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But if you intend to use it to scan film or slides and you don't use Photoshop, beware. I bought the Epson V500 Perfection scanner because of Epson's supposed quality. However, when scanning color film negatives, selecting more than one "Adjustments" results in an error message, "Unable to write to file" and the software shuts down. I use the scanner mostly as a copying machine so no big deal. I am using it with Windows XP and have not checked to see if it works any better on my wife's Windows 7 computer. I don't care about the "Adjustments" because I use Photoshop to process my photos.
Except for the fact that I don't expect much from my Epson V500 scanner, I'd send it back in a minute and go back to my trusty HP scanner. The unit is built well enough (except for the film/slide holders) and, at first blush, works well enough. Maybe that's why they include Adobe Photoshop Elements as part of the deal. But in trying to scan at 48 bit, the same message pops up. Scanning anything over 300 dpi is excruciatingly slow. Buyer beware.
But this is most likely the last Epson product I'll ever purchase.
Item was shipped when said, arrived in great shape, Easy to setup and output was fantastic. Used to scan slides and output was fantastic and so easy to use.
Before purchasing an Epson Perfection V500 Scanner I read only the one star (bad) reviews. If the scanner is capable of manual cropping when scanning film, and/or can be manually focused, I have not found instructions on how to do these things. I am scanning film sizes from ViewMaster chips to 6x9 and everything between.
Most of the negative reviews seemed to revolve around software issues, particularly the supplied Photoshop Elements program. It cuts my reels into segments sometimes through the middle of an image. As I needed a way to scan 120/220 films, I took the plunge and bought one anyway.
The scanner is very hit-or-miss when scanning the ViewMaster reels, even set to scan 6x9 films. I have had no problems in this area, although, I already had Photoshop Elements 2.0 in my PC and did not use the supplied program. I have Photoshop Elements 6 in my MacBook Pro, but have not tried using the Epson V500 with that computer and program, yet.I do, however, have issues with what appears to be the V500's inability to manually crop while scanning films.
If I isolated a single film chip, the scanner says it can't find it and won't scan.The scanner also seems to lack any method for manual focusing, creating problems when laying ViewMaster-style reels directly on the glass and when scanning glass mounted slides. The Users Guide is disappointingly limited.Also, scans fail when scanning at extremely high resolution setting, but I don't know if this is an issue with the scanner or my computer.
The online rep basically told me that I was out of luck. The disk wouldn't even load on my Mac.
It fits in a small space which is great. The scanner itself is sleek and quiet.
I finally got it to work, and the resulting application is very clunky and not very intuitive, even for a guy who has a computer engineering degree.The ultimate bait and switch was the Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 software that came with it. It comes with a couple of 'templates' that allow you to load various size photos and slides for scanning.But the software is awful, at least on the Mac.
It took my MacBook Pro a long time to load the installation app, and then the install hung. When I went to the Adobe website, I discovered that they don't even sell 6 any more - they are on Elements 8 now and barely support 6.
So, I ended up buying 8 for $100 because you need photo editing software if you are going to be scanning a lot of shots with your new scanner.
Great machine. Excellant transfers and great for reproducing old odd size black and white negatives. As usual, the instructions are worthless. A lot of trial and error to figure it out.
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