Epson Perfection V600 Photo Scanner

The Epson Perfection V600 Photo Scanner offers all the tools and capabilities that photo buffs of every level could want in a photo scanner, including a built-in transparency unit and the ability to scan slides, negatives, and medium-format film. I appreciate that it came with Adobe Photoshop Elements, which helps defray the somewhat high cost of the machine. If it had come with some paper instructions I think that would make it a bit easier to set up, but all in all, this is a fine scanner for photos, film, and documents.

The Epson Perfection V600 Photo Scanner does a lot more than scan photos--of course you can scan documents or even 3D objects using the scanner's convenient one-touch buttons. Scans happen quickly and it was very easy to get this scanner set up and running without any iseues. The scanner warms up quickly and so there's no waiting around for it to start scanning; the LED light source also helps minimize power consumption.

Epson has opted to put the photo scanner's user's manual in HTML rather than on paper. That probably helps keeps costs down, but it does mean that whenever you have a question on how to set up or use any of the features, troubleshoot, or find maintenance information, you'll need to use your computer. Some may find that an inconvenience, albeit a minor one.

The scanner offers only four buttons on the unit; scan to PDF, e-mail, printer, and launch the Epson Scan utility. That keeps it uncluttered; the Epson Scan utility allows you to configure the scanner (what formats you'd like to save files in, where you'll save them, and so on), but the software also did a pretty good job at setting up scan to e-mail without any intervention (I'm using Outlook; if you have something like Thunderbird, it may not be so easy to configure).

Epson Scan offers some basic photo fixes such as dust and scratch removal. Adobe Photoshop Elements, which is included with the scanner, offers a huge number of editing options.