Epson v330 should I buy ?

mbphoto

mbphoto

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matt
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Hi all am thinking of buying one of the above for scanning my negs would it be any good
I'm using asda scan service at min well when it's working would results be similar or better from asda
Thanks all
 
mbphoto said:
Hi all am thinking of buying one of the above for scanning my negs would it be any good
I'm using asda scan service at min well when it's working would results be similar or better from asda
Thanks all
Click to expand...

To my knowledge, this scanner is only capable of scanning 135 format.

All other things being equal, it will not match the quality from the equipment that ASDA use, no. Things aren't often equal, however...
 
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It comes with 35mm neg adaptor so scans all formats I think
Would I be best not bothering ?
Thanks
 
What RJ meant was that if you want to scan 120 (medium format) negatives this scanner won't do them because it only scans 35mm. The Fuji Frontier scanners in Asda are physically able to scan higher resolution but are generally set to output low res over-sharpened images so you'd probably get better results doing your own at home.

Personally, I'd spend the £80 on a used V500 instead which gives you the option to scan 120 if you ever decided too.
 
thanks i will be scanning 120 from my yashica so i will look at them as well
 
As @skysh4rk says it scans 35mm only, so if you are doing (or plannimg to do) any medium format it won't work for that. If you are only doing 35mm it should be fine - the Epson Vxxx range are pretty good. I have a V550 as I do medium format as well and it is great.

Edit: Crossposted with the previous answers - get the V500/V550
 
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I have the v300. It is obviously just a home scanner and not a pro level tool. From that pov I find it produces great quality scans from prints but not that great from negs. If you just want a digital copy of some old negs and aren't that fussed about quality then it is fine but if you want a high quality neg scanner then look elsewhere tbh.
 
had a little look around and seems even the v500-550 are over budget for me really dont really want to spend over the 80 mark as just took a lower paid job so my budget is my budget really
i was for some reason under the impression you could scan all negs with it dont know why ?
i dont mind buying used if any one reccomends anything else in budget ? will have to suport win 10 as thats what im running
thanks
 
am wanting decent images from it but thanks for the input on the v300
am using asda dev on 35mm and sending the 120 off for dev only to scan edit and print at home
also would like to scan the negs from my polariod too
 
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Just looked at sold items on ebay and there have been a few used V500s going around £80 - worth a look.
 
It is very important to remember that the results from any equipment are often largely constrained by the operator. This holds true for cameras, guitars, scanners, etc. If you have better scanning skills than the folks at ASDA, then you could possibly overcome the technical limitations of the Epson to generate better scans.

Personally, I only consider Epson scanners useable for black and white negatives, although I cannot rule out operator error as a primary cause of my dissatisfaction with colour scans.
 
I've had a V500 as well as borrowed a V750 and they both delivered good results on the whole. Whilst drum scans or professionals like UKFilmLab will obviously do better I've always been happy with the results.
 
yea they look great
Well I will keep looking for a v500 or 550 then thank you
Will the 35mm neg scans be much better from v500 over the v330?
 
35mm scans on a flatbed aren't generally as good as a dedicated 35mm scanner like a Plustek but that's mainly down to keeping the smaller negatives flat in the holder. 120 negatives are larger so are easier to clip into the holders.

I have scanned 35mm on the V500 too and the results were fine;

View attachment 41999

View attachment 42000

As RJ said though, you probably won't see any difference with 35mm between the V330 and V500 although 120 scans will be much better on the V500 ;0)
 
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mbphoto said:
They should do a clip on plate for 120 for them
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To my knowledge, the reason that the V330 can't scan 120 has nothing to do with the holder, but the size of the light source, which is smaller in the V330. You could scan 120 on the V330 in theory, but you'll need to do several passes and then recombine the images using software, which would be a huge pain in practice.

If you're planning on shooting mostly colour, I would consider foregoing the scanner, but to each his own.
 
Yea mainly colour !
So maybe it's a waste of money ?
Maybe just pat for dev and scan instead ? Probably save a few quid just was hoping to gain better resolution from home scan
 
mbphoto said:
Yea mainly colour !
So maybe it's a waste of money ?
Maybe just pat for dev and scan instead ? Probably save a few quid just was hoping to gain better resolution from home scan
Click to expand...

Well, I'm unimpressed with the colours that I get from flatbed scans, so I do not ever use the scanner for colour. Others here feel differently, so you'll need to decide for yourself. The strengths of colour negative, to my mind, rest in its amazing skin tones and natural colours, so I just don't see the point in using equipment that potentially constrains that strength.

I'm pretty happy with what I can get from my Epson with black and white, however. I just don't really shoot much black and white and what I do shoot is really intended for darkroom printing...
 
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The V330 is a waste of money if you're planning to scan 120 because it can't do it. If you want to scan 120 your most cost effective way is a second hand V500.

RJ is right in that most home scans can't match results from professional labs so it depends on whether you are happy paying the additional cost on top of the dev. If you do want 120 dev/scans you'll have to use someone other than Asda anyway because they only do 35mm.

I don't shoot colour negative 120, only slide, but the results RJ gets from UKFilmLab are always excellent.
 
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you can get better results with a good camera and macro lens, but its more time u doing something vs the scanner being slow on the time side of things
 
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