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Epson is one of those companies that creates a solid product and just lets it ride. Like their V600 scanner has been $250-350 for its entire lifetime and is sti

Epson is one of those companies that creates a solid product and just lets it ride. Like their V600 scanner has been $250-350 for its entire lifetime and is still the best on the market; it came out in 2009.

throw_pm23 3y ago
I remember my family having bought a PC and an Epson printer sometime in the 1990s. Both were roughly in the ~$1000 range. Almost a decade later we considered selling the computer for ~$50, and gave it away instead. We sold the printer for about the same price we bought it. (It was a type of printer that was in demand as small companies could print invoices and receipts with it). EDIT: I checked the model and incredibly it is still sold, between $300-$1000 on ebay, etc.
buildbot 3y ago
Scanners are also a tech that has pretty much plateaued - correct me if I am wrong, but the linear arrays are fairly cheap and the resolution is a product of the linear array and the minimum step size, and steppers have not gotten much better. There are 2x+ more dense linear arrays than the v600 has that exist, but that only would improve one dimension of the resolution. Also, the v600 is a great consumer scanner, but OH BOY can you get more fancy, for film you have the hasselblad/imacon line that are still a few thousand used, then you have drum scanners for the highest possible film scanning quality. For a more direct v600 comparison, there is this really, really old scanner that outperforms it: https://www.scansolutionsonline.com/media/1168/cezanne-elite-brochure.pdf https://www.scansolutionsonline.com/media/1168/cezanne-elite... A more modern flatbed scanner: https://epson.com/For-Work/Scanners/Photo-and-Graphics/Epson-Expression-13000XL-Archival-Scanner/p/B11B257201 https://epson.com/For-Work/Scanners/Photo-and-Graphics/Epson... Sadly lower res than what used to be out there.
- fmajid 3y ago
  The Imacon Flextight has been discontinued for a while now. Flatbed scannners are stagnant because there isn't enough demand to drive investment. Sheet-fed document scanners are still lively, but quality has gone down, my 2010 vintage ScanSnap S1500M has a high-quality CCD sensor, but newer models are almost invariably CIS with much lower color fidelity for scanning artwork. High-quality XY prepress scanners like the Cézanne you mention, or prepress leaders like Fuji Lanovia, Creo-Scitex are also discontinued since the industry's gone fully digital and doesn't expect to scan medium-format slides any more. No wonder Gen-Z finds scanners exotic and terrifying: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/feb/27/gen-z-tech-shame-office-technology-printers https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/feb/27/gen-z-tec... The only actively produced scanner that can outperform the V600 is Epson's V850.
  - buildbot 3y ago
    Fair enough - personally, I'd use a digital camera to scan large things anyway, possibly using an XY gantry if needed. Use a monochrome sensor + color filter wheel for extra points. Scanners terrify generations equally in my opinion ;)
    - fmajid 3y ago
      I've owned flatbeds since the original SCSI CanoScan 300 in 1994 (couldn't afford the 600dpi CanoScan 600 then), so I'm jaded. The digital camera option works, but only if you have a high-CRI light source, a proper macro lens and a good copy stand. The Fujitsu SV600 is an excellent option as well. Museums actually used scanning large-format backs like the Better Light Dicomed, a flatbed scanner-like back that slots into a 4x5" large-format camera, so the camera is also a scanner...
      - buildbot 3y ago
        Still? I would have thought by now they would have switched to something like a Phase One IXH - https://heritage-digitaltransitions.com/dt-ixh-150mp-cultural-heritage-camera-by-phase-one/ https://heritage-digitaltransitions.com/dt-ixh-150mp-cultura... I have a broken betterlight I got just to put on my shelf haha. Scan backs are neat!
  - elahieh 3y ago
    What a coincidence, I pulled out my S1500M (vintage 2010-10) to do some scanning a few weeks ago (after several years) and found the rubber rollers had melted and become like superglue. Currently reading about how I might try to do an ad-hoc fix, because forums say disassembly and reassembly is very finicky indeed. Now that I learn it's CCD I am more motivated to repair.
    - fmajid 3y ago
      The roller kit is a field-replaceable unit and Fujitsu supplies them in a boxed kit, so it can't be that hard (I'm still on my original roller, even though I bout a roller replacemnt kit, so I have no idea how hard it is). It's a great unit, but official software support lapsed a few years ago so I am now using it with third-party software (ExactScan Pro). Here are a few scanners I ran through a comparative color fidelity test a while ago, I was surprised how good it is for scanning artwork when it was designed for documents: https://blog.majid.info/scanner-group-test/ https://blog.majid.info/scanner-group-test/
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
spiderxxxx 3y ago
This thing was pretty solid. The circuitboard is silk screened on both sides with labels for everything, test points, and a trademark Epson thick technical manual. Repair is fairly easy except for the self destructing batteries that take out the FFCs inside. Still, if you can get your hands on one, you can probably repair it. The technical manual even goes into detail on how to install the capacitors, recommending about 1mm below the capacitor for the legs to come up and connect, so in the future if you have to replace them, you just cut the legs off and remove the remnants.
TMWNN 3y ago
Epson has by far the most complete online collection of documentation I've ever seen. It even has manuals <https://files.support.epson.com/pdf/qx10__/qx10__u1.pdf https://files.support.epson.com/pdf/qx10__/qx10__u1.pdf> for the QX-10 <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epson_QX-10 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epson_QX-10> (1983), a CP/M machine!

throw_pm23 3y ago

I remember my family having bought a PC and an Epson printer sometime in the 1990s. Both were roughly in the ~$1000 range. Almost a decade later we considered selling the computer for ~$50, and gave it away instead. We sold the printer for about the same price we bought it. (It was a type of printer that was in demand as small companies could print invoices and receipts with it). EDIT: I checked the model and incredibly it is still sold, between $300-$1000 on ebay, etc.

buildbot 3y ago

Scanners are also a tech that has pretty much plateaued - correct me if I am wrong, but the linear arrays are fairly cheap and the resolution is a product of the linear array and the minimum step size, and steppers have not gotten much better. There are 2x+ more dense linear arrays than the v600 has that exist, but that only would improve one dimension of the resolution. Also, the v600 is a great consumer scanner, but OH BOY can you get more fancy, for film you have the hasselblad/imacon line that are still a few thousand used, then you have drum scanners for the highest possible film scanning quality. For a more direct v600 comparison, there is this really, really old scanner that outperforms it: https://www.scansolutionsonline.com/media/1168/cezanne-elite-brochure.pdf https://www.scansolutionsonline.com/media/1168/cezanne-elite... A more modern flatbed scanner: https://epson.com/For-Work/Scanners/Photo-and-Graphics/Epson-Expression-13000XL-Archival-Scanner/p/B11B257201 https://epson.com/For-Work/Scanners/Photo-and-Graphics/Epson... Sadly lower res than what used to be out there.

fmajid 3y ago
The Imacon Flextight has been discontinued for a while now. Flatbed scannners are stagnant because there isn't enough demand to drive investment. Sheet-fed document scanners are still lively, but quality has gone down, my 2010 vintage ScanSnap S1500M has a high-quality CCD sensor, but newer models are almost invariably CIS with much lower color fidelity for scanning artwork. High-quality XY prepress scanners like the Cézanne you mention, or prepress leaders like Fuji Lanovia, Creo-Scitex are also discontinued since the industry's gone fully digital and doesn't expect to scan medium-format slides any more. No wonder Gen-Z finds scanners exotic and terrifying: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/feb/27/gen-z-tech-shame-office-technology-printers https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/feb/27/gen-z-tec... The only actively produced scanner that can outperform the V600 is Epson's V850.
- buildbot 3y ago
  Fair enough - personally, I'd use a digital camera to scan large things anyway, possibly using an XY gantry if needed. Use a monochrome sensor + color filter wheel for extra points. Scanners terrify generations equally in my opinion ;)
  - fmajid 3y ago
    I've owned flatbeds since the original SCSI CanoScan 300 in 1994 (couldn't afford the 600dpi CanoScan 600 then), so I'm jaded. The digital camera option works, but only if you have a high-CRI light source, a proper macro lens and a good copy stand. The Fujitsu SV600 is an excellent option as well. Museums actually used scanning large-format backs like the Better Light Dicomed, a flatbed scanner-like back that slots into a 4x5" large-format camera, so the camera is also a scanner...
    - buildbot 3y ago
      Still? I would have thought by now they would have switched to something like a Phase One IXH - https://heritage-digitaltransitions.com/dt-ixh-150mp-cultural-heritage-camera-by-phase-one/ https://heritage-digitaltransitions.com/dt-ixh-150mp-cultura... I have a broken betterlight I got just to put on my shelf haha. Scan backs are neat!
- elahieh 3y ago
  What a coincidence, I pulled out my S1500M (vintage 2010-10) to do some scanning a few weeks ago (after several years) and found the rubber rollers had melted and become like superglue. Currently reading about how I might try to do an ad-hoc fix, because forums say disassembly and reassembly is very finicky indeed. Now that I learn it's CCD I am more motivated to repair.
  - fmajid 3y ago
    The roller kit is a field-replaceable unit and Fujitsu supplies them in a boxed kit, so it can't be that hard (I'm still on my original roller, even though I bout a roller replacemnt kit, so I have no idea how hard it is). It's a great unit, but official software support lapsed a few years ago so I am now using it with third-party software (ExactScan Pro). Here are a few scanners I ran through a comparative color fidelity test a while ago, I was surprised how good it is for scanning artwork when it was designed for documents: https://blog.majid.info/scanner-group-test/ https://blog.majid.info/scanner-group-test/

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

spiderxxxx 3y ago

This thing was pretty solid. The circuitboard is silk screened on both sides with labels for everything, test points, and a trademark Epson thick technical manual. Repair is fairly easy except for the self destructing batteries that take out the FFCs inside. Still, if you can get your hands on one, you can probably repair it. The technical manual even goes into detail on how to install the capacitors, recommending about 1mm below the capacitor for the legs to come up and connect, so in the future if you have to replace them, you just cut the legs off and remove the remnants.

TMWNN 3y ago

Epson has by far the most complete online collection of documentation I've ever seen. It even has manuals <https://files.support.epson.com/pdf/qx10__/qx10__u1.pdf https://files.support.epson.com/pdf/qx10__/qx10__u1.pdf> for the QX-10 <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epson_QX-10 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epson_QX-10> (1983), a CP/M machine!