A dark church in Paris

One of the fun things we did in Paris in the summer of 2014 was to visit Notre Dame. Like other landmarks there, we all know the stories and what they look like, but like some of the others a person really does need to take the time and visit. The architecture goes without saying and everything around you is either really old, or very old. The chapels they have are just amazing, the paintings there amazing, and it's such a neat place to visit. We didn't end up going to the roof or bell towers, the lines were just way too long, but we did take our time walking around.

These were all shot with Delta 400 film that was push processed to 1600 with a Nikon FM and 50mm 1.8.

Epson V600 vs V700 - review!

Here is my review of the two scanners, well, mostly the V600 since that's the one that was delivered to me yesterday. I feel fine to comment on the V700 since, 1) this is my blog, and 2) some of the shortcomings of the scanner I got will be picked up in the flagship model.

First of all, let's look at price, which will make this blog post be (for most) more about me getting his and search results than anyone really learning anything. That's because, at B and H, the 600 is $200 right now and the 700 is $600. These are really affordable, in fact I'm amazed that $200 can buy as much as the 600 can do with the quality it does! But, even at $600 it's not like that's a lot of money for someone who needs as much (affordable) quality as they can at home. So again, if you're dead set on the more expensive one and feel you need that, then go for it.

As far as my review part, this will be short! It's a really fast scanner, it does a great job with quality, and it fits my needs really well. Keep in mind I'm not scanning large format, which this scanner doesn't do, and I'm not trying to blow things up really really large. Not that this scanner couldn't do that, I'm sure it can, but I'm not doing room sized high resolution prints like some (well some think they do that) out there. Just doing regular film scanning to outputs that may get to be around 3 feet by 4 feet for my medium format black and whites.

The only few differences I can see are that the 700 gives you better software and allows you to scan large format 4x5 negs (and maybe 8x10). I don't shoot those, and even if I did my old 2450, eventually because it's slow, could scan something that big at a decent enough resolution for me to do something with it. Again, not sure how large people are printing, but a 4x5 at 1200 dpi creates a very large image file.

Don't quote me on this, and I'm sure some will argue, but it goes along with my Ken Rockwell type review here anyway, but I'm not too sure how much difference there will be with 35mm and medium format with the v700. Yes, the 700 is deeper and can focus better on the edges of the bed (this is why the v600 can't scan larger format films, and in general focus around the edges is a limitation of flat bed scanners) but with the v600 we only use the center anyway, so I'm not sure if the added benefits are really worth it. On that note, one of the bigger reasons drum scanners are/were better is that the lens holds a constant distance from the medium and can focus better across the image - however with the scanners we have today and how affordable they are, I'm not sure that's as true now as it was back when I was in print around the year 2000.

So in conclusion, and again I apologize about the poor writing in this post, if you want a v700 they are affordable so go get one, or if you do large format film you will need one, if you want a great scanner for 35mm and medium format, and don't know if you need a v700 then for $200 (today) you can buy a great scanner. Back when I was in print scanners like these were well over $1000 for something that wouldn't be great by today's standards. So again, a person can't really lose here, either one will do a great job.