Quote Originally Posted by ndwgolf View Post
Question
I live in Malaysia, I asked the Epson rep if he can get me a Epson 850 scanner but he told me they only have the 800 in Malaysia...........I can easily get it from B&H and have it shipped.............should I do that or just take the 800.
I want it for scanning 4 x 5 Negs and printing up to A2

Thanks

Neil


I've a V850.

I found two differences compared to the 800.

The important one is software version. Silverfast scanning software version of the V850 has the Multi-exposure feature. Multi-Exposure is very necessary if you are to scan slides. Velvia and Provia can deliver very deep shadows, with Multi-exposure activated scanner makes two different exposures before advancing to next row, one is for the lights and the other for shadows. In this way very deep shadows have less noise and more detail. Still very, very deep shadows of Velvia/Provia need a drum scanner, and no Flatbed will do that perfect.

For common B/W and color negatives Multi-exposure may not be necessary.


If you buy the V800 you can later purchase a software upgrade for Silverfast (LaserSoft Imaging is the company) that will allow Multi-Exposure.


The other V850 vsV800 advantage is that internal lens has some coating, but in practice this cannot be noticed, IMHO.

Our V850 came with a single set of holders...


Compared to the previous V750 and V700 difference is that 800/850 has a LED illuminator (700/750 had a lamp). LEDs are very stable over time and calibrations are not necessary, also no wait for lamp warming.

One think I like of the V850 is that the delivered image is very raw, with no hidden sharpening or color enhancing, this gives more freedom for post process, for example in a portrait I can use different algorithms for sharpening eyes than for the cheek.

Some glamorous scanners perform a variety of internal digital image enhancing operations to justify price...