Epson V850 v. Old Aztec Plateau Scanner

[Joseph Kayne]

I may have a chance to get an old Aztec Plateau flatbed scanner 10-15 years old. Would you go with the old Aztec or buy and new Epson V850? I'll be scanning 8x10 wet plates...The Aztec probably did better scans at one point or may still..... Thanks. Joe.

[Pere Casals]

I may have a chance to get an old Aztec Plateau flatbed scanner 10-15 years old. Would you go with the old Aztec or buy and new Epson V850? I'll be scanning 8x10 wet plates...The Aztec probably did better scans at one point or may still..... Thanks. Joe.

I'd go to the V850.

With the V850 you have a trouble free led illumination, no troubles, a good service and warranty.

For the wet 810 plates you won't find any limitation in the V850, IMHO, the density range in the plates are not to be a problem for the V850.

The 810 plates will be scanned with the lowress lens (the highres one covers 5.9") but anyway you may obtain around 2000 dpi effective if scanning with higher dpi, and this is a lot of information totaling some effective 300 Mpix for a 810 area.

Scans under 5.9" wide are done with a lens that delivers 6400 hardware dpi that ends in some 2300 effective dpi, while the lowres lens delivers 4800 hardware dpi.

IMHO the V850 is not a Pro scanner, I'd say it's semi-pro. Somebody that's all day long using the scanner may prefer Pro equipment, but for other kinds of usage it's an ideal device.

See how it compares in this informal test aganist a Hassy: https://petapixel.com/2017/05/01/16000-photo-scanner-vs-500-scanner/

Not lab test, but I have to say that this is consistent with what I've seen.

The V850 weakness would be 35mm film, a roll film scanner does it better. Also extreme densities (> 3.4D) found in Velvia are not easy, anyway result improves by using multiexposure feature from Silverfast...

But for 810 plates I doubt you find a better choice !

[Peter De Smidt]

I’d go for the 850, as well.

[Doug Fisher]

With a scanner that old, you will also want to confirm the interface type to make sure your current PC can attach to it and that the transfer rate is decent. Confirm it comes with software and that the software can be installed on your current operating system. If you have to buy your own license, that can often be a deal killer.

Doug

[Steven Ruttenberg]

V850. I own one and it is great.