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Epson v550 scanner1/6/2024 Two frames from the Hasselblad 500C scanned on the V550. * There are many even more basic scanners available but they lack a backlight function, practically required for good negative scans, as well as negative holders which makes life a lot easier. I’ll likely get back to a more complete review of the unit at a future date, but for todays entry I’d like to focus on the image quality it offers when scanning negatives. The final pick mostly came down to availability and software. The difference between scanners in this tier is small but as I've seen great work scanned on both the V550, the V600 and the similar specced Canon 9000F I felt confident that either scanner would be fine for my use. The Epson V550 fits the bill well – it’s one of the lower end machines in Epson’s lineup with the ability to scan negatives*. Since I was, and still am, a little unsure of how medium format fits for me I decided to get a pretty basic model. So even if it can’t quite extract all the detail from the negatives even a lower end flatbed scanner can offer medium format scans good enough for the vast majority of uses. There are a few reasons I’ve not been using it more often but the biggest issue has been the same issue I faced when first returning to 35mm film around two years ago – not being quite satisfied with the scans I was getting back from the local labs, especially for the high price asked for them.įortunately it’s much easier to coax a good enough scan from the larger medium format negatives than it is from the smaller 35mm variety. Especially since whenever I do use it I come away really enjoying the experience. Every time I look over at my shelf of camera gear it gives me pause that I have such a nice camera sitting unused for so much of the time. The Hasselblad 500C was the first serious film camera I bought but I feel I’ve never used it enough to really get to know it on more than a superficial level. However I’ve also been wanting to get back into medium format a bit more as well. Being a dedicated unit it excels at one specific task – scanning 35mm film, but there's very little it can do beyond that one specific task. As I’ve written about in my rolling article on the scanner I have very few reservations about it and it’s paid for itself many times over since getting it. I’ve been happily using the Plustek 8200i to scan all my 35mm film for close to two years. But how big is the difference? And how do the scans stack up with what you get from a good lab? Are flatbeds totally hopeless for 35mm and only really usable for medium format and up? There’s not really a whole lot of objective and visual comparisons out there, something I figured I’d have a little stab at in today’s entry. That a dedicated scanner offers better scan quality than a flatbed is pretty common knowledge. Intro Medium format comparison 35mm comparison
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