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My favorite flat-bed scanner
March 2, 2008

A few days back I wrote about film scanners, extolling the virtues of my favorite – the Nikon Coolscan. And, I promised to write about flat-bed scanners. Here goes:

When I need something scanned from a print or a large format transparency or negative (larger than the Coolscan can scan), I turn to the flat-bed scanner. The one I like best is made by Epson.


Epson is something of a sleeper company when it comes to scanners. We all know about their ink-jet printers and print media, but few of us know that Epson makes the best flat-bed scanner ever. The V750-M has impressive resolution, excellent optics, and the uncanny ability to scan large-format film with incredible detail. It can, of course, scan reflective artwork also.

For years I shot photos with a 4x5 view camera, and making prints from the negatives and transparencies of that era has been difficult recently (no darkroom!). When I had the Crosfield scanner, it was easy, but that scanner is long-gone, and now everything must be on the desktop. The Epson scenner will scan film up to 8 x 10 inches in size, and this has become quite a valuable tool for me. I have scanned antique glass plate negatives, 4x5 color transparencies, 4x5 black and white images, and all have scanned beautifully.

The scanner even has the ability to do a “fluid-mount” scan of film to reduce surface scratches and film base imperfections. We used to do fluid-mount scans on the Crosfield; it yielded better results when there was any sign of abrasion of the base of the film (sometimes shipping would cause this kind of abrasion). A fluid-mount scan is usually done by putting a few drops of paraffin oil between the film and a carrier (glass or acetate) to create an optically-smooth surface through which to scan the film. It requires that the film be cleaned in a film cleaner after scanning. We used methyl-ethyl-keytone, but that has been banned by the EPA; PEC-12 film cleaner works nicely now (available from Climax Photo).

Epson’s desktop scanner also has the Digital ICE hardware and software that is so capable when restoring faded, damaged and grainy film. In fact, it’s so good that I am not sure that one would need the fluid-mount technique.

And how much does the Epson cost? A quick search of the Internet yielded prices as low as $735. That’s pretty amazing, considering the resolution (6400 ppi), the quality, and the many professional features.

Posted by Brian Lawler on March 2, 2008 | Comments (0)