Hello Alan,
First, let me say that everytime a serious side by side has been made the Epson has shown impressive excellence in LF.
See this, the Epson equals a "modern" Creo and and a 11000 Drum, while surpassing an older Creo:
https://www.largeformatphotography.i...=1#post1479178
It only required 2.5pix 50% sharpening radius and a little touch in the curves shaping a bit in S to totally match the drum sample.
The challenge you will face with the V850 is Sharpening and "resolution management". Sharpening is always complex. Also you have to save a Hires image (4800 or 6400) in TIFF, 16 bits/channel and taking all histogram to get a dull image then sharpen, reduce image size with "bicubic, ideal for reductions" choice in the image size dialog, bend curves to fit the monitor/paper dynamic range, edit, save a Hires file copy, resize to the distribution size, make a final pixel level sharpening (also bicubic for reductions), then convert to 8bit per channel, and save that file in TIFF and in jpeg.
That workflow sequence is important... you may vary something but really not much. Pro scanners may do internally well digital sharpening and resolution managent, but with the Epson you have to edit like Professionals do make a perfect job.
If you search "Epson" and "Crap" in this forum you will find many results, those are absolute lies. If you know how to edit an image Professionally then you'll get absolutely Professional results with the Epson.
Do something, if you want... order a Pro drum scan of challenging negative, then try to match it with the Epson, if you have any missmatch then PM with dropbox and I'll guide you to nail a perfect match.
99% of complains about the EPSON for LF are in fact shorcommings in the edition skills or pure lies from people that had dirty commercial interests, just this: if for LF you can't match a drum job then just PM and I'll show you how to do it, I won't fail.
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Disclaimer, it is true that for LF sometimes (5%) a drum ca do a better job. For example for a mural print from 4x5 where grain depiction is to be important a 8000dpi drum scan will show a way better grain structure, but not much difference will be there compared with a 4000dpi drum scan.
For very underexopsed Velvia use Multi-exposure in silverfast. For crazy underexposed Velvia a drum may be required.
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