27. September 2007

The
PRO bundle
a review of the Epson Perfection V750 and the SilverFast Ai Studio software

Preface
A while back - last year - Epson released the Epson Perfection V700 and V750 PRO flatbed scanners.
Since my main scanning needs is film-scanning (transparencies to be precise), I've been reluctant to even look at flatbed scanners the last many years.
However, back when film scanners for medium format was out of my economical reach, I used the quite excellent Epson 1640SU scanner for that purpose.
Several scanner generations later, the Epson V750 PRO is here and technology has certainly moved on since my 1640SU-days.
I've had the opportunity to give the V750 bundled with the SilverFast Ai Studio software a go and you can read about my tests as well as my opinion here.

The Epson V750 scanner
Film scanning should be done with a dedicated film-scanner - right? Well, maybe not. The Epson Perfection V750 PRO is aimed at the professional and enthusiast market, and it's not just for reflective scans!


Photo courtesy Epson

Unlike my old Epson 1640SU the V750 features a 200x250mm (approx. DIN A4) transparency scan-area, it's a "true" 6400 dpi scanner, with 16 bit internal and external (output) resolution. It has built-in Digital ICE technology^TM for dust removal, a dual-lens system and, unlike the cheaper V700, an optical coating that should eliminate reflections and ghosting.
There are film holders for several formats - read more below.
The V750 PRO comes bundled with Monaco EZ Color and SilverFast Ai software (mine had no Monaco EZ, but was shipped to me with SilverFast Ai Studio and Adobe Elements 3.0).

The SilverFast Ai Studio


Photo courtesy LaserSoft Imaging AG

Let me first point out that, unfortunately, the Epson scanner normally comes bundled with the Ai, NOT the Ai Studio software! The difference is in the calibration option of the Studio version. If your scanner came bundled with the EZ Monaco Color, you can use that to create a profile for the scanner, but I'll be reviewing the Ai Studio version and will also comment on the built in calibration option.
Anyway, I've been using the SilverFast software from LaserSoft Imaging AG on my Minolta Dimage Scan Multi PRO and I'm now keen to test it on the Epson scanner as well.
Especially the Multi Exposure function, which I've also been reviewing for the Minolta scanner.

Film holders
Now back to the scanner.
The V750 comes with film holders for several formats: 35mm strips, 35mm mounted slides, medium format strips and 4"x5" large format.


The film holder for medium format film strips.

Besides this the scanner will scan anything that is placed on the glass, so even larger formats could be scanned as well.
In addition a wet-mount film holder can be purchased, but is not part of the standard bundle and is not tested here. (Se the links section below for more info).

To put it simple: I'm not impressed by the quality of the film holders and I would not call them "professional" by any means. They are made of quite soft and thin plastic an although they aren't that bad in holding even curled medium format film strips, they are a bit too primitive for a "professional" scanner.



OK, they aren't terrible; they have small rubber pieces that presses against the lit and guides that keeps them in place while scanning.
But, the film holders of the Minolta Multi PRO are in a different league altogether.
Well, having said this they do however serve their purpose of holding the film strips and are rather intuitive to use but you must be careful in order not to break them.

First scans (EPSON Scan)
The Epson Scan problem
This is a review of the V750 and the LaserSoft software, but I have a point in showing you what the Epson software produced.
So, I installed the Epson drivers and software on Windows Vista - no problems everything ran smooth.
The Epson software itself does not offer any color calibration, so I just have to make do, with what the scanner sees.

I knew from the excellent review made by Vincent Oliver at the www.photo-i.co.uk site, that the 4800dpi scans made using the Epson driver produced strange artifacts, however, he writes that the SilverFast software also can produce these artifact). I had to test that for 3200dpi and 6400dpi as well.
I frequently get these artifacts when using the EpsonScan - even in 3200 dpi - and I consistently do NOT get them when using SilverFast (!?)


6400dpi scan, Epson to the left (with some sharpening done by the driver-software) and SilverFast to the right. The red arrows marks the artifacts made by Epson Scan.


3200dpi scan, Epson Scan artifacts.

Although Epson Scan might have it's virtues in simplicity and a neat and simple design etc. and although these artifact might be minute, I don't like to have it in a scan, if I don't need to - in other words, for me there's little point in using the Epson Scan for film scanning if I know I'm going to get artifacts(!)

A bit soft, but clean
Ignoring the artifact problem, which occurred here and there in 3200dpi scans, I went on a bit with the Epson Scan and found that the scanner could indeed produce excellent scans with a huge amount of details although somewhat softer than a dedicated film scanner.
Given that the "softness" actually hides a lot of film related artifacts - such at the dreaded Fuji Pepper Grain problem, dust and some of the film grain - the scans actually looks quite smooth AND with a lot of shadow details. Without any means to actually test it, it feels like this scanner is extracting as much shadow detail as the Minolta Multi PRO(!)
In fact the scans looks so smooth and still with a lot image details, that I want to compare it to my digital vs. medium format line up. (Way back when the 12Mp Canon 1Ds came out, I compared it to a medium format scan and found that although it didn't resolve quite as many details, the images looked very crisp and clear because of the lack of artifacts coming from either the film itself or the scan. You can read the test here).
Take a look:

Canon 1Ds. 50mm f8 1/100sec. RAW file.

6x6 Provia 100F. 80mm f8 1/125sec, Minolta Dimage Scan Multi PRO scan, 3200dpi.

Epson V750, 3200dpi Epson Scan software, sharpening added to the right.

The examples above actually demonstrates very clearly how well the Epson V750 performs. A bit softer than the dedicated Minolta film scanner, but in return you get a very smooth and clean image. The Minolta does show a bit more detail (perhaps not that evident in this crop), but you have to live with a lot of grain and dust as well.

A few words about focus
The Epson V750 PRO does not offer means for focusing - the lens is fixed and the focus area is "somewhere" above the glass plate.


"Film holder foot" in it's high position (pointing to the plus-sign).
The film holder us turned up side down here.
The film holders are standing on small plastic "feet" which can either be removed (to lower the film holder) or put in two positions (for higher placement of the film holder).
That's three positions in all - which is the best?



The above image shows four "focus levels". The first is without the film holder "feet" then with the feet in standard position then in highest position and finally with small pieces of cardboard placed under the feet by me.
It might be extremely difficult to see here, but what I see is the following: -1 is out if focus, 0 is better, 1 is even slightly better, and 2 is out of focus. In other words, I find the highest position of the feet to be optimal - not higher, not lower.
Fortunately this is on par with Vincent Oliver's findings.

Installation and Calibration
Back to the software of my focus: The SilverFast Ai Studio, which I will be using for the rest of this review.
Plase read my first LaserSoft review, to get a more general introduction to this excellent scanner software.

Installation
I closed down the Epson Scan and installed the SilverFast software - again everything ran smooth on Windows Vista.

Calibration
The scanner must be calibrated so the first thing is to load up the color target (that comes along with the Studio version) in the medium format film holder and make a preview. Remember from my earlier articles about the calibration subject, that a good gamma must be found prior to calibrating the scanner (it's not strictly necessary for the calibration process to work, but it helps you to avoid any shadow or highlight clipping later on). I make a crop around the target on the preview and try to find the best gamma. The gamma is adjusted on the Gamma Gradation of the General tab in the Options dialog.



The best gamma is when your histogram looks nicely distributed and you get a reading from the white patch (GS0) in the range of 235-250, the gray patch (GS11) should be 100-115 and finally the black patch (GS23) should read 10-25 (all according to Ian Lyons, www.computer-darkroom.com).
While this was easy on my film scanner it proved a bit difficult (read: impossible) on the Epson scanner. The histogram I got is too "narrow" and not wide spread enough. Anyway, I chose gamma 2.2 and made the calibration, that is, I pushed the calibration button and everything from there is automatic; SilverFast finds the target itself, makes a scan and creates a profile (with the name of SF_T (Epson PerfetctionV700). The profile for reflective scans is called SF_R (Epson PerfetctionV700)).
That's it, your profile is ready!
I then went to the color management setup to make sure things where as I want them (I want the scanner profile to be embedded, but I don't want to convert to eg. AdobeRGB until I'm sure what the image is going to be used for, and how, thereby keeping the raw-data and not altering them by converting to another color space).



Now what?
Well, a lot can be tested, but I want to focus on: What resolution should one (I) scan in with this scanner? How does MultiExposure work here?

Resolution
From the specs I can read that this is a 6400dpi scanner. I don't know exactly how this is measured, but it doesn't seem to be the exact same kind of dpi that my film scanner is measured with, because I think there are more details (slightly more) in my 3200dpi film-scanner-scans than in the 6400dpi flatbed scans.

But at what resolution should I scan then? I normally scan at 3200dpi, so I'm sort of used to that size. 6400dpi or even 4800dpi seems like a bit too much for, but let's see a comparison:


Multi PRO 3200dpi, V750 3200dpi, V750 6400dpi downsampled. 100% pixel size.

What we see above is a Kodak E100G positive film (medium format), scanned with the Minolta Dimage Scan Multi PRO film scanner at 3200dpi, then the same frame scanned at 3200dpi using the Epson V750 and finally scanned at 6400dpi using the V750 and downsampled to 3200.
The film scan does reveal more details and aren't soft, but the downsampled 6400dpi scan really shows a lot of details too - remember, this is a flatbed scanner with a glass plate and "fixed focus"(!)
But since the grain and dust isn't that obvious in the V750 scans, we can add quite a lot of sharpening. A bit of sharpening can be added to the film scan as well:

Multi PRO 3200dpi, V750 3200dpi, V750 6400dpi downsampled. 100% pixel size. Sharpened.

Amazing, the 6400dpi version got a tiny bit more grainy, because it has recorded more grain than the 3200dpi version. Still not as grainy as the film scan, but with a lot of details and a bit more than the 3200dpi scan.
But, if you look very carefully you'll notice that the film scanner (left) recorded a very subtle grid in the fence which isn't visible in the flatbed scan. This grid are the wires that makes up the fence.
However, I wouldn't be surprised if the Epson V750 scan looks cleaner and maybe even sharper than the film scan when printed.

And shadows?


Multi PRO 3200dpi, V750 3200dpi, V750 6400dpi downsampled. 100% pixel size. Shadow details.

The Epson is different from the film scanner, but not actually worse. I can't explain the difference between the 3200dpi and the 6400dpi scan.

"Flatbed photography"
One would think, that the V750 flatbed scanner is perfect for flatbed photography (using the scanner as a "camera" by simply putting small objects on top of the glass and then scan what the scanner sees. You can read my article about this subject here).
Unfortunately this is not quite the case. Of course the resolution is absolutely amazing and details are plentiful, but as 3D objects move away from the focus area a few millimeters the scanner prolongs the objects in the scan direction, thus making a circular object oval etc. This is a shame, because the resolution is so amazing.
When I discovered this problem, I went back to measure the slide scans - could there also be a very small prolonging in the scan direction? Fortunately the answer is: No, the scans are in the focus area and they keep the correct proportions.
I did, however, manage to make a couple of good scans, but had to shrink the image in one direction afterwards.
Details are plentiful (that was an understatement, in these objects, the amount of details is amazing). I print these to A2 with ease.


Multi Exposure
If you read my former article about this new feature in SilverFast you will know what it's all about, if not, here's the explanation again:
We've had Multi Sampling (MS) so far; a mechanism for layering multiple scans to eliminate noise from the CCD in dense areas. Some scanners supports this feature in hardware and it can really improve the dynamic range and reveal more shadow details. However, the new Multi Exposure (ME) options seems to use a slightly different approach by scanning only twice, but with different exposure-times (?) The algorithm is patent-pending by LaserSoft Imaging and I'm not aware of the exact inner workings.

ME and Epson V750
The ME function did wonders to shadow details on the Minolta scanner, so let's see how it performs on the Epson V750.
The Multi Exposure option is selected via this button in the pre-scan window:


Please observe that you must either select ME or multi sampling (which aren't the same, read above!) not both.

I'll start with an extreme example:



The image above has details in the shadows that a scanner will have a hard time digging out. However, when using the ME function we'll notice a lot more details. Here a detail from the roof:

A dark scan with Multi Exposure (left) and without Multi Exposure (right).

This is an extreme example. However, ME is very effective at "cleaning up" shadow areas in far less extreme situations.
Look at this scan from a 35mm slide (Fuji Provia 100F, 3200dpi):


Multi Exposure (left) and without Multi Exposure (right). Levels and unsharp mask applied.

It's very clear that the details in the brick wall are hidden in digital noise in the image to the right, whereas the ME (left) has cleaned up the shadow area.

A few problems
OK, not all this perfect.
I discovered problems with the ME if there's alignment problems. Alignment problems occurs if the film "moves" during the two ME scans. The film will bend or stretch a bit while being under the heat of the lamp in the scanner. The problems can be largely avoided if you "single-scan" the film before the ME scan (thereby heating it up). This is of course not optimal, but then again the misalignment artifacts are small and are not always present, but I'll will look for them after a ME scan.
Only saw these on my medium format scans, never on the 35mm scans.




Multi Exposure misalignment artifacts. 3200dpi, 100%

Mostly the advantage of shadow details and reduced digital noise is greater than the problems with artifacts. But, they can be there.
On the Minolta using the glass holder this was not a problem, and I would therefore assume that with the optional wet mount glass holder for the V750 the problem would also be solved. However, wet mounting is not something I will venture into to.

ME and ICE
The V750 comes with Digital ICE, and that gave some problems on the Minolta scanner. LaserSoft Imaging has been working on an update and I will leave this subject for a later test. I will test the ICE more thoroughly on both scanners.

Conclusion
Using the SilverFast software on the Epson V750 PRO results in really stunning scans. They are clean, free of artifacts and if you use the MultiExposure function as well you'll get a lot of shadow details and an almost noise free image (without using any noise suppression software).
Had this scanner and software combination been available when I bought the Minolta, well, I might not have spend the extra money on the dedicated film scanner(!). The results are that impressive.
If you still want to shoot film or have a lot of old transparencies or negatives laying around, then consider giving this combo a try!

Links
• SilverFast.com LaserSoft Imagings site.
• EPSON V750 PRO Read more about the EPSON V750 PRO at the EPSON UK site..
• LaserSoft Imaging - SilverFast - Multi Exposure MultiExposure on the Minolta Dimage Scan Multi PRO.
• SilverFast Ai 6 - for Minolta Dimage Scan Multi PRO A former article about SilverFast.
• Minolta Dimage Scan Multi Pro - Review My review of the Dimage Scan Multi PRO film scanner.
• EPSON V750 PRO - Review The excellent review made by Vincent Oliver at Photo-i.co.uk.

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