Top critical review
1.0 out of 5 starsD&S Filter Performance is Dissapointing and
Reviewed in the United States on August 18, 2020
At $1200, the Epson v850 is definitely priced in the professional scanner category. You would expect every single feature of this scanner to perform better than a scanner that costs under $200. However, this scanner disappoints in a major way that Epson still has not been able to resolve. This makes the scanner a complete waste of money for the prosumer who is photo archiving old photos, slides and negatives.
The Major Issue:
-When scanning from the Epson v850, you have several options, including one of the most important known as the “Dust & Scratches” filter. TWhen enabled, this feature allows the scanner and its software to analyze the image to remove small flecks of dust, scratches or tears which may exist on the photo or negative.
-When you enabled this feature on the Epson scanner, the result is extremely disappointing. The result is an image with MAJOR COLOR COMPRESSION throughout the entire photo, which causes serious defect to the scanned image. It doesn't matter which level of D&S you use, the compression is always present. The compression does not exist with any other feature, it only exists with the Dust & Scratches filter.
-This is an extremely horrible side effect that completely ruins the scanned image. What makes this such an important consideration is that the D&S filter is probably the most important filter for scanning old photos, slides and negatives to both prosumer and consumer alike. Without the ability to use the built in D&S filter, the scanner becomes effectively useless to all but professionals who have quality aftermarket software and are willing to put in the additional time to clean up their scans.
-NOTE: It is likely that the Epson D&S filter issue is software related, and impacts all of Epson scanners which use this same software package. We hope it is resolved, but have little hope since the software has been in use for years and seen multiple updates without resolving this significant issue.
Other Comments:
-For professionals who won’t need to use the D&S filter, there is one area where the Epson excels, and that is dark area image quality and detail. However, this is still balanced by the fact that in general, the Epson tends to deliver less detail over all from its scans then Cannon scanners. It’s a give and take situation, there is no clear winner. You can either have good detail throughout from a Cannon, or softer Epson scans with greater black area detail.
All of our tests were done at optical resolutions of 600dpi on photos and negatives. We compared hundreds of scans of the same image using a variety of scanner driver features. The Epson tends to scan a softer image that has more red bias and less yellow overall. The Cannon scanners provide full image detail (akin to looking at the image under a magnifying lens), and provide richer color.
If you are scanning photos only (not negatives or slides), then amazingly, the very inexpensive ($90) newer Cannon Lide400 scanner delivers low res scans (600dpi or less) equal to or better than the Epson v850 pro. It also scans more quickly through its USB 3.0 interface.
Unless you are using the v850 for its advanced features (including negative scanning), its hard to see why anybody should shell out the $1200 price tag for it. The D&S filter issue, all but makes the scanner useless for the average consumer, and for professionals, is unable to replace every other scanner on your workbench.
