V700 thoughts

I realize there has been about 3427 posts about the V700 but I thought I'd post my brief thoughts anyway.

Here in Australia we don't have a huge choice... the Nikon 9000 is substantially more expensive (about $A 5K) so it 'had' to be a V700 for me - at least for now. I must say after my first day scanning, that I am pleasantly surprised. Dynamic range seems excellent and the Epson software is straight-forward (something that can't be said about the Nikon software). Yet to test with Silverfast and Vuescan.

I love having the control - it means a lot IMO, but envisage I will still outsource anything 'special'. Sharpness is not as good as my lab's Frontier scans but have ordered a new betterscanning mount which I hope will improve film flatness and focus ability. DR is up there though. Speed seems very good and build quality is great (although 120 mount seems a bit flimsy).

Not that screen res pics say much, but here are some scans from 6x6:

Interesting. I am in the market for a scanner.

Mesh

nice images ...

not sure if I'm preaching to the converted, but if you say you like working with Epson scan software, perhaps have a peek at my blog here

http://cjeastwd.blogspot.com/2008/10/epson-3200-more-optimal-scans.html

I've found that it applies to all of the series (4870 and 4990 which I also have)

Thanks for the link pellicle - a great resource.

Just tried SF for the first time - don't love the interface but the scans are interesting. For some reason, the grain structure seems to come out better than in EpsonScan.

Not sure how to process these 48bit HDR scans... can't seem to open Negafix as a standalone app and a straight invert in PS looks awful. There seems to be plenty of talk about these files online but I can't get my head around it still. Perhaps I need an upgraded version of SF?

Hey mesh, I have the 4990, which the V700 replaced. I think you'll be quite happy with the results overall, even with the Epson Scan software. I actually prefer it for general scanning purposes over VueScan and Silverfast. Neither are as intuitive or as easy to use as Epson Scan is.

I have found that my 4990 does such a good job with medium format scans, scanning at a "mere" 2400dpi, that I honestly don't know why I'd feel the need to use another scanning method.

Another vote for EpsonScan...

The V700 is a great scanner for the money...hard to surpass it w/o costing a small fortune and then the improvement is incremental. Unless you're doing huge enlargements, you'll be quite happy.