Customer Reviews

Epson Perfection 4990 Photo Scanner

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Seldom have I been so pleased with a purchase at the start and SO disappointed after a few years!

UNLIKE the Microtek scanner I previously owned that gave me nothing but aggravation from the git-go, I loaded the software, plugged the Epson 4990 in with the included USB cable and, using Photoshop as the platform, IMMEDIATELY scanned an 8 x 10 page of medium format negatives successfully. Eyeballing the colors, I did not think ANY correction was needed. I had NO PROBLEMS loading the software or with anything else.

I subsequently read the CD contained instructions and found that I had failed to use the 8 x 10 transparent media placement guide. It worked ANYWAY!

This scanner is particularly suited for "serious" amateur and professional photographers. It comes with negative holders for 35mm, 120 and 4 x 5 sheet film. In addition, as noted above, it will also scan the whole 8 x 10 inch area so you can do proof sheets from your transparent negative file pages.

I also scanned a music CD cover and liner, using Photoshop to convert the liner to black and white, and a 4 x 6 color photo. The scanner worked perfectly on all. The resolution of the four to six point type of the CD liner was crisp. This was a scan as a reflective image and NOT using OCR software.

Since I wrote my original review, I have had an opportunity to try the scanner with Caere OCR software. The 4990 did a spectacualr job of reading some old documents. It only had problems with type that was over a severe fold in the paper or obscured by marks from the very old photocopying processes. This is to be expected.

A little less than five years after I bought this scanner and having used the "transparent media adapter" (TMA) just a few times, the TMA DIED. The TMA, and capability to scan four 4X5 sheets of film simultaneously was my primary reason for purchasing this then top of the line scanner. Since the scanner was long out of warranty, I took it at my expense to an authorized Epson repair facility for diagnosis. A part that held the pulley in place for the TMA light source had BROKEN OFF within the TMA. I was advised that it could NOT be repaired. I contacted Epson customer support who told me I would need to buy a COMPLETE new TMA unit.

Not only was Epson not willing to sell directly to me (instead, I would have needed to buy through an authorized repair facility and pay them a fee or commission for their "trouble" in placing the part order - NO installation is required for this part), but Epson was also asking the full list price for the part, almost $300!

I felt that I was not treated with respect as a "valuable customer" by Epson. They lost a long time loyal repeat customer!

Incidentally, after some research, I bought an HP G4050 photo scanner, complete with TMA, for less than $200! It cannot handle FOUR 4X5 negatives at one time; only two at a time, but it works well, was brand new with full warranty for less than the cost of the replacement Epson TMA AND I like the scanning software better!

This is a nice scanner. BE CAREFUL to UNLOCK BOTH transportation locks!! Epson should really put an electronic kill switch for those who mess up here. I skimmed the instructions since I've set up numerous previous machines and unlocked one lock but not the upper lock. Ooops! Luckily the machine doesn't seem to be damaged.

The scans from 4x5 film are fantastic. Make sure to use a fair amount of unsharp masking in Photoshop when done scanning. I've used 200%, Radius 2.0, Threshold 1 to extract more detail. When doing this, it is difficult to distinguish the result between the 4990 and that of an expensive drum scanner.

A scan from a 35mm negative is much better than I expected. I've made 8x10 prints from a scanned 35mm negative and it looks very very good.

Scans needed minimal color correction which is a great time saver. I'm quite impressed with SilverFast SE which is bundled with the scanner.

The film holders could be better as they are a bit flimsy.

I needed a machine to scan my collection of transparencies and color negatives. This model seemed to have what was needed. After loading the software, I began with Monaco EZ color and ran the calibrations and created the profiles for transparencies and reflective prints; this was fast and fun. I was surprised with the closely matching results.

The sharpness was very good; it was so sharp that I needed the Digital ICE software to remove dust and scratches. This ICE is incredible! Takes longer to scan, but is much quicker than cloning out all the artifacts. There is no loss of sharpness.

I found the provided film holders to really work well with the automated batch system. All is square and cropped.

I have scanned printer's film and the original halftone dots held; that's sharp!

Color negatives were more of a challenge; this is normal for scanning input. A gray card or gray item in the picture helps as you can click on the preview with a tool to make the gray neutral; "click!" and the color snaps bright and clean!

The software can be used several ways, with a Photoshop compatible plug-in, and several stand alone methods. It does fine with no special skills or Silverfast Ai has sophisticated controls for the adventuresome.

This machine is for ALL users! Kids, photographers of all levels, and professionals in the graphic arts. I am a drum scanner, photographer, and pixel artist; this unit and software please me a lot.

I use a Canon 9950F scanner at home, but chose this Epson Perfection 4990 for work use (to scan things like very hi-res B&W TEM negatives as well as 35mm slides). So how do the two very similar priced and spec'd scanners compare? Well essentially in terms of the quality of 35mm negative and slide scans there is nothing in it. Both scanners provide high quality images at 2400 dpi but the miniscule gains in scanning at 4800dpi simply aren't worth the 4x increase in file size (to nearer 100Mb). By comparing scan quality from both machines I really couldn't find any significant difference at all. This is echoed by the very useful in-depth reviews of both scanners at independent photo-i.co.uk .

The Canon 9950F has the advantage of scanning 12 slides or 30 negatives at a go compared to the Epson's 8 slides or 24 negatives. The Canon is definitely a bit better built and put together (e.g. fitting the reflective plate is really fiddly on the Epson and their 35mm slide holder design makes removing slides slightly more tricky). Canon's in-house FARE dust removal is similar and a little faster than Epson Digital ICE (Kodak) dust removal. However Epson score's highly with its far better TWAIN software and can scan up to full A4 negatives (the Canon is fixed to it's film holder sizes to 4x5 inch max). Both scanners are now supplied with Silverfast SE twain software as well as the in-house version. This is less useful for the Canon as Silverfast doesn't support FARE, although it does allow the Canon to scan negatives to A4. In order to get more functionality out of the Canon I have upgraded to Silverfast Ai for another $115 (still no FARE support though) - whereas with this Epson 4990 I am happy with the Epson TWAIN interface. This Epson 4990 also deals with odd film sizes like my childhood Kodak Instamatic 125 slides that are square rather than 35mm oblong - the Canon 9950F twain driver is so useless it chops off the top and bottom to fit them to 35mm size (and you can't do anything about it unless you use Silverfast without FARE dust removal instead). Plus Sivlerfast supports ICE on this Epson.

Scanned image quality is a little soft with 35mm film on both scanners compared to a Nikon slide scanner (although the out-of-focus effect at 100% is also because the scanners have a higher resolution than the film grain). Things like shadows and sharpen are best left to Photoshop post-processing rather than using the TWAIN options (I do use Photoshop CS2 not 'elements' as supplied). So the 35mm scans require things like Unsharp Mask (USM) and shadow/highlight. In fairness all digital camera images are normally highly image processed (e.g. noise reduced, colour balanced and sharpened) by the camera, so expect to use Scan/Scangear or Photoshop to do the same with scans. The 35mm film image quality is very good for the price, particularly with ~100 ASA slide, and very similar to that of the Canon 9950F (and appears rather better than results from my dedicated 35mm 2700dpi Benq Scanwit 2740S film scanner, particularly for cheap 400 ASA colour negatives and shadows - although these flatbed scanners need more twain and post-scan tweaking to get the best results). Cheap colour negatives always scan very badly as they are often higher ASA (larger grain size) and were not deigned to be enlarged beyond A4.

Scanning quality on anything else like photographs, A4 paper or large format negatives is naturally top notch, as the optimal resolution of 2400 dpi of these scanners is well beyond that of the source material - or the resulting image file size would be too enormous for any home/office use anyway. Even professionals would find these scanners OK for large 4x5" and larger negatives or working copies of 35mm. I have compared this Epson's and the Canon's output to that of £12,000 Imacon Flextight 484 drum scanner, and for my old consumer 100 ASA slides and film, there's very little difference in image quality - the Flextight fuzz is a little sharper at full mag and dark shadows are resolved a tiny bit better with less noise (and don't need `shadow/highlight'), but that's all - naturally the Flextight scans at for higher speeds though. So this Epson's a highly recommended and incredibly versatile scanner - although also check out it's new upmarket stable mates the Epson V700 and V750 at Amazon. These flatbed scanners have few benefits over far cheaper stable-mates if you don't want to scan film or photographs though.

My six months old 4990 has a noticeable film deposits under the glass. The glass was clear when I bought it. Apparently other owners of the 4990 have had identicle problems (discussions at howtofixcomputers.com). Epson will clean it for free if the 4990 is still under warranty, but this is not a one time problem, but a continuous one (you have to pay Epson to clean the glass after warranty expires). The film is visible when the 4990 is powered up and the interior light is on. With the lid out of the way, look at the glass at 10 to 30 degrees angle. I hope your glass is clear.

Bought an Epson 4990 on Amazon 2 weeks ago (...)--with 3 to 5 day shipping. It arrived with little apparent abuse of the packaging and perfect product box within. The scanner is surprisingly small and light.

This is a first impression review from firing up the scanner for the first time last evening. I skipped installing Photoshop Elements, since I have both Photoshop 7 and CS on my Apple G-5. Just loaded the Epson software, then the Silverfast. Attempted to plug the Epson software into Photoshop CS, but it landed in Photoshop 7 anyway--which is fine.

The scanner can be accessed either through the separate Silverfast icon or by Epson software through import under file on Photoshop 7. Wonderful scans of 120 and 4x5 B&W negative film by either route--which together give a wide tonal range of initial scan results that fairly easily can be adjusted to look much alike. The B&W neg. setting in professional mode in the Epson software seems to capture the finer highlights in the film and Silverfast does well also.

Quality of scans--range of values and sharpness? Having until now used a Microtek 1800F, I thought I was getting satisfactory results. Bought the Epson 4990 in hopes of squeezing better scans from my 120 neg and color film. Well, the Epson scans more than match the Microtek 1800F--I compared results from identical 4x5 B&W negatives. Using autosharpening in Epson software, my first response to direct comparison of sharpness was simply....HOLY CRAP! The resolution the Epson is getting from the sharp negatives is simply remarkable--noticebly sharper than anything I've been getting using the Microtek. Both these scanners have fixed focus--but the Epson removes all doubt that the focus is on the mark.

This Epson 4990 is going to resurrect my years of accumulated 120 film that required, until now, a chemical darkroom to produce high-quality images. And I'm wondering what's going to happen when I scan 5x7 B&W negatives--which for various flaws in the glass carrier and bugs in the scanning never produced usable results in the Microtek 1800F.

Haven't attempted color work yet, so too early to rave beyond the B&W results. But last night's tests proved the worth of the scanner to me for this purpose alone.

I got this Epson scanner recently to replace an older HP Scan Jet that did fine scans of photos but was limited on size and quantity of film handling.

The Epson comes with film holders/frames for:

35mm mounted slides (8 per)...this is a grid of plastic that you put on the glass, then put the slides in it to hold them in place. This is a bit clunky as you have to dig the slides out or pick up the holder and then the loose slides after scanning (wear gloves or clean the glass frequently). Also, unfortunately, about a millimeter of the top and bottom of the image gets cut off. You may have to switch to a less convenient process to crop and scan individually.

35mm negs (4 strips x 7 negs per) - there are two loose frames that snap down on 2 strips each...

120 negs (3 strips x 2 images though film strip can be longer) with attached hinged frame over each strip...

4x5 negs (2) with individual attached hinged frame...Unfortunately, under some conditions this splits the images into many smaller pieces, so again you may have to switch to a less convenient process to crop and scan individually.

A "film image area frame" that defines the 8x10 area that will scan if you want to just put a bunch of loose negs on the glass.

Although it is nice to have all the film-handling holders, you'll need to figure out where you will keep them all when not in use. Don't forget you'll need to find a place for the cover you'll remove from the lid to expose the lamp for film scans, as well. With the little "door handles" on some frames, the soft plastic-covered foam side of the removable cover, and the somewhat flimsy nature of the film area frame, you'll have an inch high stack of frames to handle and protect.

I have not delved into all aspects of the included software, but here are a few observations:

Epson Scan has a simple "Home" mode for scans with minimal adjustments, or a "Professional" mode with a selection of tweaks if needed.

The Adobe Elements is V2.0 (now 4 versions out of date), but it allows scanning a bunch of images into it (not all programs can do that), so it is fine for that purpose (and the only thing I use it for).

SilverFast SE 6 seems to be an older version, and a "lite" one as well. Have not used it so I have no other comments except the manual is in 6 languages (usually a bad sign). In fact, the instructions are only 17 small pages per language. You'll probably learn by doing...

Also included is ABBYY FineReader Sprint OCR software to scan text into editable text documents. It works, though as with any OCR software, you'll normally need to correct some typos.

In some type of small glitch, after scanning a batch of images into Elements, I have to close Epson Scan before I can perform any function in Elements, such as saving a file. So, after I scan and save 16 or so images, I have to "acquire" Epson Scan again. This is not really a big deal, though I have to re-select the source every time, and there is no way to change the default from "PDF" to "Perfection 4990". If I did not have to close it every time, it would still be set for the scanner.

I was a little skeptical of the image quality I would get by scanning negatives, but I'm quite happy with the output - except for the image getting cut off on 35mm slides. I scan at 600 dpi, which produces 4x6/5x7-ish sized images (from 35mm). I touch up the 600k-or-so sized JPGs (you can save as other formats such as TIFs in Elements if you need it) as needed using Firehand Ember. This reduces the size to around 100K, but keeps the dimensions and makes nice "proof prints" on the monitor.

It takes perhaps 5-8 minutes to scan about 16 negs at 600 dpi. You can scan at 4800 or more even, though your scan time goes way up. If you use the ICE feature, you'll want to find something to do between scans as the time is 10 minutes or so each.

It's a little pricey if you just want paper scans (you can do that for $100), but I'm happy with the output, film handling (except 35mm slides), and general ease of use. However, if you want cutting edge software, you'll need to get that separately, or upgrade, I suppose.

I bought the scanner to use mainly in my retail imaging business as a flat-bed scanner for photos and reflective art. I own several flat-bed scanners and I have other scanning solutions for film and slides. Imagine my surprise when this Epson scanner produced incredible scans of 35mm slides and negs. Nikon better watch your back.

This Epson is the best scanner I have owned. The ICE feature works very well for film and slides but it is way overhyped for use on on prints. In fact, I am not totally sure it even works on prints, but I suppose it must do something.

Using the ICE feature adds significantly to overall scan times. As a commercial production tool I would only use ICE when absolutely needed. You can grow whiskers while waiting for the thing to finish. That said, when I ICE'd 35mm slide scans (even dirty ones) they looked absolutely pristine.

The Epson software is good and they also throw in Silver Flash which is becoming an industry standard.

This scanner is sooooooo quiet. Compared to my noisy, squeeky, Microtek flat-bed scanner; well, there really is no comparison. Sometimes I have to put my ear to the Epson just to see if it is working.

Fit and finish is near perfect. Amazon delivered a well-packed product, on time.

As a side note, if you want the very best "movie-style" scanning training on the web, go to lynda.com and look for Taz Tally's videos on scanning basics. I do this stuff for a living and Taz has been an invaluable aid. Actually, lynda.com is the best web-training anywhere.

RonR

We needed a scanner that could scan 3 x 5 B&W negatives from an old electron miscoscope. When the computer running a 1995 model HP transparency scanner (the scanner still works) broke down and we couldn't find a computer or motherboard that had ISA slots (and was worth a damn), we decided to buy a new scanner.

The Epson Perfection 4990 scanner is very nice. The old HP had a huge lighted panel that covered the entire scan area, but this one has a very bright bar that lights up and scans along with the reader. The scan time is a little slower than the old HP, but I think the old HP was quite a professional top of the line model.

Like I said, the Epson scanner itself is great. The images come out completely awesome and up to a very high resolution. But the software is lame. Like most Epson products the software wants to automatically do everything that you don't want to do. The scanner comes with two scanning programs, one by Epson and a program called Silver Fast. Whatever you do, don't even run the Epson program (install it, but don't use it) if you want to scan negatives. It assumes, and there's nothing you can do about it, that you want to scan 35mm color film, so whatever you scan, it slices it into neat little film strips for you (how convenient). Also, it makes you use these totally worthless film holders that really only serve to bring dust and scratches to the scanner window.

The Silver Fast program, on the other hand, will allow you to actually do what you want, but getting there is far from obvious. The manual really stinks, and although there are little Quicktime movies on every bar to tutor you on what you need to do, they are narrated by a guy with a soft German(?) accent and assume that you are a doing a magazine or brochure layout or something. In the end they are no help. If you are using it for any other applications, you are on your own trying to figure it out. Well, after about 30 minutes of toying with it, I finally got Silver Fast to do what I wanted and the whole thing works like a dream.

My advice is to buy this scanner if you need to scan film negatives and transparencies, but don't throw it through the window when you can't figure out the software right away.

I purchased top of line Epson scanner after comparing reviews of Epson and Canon. I picked it because of Digital ICE technology and because software was easier to use.
I have in the last thirty days scanned nearly 700 35mm negatives -- the scanner is going almost day and night.
It has met my expectations.
The only thing I like to see improved is the negative holder which is a bit flimsy.