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: Nice colors. Good software. Great scanner for a variety of film
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a nice scanner. BE CAREFUL to UNLOCK BOTH transportation locks!! Epson should really put an electronic kill switch for those who mess up here. I skimmed the instructions since I've set up numerous previous machines and unlocked one lock but not the upper lock. Ooops! Luckily the machine doesn't seem to be damaged.
The scans from 4x5 film are fantastic. Make sure to use a fair amount of unsharp masking in Photoshop when done scanning. I've used 200%, Radius 2.0, Threshold 1 to extract more detail. When doing this, it is difficult to distinguish the result between the 4990 and that of an expensive drum scanner.
A scan from a 35mm negative is much better than I expected. I've made 8x10 prints from a scanned 35mm negative and it looks very very good.
Scans needed minimal color correction which is a great time saver. I'm quite impressed with SilverFast SE which is bundled with the scanner.
The film holders could be better as they are a bit flimsy.
Digital camera Review: Nice images, old software, many film holders
Summary: 4 Stars
I got this Epson scanner recently to replace an older HP Scan Jet that did fine scans of photos but was limited on size and quantity of film handling.
The Epson comes with film holders/frames for:
35mm mounted slides (8 per)...this is a grid of plastic that you put on the glass, then put the slides in it to hold them in place. This is a bit clunky as you have to dig the slides out or pick up the holder and then the loose slides after scanning (wear gloves or clean the glass frequently). Also, unfortunately, about a millimeter of the top and bottom of the image gets cut off. You may have to switch to a less convenient process to crop and scan individually.
35mm negs (4 strips x 7 negs per) - there are two loose frames that snap down on 2 strips each...
120 negs (3 strips x 2 images though film strip can be longer) with attached hinged frame over each strip...
4x5 negs (2) with individual attached hinged frame...Unfortunately, under some conditions this splits the images into many smaller pieces, so again you may have to switch to a less convenient process to crop and scan individually.
A "film image area frame" that defines the 8x10 area that will scan if you want to just put a bunch of loose negs on the glass.
Although it is nice to have all the film-handling holders, you'll need to figure out where you will keep them all when not in use. Don't forget you'll need to find a place for the cover you'll remove from the lid to expose the lamp for film scans, as well. With the little "door handles" on some frames, the soft plastic-covered foam side of the removable cover, and the somewhat flimsy nature of the film area frame, you'll have an inch high stack of frames to handle and protect.
I have not delved into all aspects of the included software, but here are a few observations:
Epson Scan has a simple "Home" mode for scans with minimal adjustments, or a "Professional" mode with a selection of tweaks if needed.
The Adobe Elements is V2.0 (now 4 versions out of date), but it allows scanning a bunch of images into it (not all programs can do that), so it is fine for that purpose (and the only thing I use it for).
SilverFast SE 6 seems to be an older version, and a "lite" one as well. Have not used it so I have no other comments except the manual is in 6 languages (usually a bad sign). In fact, the instructions are only 17 small pages per language. You'll probably learn by doing...
Also included is ABBYY FineReader Sprint OCR software to scan text into editable text documents. It works, though as with any OCR software, you'll normally need to correct some typos.
In some type of small glitch, after scanning a batch of images into Elements, I have to close Epson Scan before I can perform any function in Elements, such as saving a file. So, after I scan and save 16 or so images, I have to "acquire" Epson Scan again. This is not really a big deal, though I have to re-select the source every time, and there is no way to change the default from "PDF" to "Perfection 4990". If I did not have to close it every time, it would still be set for the scanner.
I was a little skeptical of the image quality I would get by scanning negatives, but I'm quite happy with the output - except for the image getting cut off on 35mm slides. I scan at 600 dpi, which produces 4x6/5x7-ish sized images (from 35mm). I touch up the 600k-or-so sized JPGs (you can save as other formats such as TIFs in Elements if you need it) as needed using Firehand Ember. This reduces the size to around 100K, but keeps the dimensions and makes nice "proof prints" on the monitor.
It takes perhaps 5-8 minutes to scan about 16 negs at 600 dpi. You can scan at 4800 or more even, though your scan time goes way up. If you use the ICE feature, you'll want to find something to do between scans as the time is 10 minutes or so each.
It's a little pricey if you just want paper scans (you can do that for $100), but I'm happy with the output, film handling (except 35mm slides), and general ease of use. However, if you want cutting edge software, you'll need to get that separately, or upgrade, I suppose.
Digital camera Review: Nice step up
Summary: 4 Stars
I've used plenty of Epson scanners before but this one does top the cake. It turns out beautiful scans of photographs and does an amazing job with 35mm slides and film negatives.
I would have given the scanner a 5 star rating except that there were a few issues. The first is that a high end scanner such as this should have a Firewire pass through so that it can be part of a longer chain of devices. Secondly, I'm using the scanner on a Mac OS X machine and the software took a few tries before the entire package loaded. I also get some "application unexpectedly quit" when quitting out of the application. Lastly, although the results of the 35mm slide scans were fantastic getting up and running was a little less than intuitive.
If you want a great general purpose photo scanner, don't hesitate on this one.
Digital camera Review: Noisy scanner
Summary: 2 Stars
This scanner did several transparencies very well. When we tried a regular scan, the belt made a harsh grinding noise. The office directly across from mine even commented on hearing it. The weird thing is that with this terrible noise is that the scan was great. If you can handle a loud, grind...great pick-up.Digital camera Review: One of the best!
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a well engineered and versatile scanner. Film holders are numerous and well designed; film scanning rivals some
dedicated film scanners. Scanning is quiet and of highest quality, especially if the operator knows how to use the settings, curves, etc. Highly recommended.