Conclusion

EPSON announced both the V700 and V750 earlier this year, I did an in-depth review on the V700 and was very impressed with it. I held back on my enthusiasm because I knew that EPSON had a high end scanner sitting in the wings. This is of course the V750. So if the V700 is producing great scans, how much better could the V750 be?

After using the V750 over a period of time, I can say that the V750 is the better scanner, but disappointingly not by that much. I had higher hopes for this scanner, given that the optical specifications are supposed to be higher. In my tests I have found this to be the case, but not by a wide margin. The V750 is aimed at the professional market, and the scanner build quality is excellent, but let down by flimsy film holders, I don't think these will stand up to heavy use in a professional studio. The Fluid Mount Accessory is the exception, this is well constructed and offers a lot of scope for quality scans, but needs a lot of practice to get the best results.

The bundled software is an added bonus, SilverFast is an excellent application and will produce superb scans time after time. Monaco EZ Color is a great introduction to colour management and creating custom profiles, but the professional user may want to look elsewhere for more sophisticated software. Adobe Photoshop Elements 4 is without any doubt a superb application, but totally out of place in this scanner package. There are a number of other mini-app's included such as ABBYY Fine Reader OCR software.

Forgetting the V700 for a moment, the V750 is still an excellent scanner and probably the best in the A4 class, I haven't tested any other flatbed scanner that can match the performance of this scanner. For film scanning this scanner is the best there is, short of going down the dedicated film scanner route. The quality of scans for medium and large format films is outstanding, especially as the results are near identical to a dedicated film scanner costing £2500.

Having reviewed a number of scanners over the years, I am now seeing a very gradual improvement rather than a dramatic leap forward with scan quality. I think we may have reached a peak with flatbed scanners. Manufacturers are not likely to plough much more money into developing new hardware. Scanners may soon start to be a more specialist item, especially with the rapid uptake of digital cameras. The bulk of the market share will be taken up by Multifunction devices or All-In-Ones etc. If you are hanging on for the Holy Grail of scanners, then you could be looking at it now with the V750.

Would I buy the V700 or V750?

The short and honest answer to this question is, I would buy the V700. The scan results are so close as to be negligible. Having said that, both scanners are probably the best scanners you can buy and neither will disappoint. However, you may be tempted to splash out on the V750 for the extra software bundle, it is worth more than the price difference between the V700 & V750 (£349 & £549)

Pros:
Excellent scan quality
Full version of SilverFast Ai

Price (£549)

Cons:
Not a quantum leap improvement over the V700
Film holders are too flimsy for a pro scanner

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