Epson Perfection 1640SU Photo vs Kodak Photo CD

The last months I was looking in to the market seeking to buy a Flatbed scanner  to be able for scanning film negatives and slides.

I was very skeptic about this mainly because of a common sense in the astrophotography community that these flatbed scanners are unsuitable for scanning astrophotography films.

This sense is based on their weakness to bring forward all these  faint details and colors that so many deep sky objects show up. 

My astrophotos until now was scanned at a local Kodak lab onto a Photo CD master disk. The maximum resolution choosing the master disk was 2048x3072 dpi.

I decided to buy the Epson perfection 1640SU photo scanner although I had no read  any report about its behavior in astrophotography films.

The scanner is supplied  with a standard slide display unit for scanning negatives and slides .

Its specifications are the follows as given by EPSON.

  • Film adapter included for scanning negatives and slides

  • High Quality 1600x3200 dpi Optical Resolution with low noise CCD and Micro Step Drive

  • 42bit In/Out scanning capability.

  • Hybrid Interface: Ultra High Speed with SCSI, Easy Plug 'n Play with USB Interface

  • Easy to Use EPSON Smart Panel enables scanning to e-mail, OCR and Photo editing applications.

  • Start Button for easy one touch scanning

  • Easy and Intelligent EPSON TWAIN Software: Full Auto Mode removes complex set up procedures and enables automatic scanning suitable

  • Ultra fast scanning

  • Maximum interpolated resolution 12800dpi

  • Low noise CCD composed of 40800 pixels per line

As you can understand I was very curious about the quality of this scanner and after my first test on a recently astrophotgraphy of the Orion nebula I decided to make a comparison between the Kodak Photo CD scan and the scans from Epson.

The Photos in the left column are from Epson scanner scanned in resolution 3200dpi. I had to adjust just the background level in order to have the same black point as it was on the Photo CD. Also I had to setup the exposure for the same reasons. I then cropped the images in order to have just the object in the same size.

 

Epson Perfection scans

 Kodak Photo CD scans 

 

I was very satisfied and I can say a little bit surprised by the results. Since at the first scan I had the filling that the scanner it was a real good stuff . After playing several hours with the very good Twain driver a was sure that the scanner exceeded  all my expectations.

Spending about $ 350  I had no so much demands but the scanner was really surprised me.

It is capable to bring up any faint details in the images or at least as the Kodak photo lab can do , since from the supported software it is possible to manually adjust the exposure settings in order to have the images of your own taste. It has a very good dynamic range and a good sharpness. There is no any reflection indications in the scanning images and also no any dust and small  scratches  in the film become visible. 

As you can see from the side by side comparison of the photos  they are at least equals but with the Epson to have a significant and very useful  in astrophotography advantage over the Kodak lab. And this is the significant less noisy images it gives.

Overall the 1640SU from Epson is a cheap $350 scanner but it does the job very well for the purpose I bought it. I have in one unit an excellent flatbed scanner and a very acceptable and flexible 35mm or large format film scanner.

George Nikolidakis

 

 

 

Home - Introduction - 12" LX200 Gallery - 8" LX100 Gallery 

Wide Field Gallery - Planets Gallery - Comets

 Equipment - Evaluation - Workshop - Articles - Links

 

 

Last edit: 03.20.2001 .