Value, versatility, quality beyond compare. What if the quality and power of a high-end, dedicated film scanner were available without the high-end price? What if that product could not only scan multiple slides and negatives, but old photographs as well - giving new life to faded or damaged originals? A remarkable breakthrough in high quality digital imaging, the Epson Perfection¨ 4870 Photo offers the perfect solution - at a truly remarkable price. With clarity and reproduction comparable to that of expensive dedicated film scanners, this premium product provides the flexibility to automatically scan and restore photos, transparencies, and more. Its built-in 6" x 9" transparency unit accommodates film as large as 4" x 5" or up to twenty-four 35mm negative images simultaneously. And, its superior 4800 x 9600 dpi resolution and stunning3.8 Dmax deliver intricate detail for phenomenal reprints and enlargements. With DIGITAL ICE Technology, which removes dust, scratches, and even tears at the click of a button, and innovative Epson Easy Photo Fix, the Epson Perfection 4870 Photo produces brilliant restorations. A complete digital scanning system, this high-value performer offers incredible versatility. And, it includes convenient high-speed connectivity for easy setup and installation. When teamed with an Epson Stylus¨ printer, the Epson Perfection 4870 Photo offers the perfect input/output solution. Its phenomenal performance, paired with its
1 Excellent scanner for the price
I just received the scanner today. It was easily installed and worked great out of the box. This scanner is identical to the PRO version (the only difference is the additional software in PRO). For home and family photo scanning this version is more than enough. If you are a serious photography hobbyist or professional, the extra software (upgrade in Silver Fast from the LE version plus Monaco EZ Color calibrating system) in the PRO version more than makes up for the price difference. After much thought, I went with the PRO version. The software does have a slight learning curve, but even winging it on my first scan I got great results. I have been very happy with all my Epson products over the years and this scanner, I can tell, will fall into the same category.
2 well worth the price
I rate this at 4 1/2 stars...
Bought this over the weekend specifically for scanning 4x5 transparencies (taken during the 1950's) and so far very impressed with the quality. I've also scanned 35 mm film strips with equally amazing results. I'm new to this aspect of computer use and my laptop may not be powerful enough at this juncture and so it seems slow when I scan - converting it to 2400 dpi, but the results were definitely worth the wait. This was an upgrade; had an epson 3170 and was very pleased with it but wasn't getting clear results...saw dots all along profiles.
The only difficulty I've had is when I use both 4x5 frames it will only read one frame - here again it may be because my computer needs to have more power. I also had difficulty with 2- 1/4 x 2-1/4 negative but didn't have that problem with the 35 mm strips.
I did try and scan a very old 8x10 color proof and used the ice aspect - might be my inexperience with computers and such but the outcome was better than the original, however, don't think the 8 minute wait was worth the effort; if I used the photoshop software I may have been happier but as I really intend this for negatives and transparencies I'm one very happy customer.
Haven't had a chance to use any of the accompanying software so I can't comment but for straight scanning what a wonderful machine.
3 Epson / Adobe Problems
When you buy a $400 product you expect it to work. The 4870 comes with Photoshop Elements 2. I keep encountering a memory error that crashed Elements. I called Adobe helpline and their response was I should upgrade to Elements 3 for an additional $80 or I could pay them $40 to diagnose the software bug because Elements 2 is no longer supported.
So, recognize a hidden cost of $80 because of old, bad software.
4 Excellent product, but more than what average user needs
I bought the Epson 4870 scanner to scan my old pictures and negatives. I read many reviews on different scanners. I chose Epson 4870 mainly for the high resolution. I also, liked the firewire option and the speed seemed to be reasonable.
I managed to scan hundreds of films and pictures in the last few months with no problem. The product works excellent, but that itself could be the problem. It is just too good for my needs. The very high resolution would produce files about 100 MB; way too big to adjust the lighting or the color on it. My Intel P4 machine with 256 MB RAM had hard time managing those files. The resolution was much higher than anything my $1000 digital camera could ever produce. Unless you are a professional photographer or you need to make large posters of your pictures, you will never need such a high resolution capability. I ended up using the lower resolution settings and still have very good quality scans. Save your money and buy the Epson 3170.
Here are some technical notes:
The setup on my XP machine was very easy and took only few minutes. I used both firewire and USB with no problem. I noticed absolutely no "stability & reliability problems" as other reviewer has reported. I wonder if that reviewer's machine did not have the muscle to handle the large files. You need at least 128MB of memory. Also, if you use Windows, make sure you have set enough space for your virtual memory (on XP: Control Panel -> Performance and Maintenance -> System ->Advanced -> performance ->Virtual Memory).
The black & white setting of the software does not work, but you can use the color setting for scanning the black and white pictures with no problem (you will get a good quality B&W scan).
The Adobe Photoshop LITE included with the package is definitely needed to adjust the lighting and the color. For more repair work on damaged films or for applying special filters, I would recommend the full version of the Adobe Photoshop.
5 Everything That Epson Said it Would Be
I researched this scanner very carefully as my options (I live in Taiwan) were limited and the only other option was to order a dedicated film scanner from the U.S..
Epson said "Will rival dedicated film scanners." In my opinion, it not only rivals them, but outperforms some of 'em.
I read some reviews that listed an 8 minute scan time for a 35mm slide with ICE enabled, that is about right if you save as .jpg. I save as .tif, so the scan times are closer to 12 minutes. However, I save double that just by not having to do dust and scratch removal manually. I have it connected to a USB 1.1 port (Pentium 2.4GHz, 512MB RAM) and am planning on putting a USB 2.0 card or Firewire card in and upping the RAM to 1GB. However, I don't really expect huge performance increases (I do a LOT of scanning, so if I can shave a minute off of each scan, that will add up to a lot more productivity over a month).
I have noticed that this scanner does a little better with negatives than with slides, go figure. Both work well with some post processing in Photoshop (all scans need that, the only possible exception is if you are using Silverfast Ai, which I am not and which is, in my opinion, well worth the investment of US$100 to upgrade from the included Silverfast SE).
Overall, I found Epson Scan to be barely adequate. The professional mode needs more tweakability. I do final color balancing in Photoshop, and usually resample the images down from 4800dpi to a maximum x or y of 5000 pixels for archival images. The grain removal feature seems not to work at 4800dpi on any machine, Epson's response seems to be "tough." If it is a real problem (on some push processed B&W I have), I simply use Silverfast SE to do the grain removal (SEs non-ICE defect removal is FAR better than Epson Scan's).
All in all, I have had virtually NO problems with this scanner and I've plugged it in (while trying to figure out why the grain reduction didn't work) into 5 computers, including 2 running Chinese Windows XP (a notoriously buggy environment).
6 Installation problems for Epson 4870 USB 2.0 Windows XP
The scanner works fine, but slowly in USB 1 ports. When connected to the USB 2.0 hub, although the scanner was recognized by Windows XP, there was no response from the scanner, although on and properly connected. Several hours of uninstalling and reinstalling its software and downloading USB patches and updating drivers from Viaarena.com did nothing to solve the problem. If the problem isn't cracked in the next day or so, the scanner is going back where it came from.
7 Love This Scanner!
I scan only 35 mm black-and-white negative film (including C-42). Scanning at 4800 dpi, 16 bit I get beautiful scans with great detail (about 58 MB files). Love the automation of scanning 24 negatives at once. It takes only about 70 minutes. Scan quality better than a pro-photo cd and close to the quality of a drum scan.
Setup was easy. Build quality is good. I'm quite happy. Would highly recommend.
8 Huge Stability & Reliability Problems
I just received my Epson 4870, and have just spent a frustrating 12 hours getting this thing to work reliably.
My observations so far:
1) The hardward and drivers are very unreliable. Half the time, neither the Epson nor the Silverfast are able to communicate with the scanner. Turning the scanner off and on and rebooting the computer sometimes helps, but I sometimes I have to reboot multiple times in order to get it to work. I am using the USB cable that came with the scanner.
2) After upgrading to Silvertfast to 6.0.2 to get ICE support, the software simply stopped working, freezing Photoshop.
3) When I am lucky enough to get the scanner to work, the Epson software often quits halfway through the scanning process, citing an inability to communicate with the scanner. This is very frustrating, as I am scanning 120 film, which takes a good 20-30 minutes per slide (with ICE enabled).
4) The scanner is S-L-O-W. If you are scanning medium format film, be prepared to spend 30 minutes or more on each scan (not counting retries due to the unreliable nature of the scanner).
5) There is no way the resolution on this thing is 4800 DPI. Although I haven't been scientific about it, my guess is the real resolution is closer to 2700 DPI.
6) The scanner does not come with a carrier that supports 120 film longer than 12 cm. Although I knew going in, I would have liked to have a carrier that accepts longer film strips, because I also shoot using a 6x17 panoramic.
7) Epson technical support is 9-6 Monday through Friday only. I work during the week, so my chances of getting any support from Epson are close to zero, unless I decide to take a day off work.
I am very unhappy with this purchase, and will be looking into returning my scanner back to Amazon, probably replacing it with a Canon 9900.
9 Scanning 2 1/4x2 1/4 transparencies......
There is no discernable way to scan these. Bummer!
10 To mister 'art_professor'
Digital ICE has never worked with normal B&W film. That has nothing to do with the Epson 4870. Probably something with the specifics of the ICE-workings.
11 4870 & Digital Ice
The "Digital Ice" technology ONLY works with color film--even on a dedicated film scanner, so this is normal. As an inexpensive flatbed scanner that can also handle film scans, Epson has done an incredible job. (Inexpensive compared to high-end scanners) All this in a sub-$500.00 package, with a D-Max of 3.8 is really outstanding and worth the investment if you are an artist or photographer on a shoe-string budget. Worth the price, if you're also willing to tinker with the software settings before making your scans, and you're using Adobe Photoshop to finish the job when the scan is complete...
12 Epson 4870 does have a few problems
Just a few thoughts after my first couple days with this scanner. It generally does an amazing job for a flatbed, but it does have its limits. For instance, digital ICE will NOT function on normal black & white film. It will only work if you use chromogenic black and white film (film that can be developed using color C-41 processing). As the keeper of thousands of b&w negatives and slides, this is a serious limitation for me. It was the main reason I bought this scanner. It's probably not a limitation for you. Also, when you are using digital ICE on any film format larger than 35mm at the higher resolutions (1200ppi and higher), the scan times are almost unbearable. Try 30 minutes to an hour! And this is on a Pentium 4 2 GHz machine using the USB2.0 connection with 1 Gig of memory. Lastly, I have Photoshop Elements 2.0, and Photoshop 6.0 and 7.0 installed on my computer, but the scanner at this point in time only seems to be able to import images into Photoshop 6.0. This occurs using the Epson Twain acquire software. I have not yet tried the Silverfast software, it may function properly. Overall, very high build quality, and it seems to do a great job on 35mm slides, but it just wasn't quite what I was expecting for my medium/large format b&w work.
13 simply amazing
This is my 4th color flatbed scanner, the others were UMAX, HP and Canon and I must say this is the best so far. Out of the box, setup was a snap, very easy to use, excellent color rendition and solidly built. Photography is my hobby and I scanned a 6X7 negative with scratches and applied the Digital ICE technology and I was amazed at the results, It saved me about 20 minutes of touch-up work. The quality comes very close to a dedicated film scanner.
If all you need is a document scanner then this unit is overkill but if you are doing photography or just want the best scanner you won't be disappointed. I am not sure about the editing software that comes with it since I already had Adobe Photoshop 7.0 but the Digital ICE technology is amazing. This unit has USB 2.0 and IEEE/1394 Firewire interface. This is the first unit I have owned with a Firewire interface and it is so much faster than my old units. Epson has made my hobby fun again!
