Epson Perfection 4990 Photo Scanner by Epson
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Our Price: $899.99 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: CE See more digital camera details and other models |
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Digital camera reviews of Epson Perfection 4990 Photo Scanner
Digital camera Review: At present Canon 9950F's main competitor - is it better ?
Summary: 4 Stars
I use a Canon 9950F scanner at home, but chose this Epson Perfection 4990 for work use (to scan things like very hi-res B&W TEM negatives as well as 35mm slides). So how do the two very similar priced and spec'd scanners compare? Well essentially in terms of the quality of 35mm negative and slide scans there is nothing in it. Both scanners provide high quality images at 2400 dpi but the miniscule gains in scanning at 4800dpi simply aren't worth the 4x increase in file size (to nearer 100Mb). By comparing scan quality from both machines I really couldn't find any significant difference at all. This is echoed by the very useful in-depth reviews of both scanners at independent photo-i.co.uk .
The Canon 9950F has the advantage of scanning 12 slides or 30 negatives at a go compared to the Epson's 8 slides or 24 negatives. The Canon is definitely a bit better built and put together (e.g. fitting the reflective plate is really fiddly on the Epson and their 35mm slide holder design makes removing slides slightly more tricky). Canon's in-house FARE dust removal is similar and a little faster than Epson Digital ICE (Kodak) dust removal. However Epson score's highly with its far better TWAIN software and can scan up to full A4 negatives (the Canon is fixed to it's film holder sizes to 4x5 inch max). Both scanners are now supplied with Silverfast SE twain software as well as the in-house version. This is less useful for the Canon as Silverfast doesn't support FARE, although it does allow the Canon to scan negatives to A4. In order to get more functionality out of the Canon I have upgraded to Silverfast Ai for another $115 (still no FARE support though) - whereas with this Epson 4990 I am happy with the Epson TWAIN interface. This Epson 4990 also deals with odd film sizes like my childhood Kodak Instamatic 125 slides that are square rather than 35mm oblong - the Canon 9950F twain driver is so useless it chops off the top and bottom to fit them to 35mm size (and you can't do anything about it unless you use Silverfast without FARE dust removal instead). Plus Sivlerfast supports ICE on this Epson.
Scanned image quality is a little soft with 35mm film on both scanners compared to a Nikon slide scanner (although the out-of-focus effect at 100% is also because the scanners have a higher resolution than the film grain). Things like shadows and sharpen are best left to Photoshop post-processing rather than using the TWAIN options (I do use Photoshop CS2 not 'elements' as supplied). So the 35mm scans require things like Unsharp Mask (USM) and shadow/highlight. In fairness all digital camera images are normally highly image processed (e.g. noise reduced, colour balanced and sharpened) by the camera, so expect to use Scan/Scangear or Photoshop to do the same with scans. The 35mm film image quality is very good for the price, particularly with ~100 ASA slide, and very similar to that of the Canon 9950F (and appears rather better than results from my dedicated 35mm 2700dpi Benq Scanwit 2740S film scanner, particularly for cheap 400 ASA colour negatives and shadows - although these flatbed scanners need more twain and post-scan tweaking to get the best results). Cheap colour negatives always scan very badly as they are often higher ASA (larger grain size) and were not deigned to be enlarged beyond A4.
Scanning quality on anything else like photographs, A4 paper or large format negatives is naturally top notch, as the optimal resolution of 2400 dpi of these scanners is well beyond that of the source material - or the resulting image file size would be too enormous for any home/office use anyway. Even professionals would find these scanners OK for large 4x5" and larger negatives or working copies of 35mm. I have compared this Epson's and the Canon's output to that of £12,000 Imacon Flextight 484 drum scanner, and for my old consumer 100 ASA slides and film, there's very little difference in image quality - the Flextight fuzz is a little sharper at full mag and dark shadows are resolved a tiny bit better with less noise (and don't need `shadow/highlight'), but that's all - naturally the Flextight scans at for higher speeds though. So this Epson's a highly recommended and incredibly versatile scanner - although also check out it's new upmarket stable mates the Epson V700 and V750 at Amazon. These flatbed scanners have few benefits over far cheaper stable-mates if you don't want to scan film or photographs though.
Digital camera Review: Better than the 4490 and Canon 8600f
Summary: 5 Stars
I forst tried the Canon 8600f which was a fine scanner, but poor at 35mm slides and negatives. Resolution on 35mm films was mediocre, and color balance was consistently poor. Upgrading to the Epson 4490 from the Canon brought slightly better resolution, and significantly better color with it. The Epson moving light source is obviously superior.
Going from the 4490 to the 4990 I didn't expect much of a benefit for 35mm sources, since the optical resolution is the same on both. I was surprised to find that in addition to the increased dmax (which helps significantly with underexposed slides) the resolution is again a step up from the last. I was considering trying the V700, but I am now getting adequately sharp scans from my 35mm media.
Also, for those wondering...digital ICE is FARRRR superior to Canon's FARE. I am a Canon user exclusively when it comes to photographic equipment. I was surprised the Epsons were so much better in the scanner department. The 4990 is a bang for buck winner in my book. To get any better with 35mm you need a dedicated Minolta or Nikon film scanner for a whole lot more $$$$$!
Digital camera Review: EPSON 4990 LIVES UP TO MY EXPECTATIONS
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought the scanner to use mainly in my retail imaging business as a flat-bed scanner for photos and reflective art. I own several flat-bed scanners and I have other scanning solutions for film and slides. Imagine my surprise when this Epson scanner produced incredible scans of 35mm slides and negs. Nikon better watch your back.
This Epson is the best scanner I have owned. The ICE feature works very well for film and slides but it is way overhyped for use on on prints. In fact, I am not totally sure it even works on prints, but I suppose it must do something.
Using the ICE feature adds significantly to overall scan times. As a commercial production tool I would only use ICE when absolutely needed. You can grow whiskers while waiting for the thing to finish. That said, when I ICE'd 35mm slide scans (even dirty ones) they looked absolutely pristine.
The Epson software is good and they also throw in Silver Flash which is becoming an industry standard.
This scanner is sooooooo quiet. Compared to my noisy, squeeky, Microtek flat-bed scanner; well, there really is no comparison. Sometimes I have to put my ear to the Epson just to see if it is working.
Fit and finish is near perfect. Amazon delivered a well-packed product, on time.
As a side note, if you want the very best "movie-style" scanning training on the web, go to lynda.com and look for Taz Tally's videos on scanning basics. I do this stuff for a living and Taz has been an invaluable aid. Actually, lynda.com is the best web-training anywhere.
RonR
Digital camera Review: Epsom 4990 Scanner
Summary: 5 Stars
The Epson 4990 is a flat-bed scanner. If you are looking for a scanner that can handle very under-exposed 35-mm film, this is not the scanner for you. Choose instead a dedicated film scanner such as the Nikon CoolScan-IV or a similar film scanner for acceptable results. For normally exposed 35-mm film, the 4990 does an excellent job! For larger images, positives and negatives, it does an excellent job too.
I purchased this scanner with the intent of digitizing old family photographs, transparencies (negatives and positives), and some documents in lieu of a xerographic copier. My expectations were that the photographs and transparencies be digitized perfectly. They were. I just expected documents to be convenient to copy. This expectation was met too.
What can I say? The positive results are there. The negative results are non-existent. I am very happy with this scanner for all my scanning needs from photographic to documents except at the photographic exposure extremes where a dedicated film scanner is dictated.
Epson Perfection 4990 Photo Flatbed Scanner
Digital camera Review: Epson 4990
Summary: 4 Stars
A very good machine with high resolution for a good price but it has a delicate feel to it. Film and slide holders are flimsy and will not stand up to heavy use. Software installs easily, runs well and dust removal feature works better than expected but is a little slow despite the USB 2 connection. It arrived undamaged, but it is not well protected in it's shipping coantainer. Overall, however I'm pleased.