My initial tests between the Epson 4990 Pro and the Epson V750 M Pro show a small but clear improvement in sharpness and shadow detail in the V750. Though I doubt that these small images here will really show much, the difference is clear to me looking at the originals. This test is consistent with soon to be published tests by a friend of mine in a photo magazine.
All scans were done using Silverfast AI 6 with no adjustments, dry and repeated many times to check for consistency. The 750 scans were run with an "out of the box" setup with no attempt to improve sharpness by adjusting film holder height whereas the 4990 which I have owned for a long time was used "tuned" for optimum sharpness. All scans were done at 2400 DPI (which is generally considered the real resolution for the 4990).
Surprisingly the V750 is slightly slower with a scan speed of 4.5 minutes for 180MB file vs. 4 minutes for the 4990.
The real question is whether the difference is enough to matter in a print. I can't tell you that yet nor can I say what is the real resolution of the V750 (my friend says it is a real 3200). My thinking is that every little bit of resolution helps allowing me to use less sharpening. I have long agreed with the 4x enlargement limit (barely acceptable) for sub $1000.00 flatbed scanners. This scanner will not break that barrier, but it does appear to be an improvement.
The images are from left to right: Full Image, 4990, V750. The crops are at 100%.
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