Epson V850 Perfection ,Will it scan 8x10 Film ?

[Torontoamateur]

I have read the answers and they are of no help . Treat this as deleted. I found my answers in threads from 2015 and several other experienced 8x10 photographer's web sites.

[Two23]

Yes it will. I have the previous model v700 and have often scanned 8x10.


Kent in SD

[Alan Klein]

It scans 8x10 (and I believe 5x7) with a second scanner lens that doesn't resolve as well as the primary lens. 8x10 film sits on the glass platen. The second lens is used for that film. All the other smaller film sizes like 4x5,120 and 35mm have their own film holders that keep the film a little higher above the glass. The primary lens is used to scan these latter films. I believe the primary lens is glass and the secondary lens is plastic.

I don't shoot 8x10 or 5x7 so I never compared quality with smaller formats. Of course, due to the large size of 8x10, a less quality scanner lens might not matter much.

[Torontoamateur]

Or will I have a better result if I use my Nikon 800E to digitize my 8x10 film? I have the light box already Has anyone tried this?

[Kiwi7475]

Or will I have a better result if I use my Nikon 800E to digitize my 8x10 film? I have the light box already Has anyone tried this?

It will definitely scan 8x10 and will yield likely more than enough resolution and Dmax for most objectives. A single shot with a D800 won’t even come close unless you use multiple shots to scan different portions of the negative and combine in post. But that requires quite a bit of infrastructure to perform well.

We should back up. What are you trying to achieve in the end? Then we can talk about the right means to achieve it.

[Jim Andrada]

5 x 7 can be scanned with the high res lens in the 750 so I suspect it will be the same story in the 800/850. I was wet mounting 5 x 7 with the so-called mounting station until I got my IQsmart-2

[Torontoamateur]

What do I want? Peace on Earth! What will I settle for? A scanned image from 8x10 that can easily and with high quality enlarge 4X or with luck 6X. Any thing more will go to a drum scanner pro.

[Duolab123]

Make a contact print, then scan that.

[Torontoamateur]

Cant do that with a velvia 50 transparency.

[Duolab123]

Cant do that with a velvia 50 transparency.

Truth!

[grat]

Even the "low-res" lens should hit 2400 PPI, so printing at 300 DPI, you get 8x enlargement. 600 DPI, 4x enlargement.

[md-photo]

I have scanned on a V700 at a max of 2400 DPI, and have gotten a Provia image as large as 220MB. I haven't tried enlargement but I have a feeling that shouldn't be an issue.

[Alan Klein]

Even the "low-res" lens should hit 2400 PPI, so printing at 300 DPI, you get 8x enlargement. 600 DPI, 4x enlargement.

Yes, you can get the same resolution. But it uses the second lens which supposedly is not a good as the primary lens used with smaller formats.

[Alan Klein]

Curious if anyone has actually scanned a smaller format like a 4x5 on the platen glass vs. using the 4x5 film holder and compared the difference?

[grat]

Yes, you can get the same resolution. But it uses the second lens which supposedly is not a good as the primary lens used with smaller formats.

Please define "not as good"-- it's a terribly vague term. There's a lot of FUD and misunderstanding about the Epson scanners, and vague terms don't help.

Some technical bits:

There are two lenses. According to Epson, they are capable of 4800 and 6400 PPI, respectively.

https://epson.com/For-Work/Scanners/Photo-and-Graphics/Epson-Perfection-V850-Pro-Photo-Scanner/p/B11B224201#specifications

The 4800 PPI lens is the one that most people test with the USAF 1951 target, because as far as I know, the target won't mount on a negative holder-- it's going to sit on the glass. This is the same lens that you'll use for 8x10.

Most tests show that you can get 2600 PPI reliably out of that combination. A small amount of sharpening in post should compensate (mostly) for the usual softness associated with consumer flatbed scanners-- so my statement that you can easily get 2400 PPI out of an 8x10 is based on some measure of fact.

The high resolution lens, which is rated at 6400 PPI, because of it's fixed-focus, only works with negatives suspended approximately 3mm above the glass-- there is apparently some variation in the scanners as they ship from the factory, so you can compensate a bit with the negative holders, particularly with the v800 series holders, as they have 5 adjustable positions for each corner of the negative.

Epson also states the maximum area for a negative in a film holder is 5.9" x 9.74", implying the high resolution lens has slightly less coverage than the low resolution lens (8x10" for transparencies, 8.5x11.7" for reflective).

To my knowledge, no one has done reproducible tests to determine the resolution capability of the second lens.

[Kiwi7475]

To add to grat’s knowledgeable response, comparing is tricky because with the holder the adjustment of the height can make quite a difference, and also the film won’t be as flat as it can be on the glass when pressed down by an ANR glass.

I’ve said this before but based on my own investigations (which are not that scientific as to be publishable in a journal, lol, but FWIW), I don’t see more than maybe a ~10% improvement in resolution (before applying any sharpening) when using the high res lens, and that’s after spending a lot of time adjusting the height and with film that is very flat (depends on the type of film). I’ve also noted that over time the height adjustment changes so I need to readjust (might be temperature or just simply that handling the holder over time creates shifts in the adjustments, I can’t tell). But when using the glass all that goes away, and by pressing the film with another glass you ensure it’s flatness.

To me it’s a no brainer for scanning 4x5. And did I mention I can scan 2 in one go? The flow simplification is quite remarkable, and to me whether my 4x5 achieves 130 Mpixels or 145 Mpixels of resolution is not that important. If it were, for that few prints that I really want to squeeze the last bit out of, I would send them to get drum scanned.

[Tin Can]

Now that I have an entire winter to experiment, I am going to try again 2 pieces of 8X10 AN Glass sandwiching 8X10 / 5X7 film and fooling my V700 into both modes.

Today I scanned MF Roll Film for the first time in 7 years, no glass and the film was bowed...

Amazing results!