Epson Perfection V500 Photo Scanner

In the market for a scanner? This was one that caught my eye recently and fulfilled my need of scanning medium format negatives.


Reasons I chose this model

• Trusted Epson brand name
• Ability to scan medium format negatives
• 6400 x 9600 dpi resolution
• High speed usb 2.0

The good:

I have used this scanner thus far to scan a multitude of 120 (medium format) film negatives and positives. It has a black plastic tray to hold the film. I used that several times, but it covered the top and bottom of the film with the edges of the holder (it has a fold down top and scans two square 6x6 images at a time or one 6x12)). I would rather show these edges in my scans, so I figured out a way to use a piece of matboard (readily available to me since I'm a picture framer ;-) with a hole cut large enough for the film edges to show and a notch at the end where the scanner "registers" just before scanning the film. It has worked perfectly since then, showing the edges of the film as I had intended. I have been scanning two images at a time and they process at 1200 dpi in about 1 1/2 minutes...the speed of light compared to my last Epson 2400 scanner!

I have seen others refer to other software they prefer to run these scanners, but I find the Epson software fairly intuitive. I use the included software set to the "Professional" mode and deselect the "thumbnail" preview.

I will post regarding scanning of 35mm negatives and regular photographs in the near future...I'm very involved with the 120 film at the moment, so I haven't gotten to anything else as of yet. Check back soon for more information!

The bad:

Thumbnail preview doesn't recognize many images, so I just turn this option off. Simply use the marquee selection tool provided in the software to select one or more images to scan.

The ugly:

I've only had the scanner about a week and a half, so haven't found any real issues as of yet that I can't find a workaround for. I will post anything in the future if it arises.