Well, here we are. I made a big scanner purchase. BIG! This scanner came in, after tax, at $1,200! This is definitely NOT an entry level machine and will require some prior knowledge or some on the fly learning. Can you guess which we fell under? HEHE. After some anxiety wrenching torture of installs, and trying to get the SilverFast 8 program to work properly, we came to the conclusion that we needed to upgrade to the newer SilverFast ai 9. This was an additional $75 but we were able to run the program without going into Administrator Mode and the program now runs very smoothly.
We were trying to use the Digital Ice dust and scratch removal software within the program and we just couldn’t get it to work properly. It kept saying that the entire image was dust or a scratch and would then turn the whole image into what looked like a grayscale mosaic. We couldn’t even get it to work at all on the color scans. I will have to try again to see if there is some advanced knowledge to using it, but until then, I popped the images over into PhotoShop to remove all the dust particles… Which was an ungodly amount and made me feel like I was living in a dust bowl of filth… The joys of 2 cats, a dog, 2 kids, and not many carpets! I need to dust more.
I also could not get the i1 color profile software (which came with the scanner) to work because it did not have the color profile that was on the card, nor was it on their website. We spent a whole afternoon and evening trying to figure out this machine. Alas! We finally did! Exciting right!? Well, mostly. We still have a lot to learn. For instance, the example below, I believe we had our film facing the wrong direction which created a flip… however, the digital image could have also been flipped, either way that is what happened to one of those images.
Here are my thoughts. I enjoy this printer. I can do batch scans from one scan load (that is roughly 18 photos). It takes a while to scan and choose the scan areas but it is much quicker and less strain on my neck than the digital camera method. I do feel that each has a different mood and feel. For black and whites the images seem to be creamier in texture, whereas the Epson Scans are very grainy. The color scans came out great! Especially after the dust removal in PS. I feel like I will easily be able to get through my mountain of negatives now. For the images I want to blow up larger I will probably take those with the digital camera. But only for the black and white as I prefer the look of the color film using SilverFast and the Epson V850. Have you used this scanner? Are you thinking about getting one? Let me know your thoughts and I can answer any questions that I have already found working with this scanner thus far.
As a note, after writing this, we were in fact putting the film in backwards which created a mirrored image. We’re learning!
If you are interested in buying this scanner you can find it here: Epson Perfection V850 Pro. We also made an unboxing and first impression video on YouTube. Enjoy!
Between 2 Lenses 
Leave a Reply