

Arved Grass
Fleming Island, FL

---

Frisco1522 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Frisco1522 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I've always liked mine too.  I did order a
> V800
> > from Amazon since they are $200 less than Epson
> or
> > other dealers and free shipping.  It is
> supposed
> > to arrive tomorrow. 
> > I've always used Epson scanning software. 
> This
> > comes with Lasersoft LE or something like
> that. 
> > I'll see what that is like.  Looks like the
> > negative holders are different on it too.  I
> made
> > my own for 616 and PC size negs.  It does a
> good
> > job and I hope the V800 is as good or better.
> Well, as has happened with a couple of other high
> dollar items ordered from Amazon, I've gotten two
> emails, one saying it was damaged in transit and
> returned from an intermediate point, Erlanger,
> KY  and the other shows it arriving at our
> Hazlewood facility.   I don't know what
> Hazlewood's problem is, but when the dust settles
> I'll cancel the order and keep using my V700.

I guess I am an odd Duck.  I refuse to buy from Amazon.  I ordered several small items, products were not what was shown. 
I don't like their business model, I can find what I need reasonably from independent vendors.

Bob

Bulbs can fade but more likely the optics are dirty. Scanners on modern multi function printers look at values for black and white and can adjust for this to a large degree. No idea if Epson utilizes this technology or when they would have implemented it. They probably didn’t give you easy access to the optics for cleaning but you might want to take a look. Also, are there any settings or maintenance adjustments in the software?