Epson - Perfection V550 Photo Scanner - Black

The set up went well up to turning it on. (no manual on the scanner at all) After you set up you are pretty much on your own. So off to You-Tube on how to set up for scanning the different negatives. Read many helpful comments. Then it is just trial and error. It is a shame that there is no manual. Going to the help area did help some that is on line but you-tube was the best. As for the scanning - it is amazing. Had old negatives from 1921 - couldn't ask for them to be any better. Scanning takes time - set up - then had to crop the finished picture. That is no problem for me. I also am pleased with scanning documents for editing - no trouble there as well. The scanning time is still quicker than my old HP scanner and printer. I am very, very please.

I needed a scanner that is reliable,consistent, and easy to operate, which was also a concern. I chose the Epson V550 after doing research on several brands, and, yes, the reviews were very helpful. I bought this scanner, because of high reviews, Good price, and Epson makes good products for photographers. (ie. I own an Epson Artisan 1430 printer) and they make them to last. I opened the box, read the start-up guide and was scanning negatives in 15 minutes. This scanner also does 35mm,120 film, both negatives and slides. It will also produce image to image, and you can make the files small, or large files depending on your final output. I would recommend this scanner to any photographer who shot film and slides for years, then went ditigal, and would like to include his film works into his current portfolio. I am very happy with this Epson V550 scanner.

If you're looking to revive old negatives and slides without breaking the bank, this scanner is for you. I do recommend using editing software as you will be able to see and correct any flaws. I purchased Adobe Photoshop Elements 14 from Best Buy this week and it is perfect!!!

I was searching for a scanner that would efficiently scan my 35mm film so I wouldn't have to pay the lab to do it. This scanner does a great job, however my only wish is that the 35mm template was full sized and not only half the scanner, I would be able to scan twice the amount of film at a time but it works great. I also received the scanner with a large hole in the box and it definitely looked like it had been dropped, I'm not sure if that is how it was sent or if it happened in transit. Overall a great scanner, from what I read it does basically the same as the v600 for a bit less!

I can print 4 to 8 pics at a time, depending on size of print, and saves each one as a new print. Saves a lot of time. Am in the process of digitizing photo that i took before i got my first digital camera. Some prints have faded, but the scan comes out true to the print and with the new scan, i can work on enhancing colors and cab show pics on computer, tv, or any other media that accepts usb imput.

East to use once you get the hang of it. Had to down load Windows 10 but it worked.

Epson is Reliable, always the first choice. My last one lasted for 15 years.

I have a LOT of old slides and negatives, and some photos for which the negatives have been lost, and I wanted to digitize all of this. I looked at what was available and read a ton of product reviews and there seemed to be a choice of either cheapie low quality "toys" with poor resolution, or else professional -oriented products at upwards of $1000. And then I saw the Epson V550 and V600. Priced in the lower-middle of this range, they advertise as good a scanning resolution as all but one very expensive product. I checked these out and found that the V550 is the same machine as the V600 --they differ only in that more photo processing software is included with the 600. SInce I already have a photo post-processing app, this didn't matter and I went with the 550. I got lucky ---it was on sale, AND I had a Best Buy percentage-off coupon for which --amazingly-- this product actually *wasn't* on the (always hideously long) list of exclusions!! But I still had to check out the important thing -- did it really work as claimed? I tested it with some 35MM slides first; it took me a minute to figure out how to insert the slide attachment tray, the instructions for the scanner really could have been written better --but I figured it out, and then tried a few scans. Went thru different resolution settings, etc, and found that at 600DPI or above, it does a pretty good job!! 1200dpi seems best for slides, but the scanning process was VERY slow...so I did most of them at 600, and really couldn't see a difference except when the photo was "blown up" to full screen. Color reproduction was good; there is a "color restorer" function in the V550 software, but since I have another photo app I prefer to use, I did not use it. The included slide scanning attachment holds 4 slides at a time; given the size of the scanner, I felt they could have designed it to do more than 4, but it was really no big deal since each individual slide takes a fixed amount of time to scan which depends only on the dpi resolution setting you use. Next I tried 35MM negatives. The attachment tray for these holds 2 strips (of up to 5 or 6 exposures each). It has a snap-in "frame" that is supposed to hold the negatives flat for scanning, even if they have become curled; in fact it did a pretty fair job with this, if not absolutely perfect. It is just a bit "fiddly" to place the strips of negatives into the tray, but again, it wasn't a big deal. Once again, I ended up using 600dpi resolution for many of them, going up to 1200 for only a few particular pictures that had a lot of detail or ones I especially intend to make big prints of.. Overall, it is a good product and if you find a sale, it is a real bargain for what you get! --and it will also do all the "usual" scanning stuff such as documents, too, since it is a full size unit. On the "con" side, it is rather large and bulky, and the instructions really could have been written better ---but I found there are reviews by serious photo enthusiasts which included useful setup information! It is very slow if used at high resolution --but it will do a good job for those photos you really want to preserve as well as possible. Also, especially with transparencies, you must be careful to keep both the scanner and your slides/negatives clean. I kept a can of that pressurized air spray stuff handy; otherwise every tiny speck of dust will appear as hairs and spots on the scanned photo. As far as I know, this is a problem regardless of which product you buy, so the Epson is probably no worse than any other here. (There is a dust removing feature in the software, but of course any app like this will have *some* effect on your photo content; it is better to just keep really careful with cleaning!) To sum up --this scanner is a good value for the money!