I've had a number of scanners over the years from multiple manufacturers. I had a bunch of photos and slides that I needed to process and was dreading the amount of time it would take on my trusty old Canon 8400F, so I decided to upgrade.

The Epson Perfection V600 Photo slots in just above the V500 model but has a lower bit depth than the V700, which we reviewed in March 2006 and which remains as the premium model in Epson's range.

There are several classes of flatbed scanner, from cheap and cheerful top-of-an-all-in-one class to multi-thousand pound professional art capture devices. Epson's Perfection V600 Photo is aimed at the photo enthusiast, either keen amateur or semi-pro.

Digital ICE dust removal; Excellent OCR results; Good range of transparency holders

Substantial footprint; External power supply; Noisy head drive motors

This model has terrific image quality with optical resolution of 6400dpi and 48-bit color depth. In that way it matches the best scans you can get from the Epson Perfection V800 but there are some differences which should be noted.

I have used other scanners for slides but this scanner is by far the best one. A little slow but get the job done with excellent results. Highly recomend it. Over 1,000 slides scanned and 2,000 more to go.

Good value (scanning quality and included software). Though the slide and film holders are flimsy, they are good enough for occasional use.

Nice software bundle; All cables included; Scanning old photos seem to render better contrast using included ICE software

Not as fast as I hoped; Negative and slide holders a bit flimsy

I needed to upgrade my old Epson Photo scanner when I moved to Windows 7 64bit, and the V600 interfaced seamlessly, and software installation was a breeze.

build quality; compatibility; design; Easy Installation/Good Instructions; size & weight; speed

you must title each scan or it uses the last name

This scanner has excellent speed and flexibility and the quality of scans so far is very impressive. It is easy to load the negative and slide frames and the capacity is very high; the system flawlessly detects film type and then scans each item perfectly.

High quality scans; good software options

Nothing so far

Used exclusively to scan old photo negatives which were primarily B&W, I found the setup relatively easy. However it didn't take long to realize the Epson Scan software has some issues and requires a fair amount of CPU resources in order to get decent images.

I am very impressed with this scanner. Scans are clean and crisp. Sounds like a higher quality motor and mechanical parts. The software features are very extensive and you can use them right during scanning. Also comes with Photoshop Elements 7. I really could not be more pleased!