Epson - Perfection V600 Photo Scanner - Black

I purchased this scanner for multiple reasons. I enjoy photographing on both 35mm and medium format film, and wanted to be able to save money when processing by scanning my own negatives. This scanner does a great job at scanning both, and offers a good amount of dynamic range from the negatives (DMax of 3.4). Other more expense scanners offer a DMax of 4.0 (And maybe higher), but at a significant price increase. The next and main reason I bought this scanner was to scan my immediate family's library of 35mm film, as well as my extended family's one-of-a-kind photo prints dating back to the early 1900s and, even some earlier, I believe. The scanner does a great job and produces great scans. Probably as good as the average person will need, and even does will under professional scanning (how I am using it). While it's not the very best you can get, it's certainly well geared towards enthusiast/semi-pro level scanning and archiving. If you need the absolute best for archival, you need to look into a commercial scanner, or the V850. This will definitely get the job done for the vast majority of people, including those looking to shoot on film still today. The Epson software is horribly out of date, though, so don't expect that aspect to blow your mind. It works though, and that is what is important. I believe the software is from the early 2000's, and looks like it. It does run and work fine on my 2014 5K iMac, running macOS 10.13.4 (latest at the time of this review), so you should be good to go on any modern platform of macOS or Windows.

My main purpose for this scanner was to archive family photos that have been stored in various boxes since the 30's. It's a wonder that they have survived this long and need to be digitally archived before they are gone forever. What's great about this scanner is that I can load up as many photos as I can fit on the scanner glass and it automatically differentiates between each one, numbers them, allows you to auto rotate before scanning and auto-numbers the filename outputs. Then it systematically scans through each photo as if they were put on the glass at different times. This is a HUGE time saver. The speed of the scanner is faster than other/older scanners I have owned - but as with all scanners - the speed of the scan is proportional to the resolution of the scan. The higher the resolution - the slower the scan. The scanner has several extra scan modes other than just automatic and numerous settings in each mode which I am still experimenting with. It also has four customizable buttons on the front to instantly scan, copy, scan-to-email and create PDFs. And, with the included Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software, I have been able to easily convert scanned documents into editable text. I have not used the negative and slide holders yet - but have read from other reviews at other web sites that these are easy to use as well.

The Epson Perfection V600 is a nice scanner for old images, it has trays and settings for multiple size negatives and works well on converting old text docs to Word with OCR, all of which is great,,,, but the device loses connectivity midstream frequently. And this is a hardwired cable connection, not blutooth (which isn't available on this product). We even brought the first 1 we bought back to Best Buy and purchased another of the same model because we love the features, and thought maybe we had a lemon .... but the 2nd one does the same thing! The only way to resolve it (after going through the manufacturers' troubleshooting tips, which were not helpful) is to shut the scanner off, wait, and restart the scan. It's annoying. And sometimes takes multiple restarts. But the trade off of good quality photo and negative scans and pretty accurate hard copy doc to digital conversions convinced me to keep it. The next level up cost quite a bit more,,, and this wasn't a cheap unit, so I'm sticking with it. I still get a squinty face when the connectivity repeatedly gets lost, but I remind myself why I kept it: the nice output when it does work. I don't know if I'd recommend this product without a disclaimer about this issue.

Scanned images are not the quality of displaying the color slide on a screen with a slide projector. The color is more washed out even using the color correction feature. One of the main problems is the auto recognition has problems recognizing some 35mm slides. The slide image get cropped off and the recognition software picks up the black of the slide holder and includes that with the image. Would be a nice feature to have the option of selecting just a 35mm slide, so the the recognition software would be able to only scan the size of the slide. Noticed the problem is mostly with slides that do not have a lot of contrast across the image. Tried to customize with Home or Professional options, but unable to find something that worked. Overall for the price, the scanner does an OK job. Have only scanned slide negatives and the recognition software had problems with square image slides too (maybe 120 size?) No comment on scanning pictures or other media, since none were scanned. Purchased the scanner as it was one a friend owns and he said it did a decent job. I ordered a scanner online, but UPS trashed it during shipping, so returned it to the store and ordered another one and had it shipped to the store for pick up. That arrived with only some minor damage on the box.

Using this to scan photo prints, and it works well for capturing TIFF files to be edited in Photoshop or other software later. I did test the image adjustment features in Epson Scan software like Dust Removal and DIGITAL ICE, and they introduced unacceptable artifacts to the image - like eyes and mouths of people's faces got cartoon-ified at the edges and shadows. Not immediately noticeable at first glance, but obvious if you zoom at actual size. Anyway, maybe they are helpful for scanning film and slides, but I have not tested that. For photo prints, I would say, keep those features off. And if that's the case, perhaps Epson V550 would suffice. I'm not sure if the V550 is any slower or worse in quality, the website is not explicit, but they appear to have the same hardware specs - except no DIGITAL ICE for photo prints, which as explained above, is fine by me. So ultimately, I am satisfied with the V600, but the V550 is probably the better value if you won't be using DIGITAL ICE on prints anyway.

I purchased this to scan about 100 negatives for medium format film. The cost of the scanner was less than the cost of paying to have the scanning done. The holder for medium format negatives worked well, and the scans came out very well. HOWEVER, the holder for 35mm slides is not good--the slides lay on the surface of the scanner and one cannot remove them without getting finger smudges on the scanning area. The really bad part is the software on macOS 10.14. It is not yet updated to 64-bit, and unless that is done this will be useless come Fall 2019 when macOS 10.15 is released. The settings for scanning are not saved from one negative to another. I have to manually re-set them for every single negative. The manual is very uninformative about how to preserve settings. I guess this has paid for itself, since I finished scanning the 100 negatives. But unless the software is improved I cannot recommend the scanner to a general user.

About a year ago, I bought an Epson Perfection V600 Photo Color Scanner to replace my old scanner. My old scanner was an Epson and had given me years of great service, so I had no reservations about purchasing another Epson. But, the new one hasn't worked since I set it up. The image has a "blurry rainbow" that runs down the left side. I contacted Epson Customer Support multiple times and keep getting a run-around. If they can't read it off the Tech Support script, then they don't seem to know how to respond. I've scoured the Internet for a solution with no luck. And...yes...since this isn't the only focus in my life, it's been forgotten and run out of warranty and return time. SO, the moral of this story is...Epson isn't the reliable company it used to be. And if it doesn't work, then take it back IMMEDIATELY and don't deal with Epson Customer Support.

I had a bunch of old medium format negatives that i wanted to get scanned and found this scanner while I was researching. The scanner has been fantastic. Scanned all the med format film and moved onto 35mm film and am now working on slides. There are two different holders and will handle up to 3 med formal negs (individual pictures), 2 strips of 35 mm or 4 slides. Or you can scan regular pictures/paper/whatever. One of my favorite features is the "scanning zones" you outline the pictures and each scans into its own file. The scanner is kind of large, it's lightweight but would be awkward to carry around. Max scanning size is 8 1/2 x 11 so if your looking to scan larger images this likely won't work. Scanner also has the option of color and backlight correction while your scanning so if those old negatives have turned pink you can get them adjusted without using an add'l program.