Rating: 
Summary: A dream product
Review: I needed a scanner mainly for scanning my old prints, negatives and slides. Initially I was going to buy a cheaper photo scanner (Epson 1250), but was disappointed by its poor quality.The 2450 has exceeded my expectations. From prints or negatives, it is producing superb quality scans, and it does it FAST. A few comments from my experience so far: - The scanner comes with an excellent bundle of software. TWAIN is a great product - very user friendly UI for all types of scans (scan to file, print, email, post to the Web). Not too happy with SilverFast though (bad UI and unstable). Photoshop Elements, although a learning curve is needed, is excellent photo editing tool.
- Unless you have to print a HiRes photo over 8x10's, use 300dpi: you'll get the same results as higher resolutions, and is much faster (scanning a color print at 300dpi is ~30sec, compared to over 5min at 1600dpi.
- If you scan at 1600dpi/48bit, be prepared for huge amount of computer resources for processing the image, both by TWAIN and Photoshop. I have a 2.2GHz P4, 1GB memory, and when I tried to scan a large photo at 1600dpi, about 500MB of memory was used (good thing TWAIN displays how much mem is needed prior to the scan). Photoshop's performance was also degraded.
- After some experimentation, I'm getting best results by making some pre-scan enhancements via TWAIN (mainly Gamma & Color adjustments), and add final touches with Photoshop. Assuming you have the time to spend, this will be a fun thing to do, and will feel great when you see that with a decent photo printer you can produce better photos than your originals!
- The scanner works fine with XP. Its drivers are not certified by Microsoft for XP, (which means you have to manually install the drivers that come with the scanner), but so far I had no problems. I think this is one of the best buys I made. The only concern I can think of, is its size compared to other scanners (shouldn't be a problem to most of you, unless you live in an apartment in Manhattan as I do...). You can get a scanner at half price or less, but if you need to digitize your photos and slides, this is the way to go.
Rating:
Summary: Makes other scanners look really sad.
Review: This review can be quite short and make all the relevant points. * This scanner is FAST (using IEEE 1394)
* This scanner does an incredible job on transparencies.
* The included software (Epson Twain 5) is really nice.
* Did I say it was fast? Don't even think of using this scanner with USB. Get yourself a IEEE 1394 card and put it in your machine. This scanner makes USB look like the dark ages. IEEE 1394 is THE reason to buy this scanner to me. I did a quick test and it made the final scan with IEEE 1394 seem like the pre-scan on USB. The included transparency adapters are kind of flimsy, but I keep them in a safe place. You can scan 4 slides without adjusting anything...it scans them in sequence at the quality level you want. I'm scanning 120 negatives as proofs and it's done away with my need for any kind of contact sheet/4x6 proof of my shots. I can make darkroom enlargement decisions right on the PC. My clients can get a very good idea of the tonal quality and composition without me going through the expense of printing ANYTHING in the darkroom. For reflective media, this Scanner is incredible. I've never seen scans like this with such speed. The copy function is great - hooked to a Lexmark Z52 on draft mode, and it makes really, really fast copies. I found myself feeling like I was working an enlarger in a darkroom rather than a PC and Scanner. I was digging up old negatives that were never printed just for the fun of it. Turn the scanner to its maximum resolution and it slows down some but the results are suprisingly good for flatbed! I made a 11x14 print from a 120 negative and it looked really good. Dare I say ready to exhibit? Now I'd like to have a $3000 film scanner for my 120 work (donations accepted) but until then, this is doing great for me.
Rating:
Summary: An Epson Diehard
Review: I am a Mac OSX and an Epson fanatic. I was, however very disappointed when I got my 2450 with a USB 2.0 cable and outdated software for Mac OSX. I had to run in OS 9.1 or not at all. Or so I thought.
I called Epson for advice, they advised me to download the Twain Driver for OSX (from Epson's website) and use my existing Photoshop software(I can be rather slow at times, as well). Bingo. I'm now using the 2450 with a firewire cable and could not be happier. I've never been able to scan and print from negatives or slides, I can now! I really started to think perhaps I had purchased a scanner that was out of my league, balderdash! With some practice my prints from my Epson 890 or 960 are really
top notch. I love this scanner. Obviously I am not a pro but you can't tell it from the prints I can make with the 2450.
I do still have one question. Why offer a unit capable of using USB 2.0 or Firewire and not include a Firewire cable? In my very limited experience, USB 2.0 is relatively new, while Firewire has been in use for some time.
Now that I've gotten over my whining, let me just end with this...
The Epson 2450 is one great scanner.
j.nomograms
Rating:
Summary: Excellent scanner
Review: I purchased this scanner looking for a budget oriented method to preserve all my old 35mm prints and negatives. I have tried using cheaper scanners for this in the past with no luck. There seems to be a plateau in scanner cost in which scanned images just don't look good. I would say the Epson 2450 is definitely above this plateau. And despite the fact that there are better scanners out there dedicated for film, it's difficult to find one under [$$]. The Epson 2450 handles prints as expected. The bundled software can do some correction, such as exposure and color balance, but lacks some of the jazzy scratch removal and color saturation effects that are bundled with more expensive scanners. Even so, it has excellent color and sharpness. It scanned images that are true to print. The negative film scanner impressed me - it works much better than I expected. The trays hold various format negatives. The large format trays hold a single negative. The 35 mm tray holds two strips with up to 6 frames on each strip. The Epson Twain software can automatically recognize the tray and crop each negative frame automatically. Then, before final scanning, it allows each frame to be corrected individually. It's impressive and gives the feel of having a photo lab at home. I was able to pull some details out of an underexposed negative that I thought was lost. The Epson 2450 is not without its flaws. The included manual will probably confuse more than help, especially for beginners. The online manual has much more detailed instructions. I don't like the industry's direction with online manuals. But if it has to be an electronic manual why include a confusing incomplete printed manual with it? Also, there are no included cables. Any product that sells at this price should also include cables. None of my firewire cables fit. For the record, if you are going for the firewire connection, you need a 6 pin to 6 pin cable. Cost should be under [$] if you shop around. Or, you can go USB, but make sure your computer has the newer 2.0 ports to get the speed advantage (mine does not). I am extremely happy with this scanner.
Rating:
Summary: This Scanner Delivers!
Review: After searching for the best price for this scanner, I purchased it from Amazon. By using the free shipping option, the Amazon price was right up there with the best. Now for the scanner... I owned an Epson 1650 photo, which was not suitable for scanning 35mm if you want to print larger than 4x6. After reading countless reviews, I decided to upgrade. I have scanned 35mm color and B&W negatives as well as slides with the 2450. 8x10's stand up to darkroom prints made on my Leica Focomat. In many ways they are better, because I use the included Silverfast software plugin to Photoshop to adjust the image at scanning. Further tweaking in Photoshop renders wonderful prints - better than spending hours in the wet lab dodging, burning and bleaching. I also have panorama negatives taken nearly 100 years ago that are roughly 2.25 x 6 inches. The 2450 with it's 4x9 scanning area outshines the competition, allowing me to scan the entire negative at once. This scanner really delivers with medium and large format - 6x6 cm and 4x5. The resultant prints are stunning - much better than I'm able to achieve in the wet lab. The results of scanning vintage photos for which I have no negatives are also superior. I know a dedicated film scanner would give better results, but I can't pay the $3,000 to $5,000 freight for a 4x5 film scanner. Since I don't plan to go bigger than 13x19 prints, I'm happy as a clam with this setup....
Rating: 
Summary: Professional Photographer
Review: Buyer Beware. I bought two of these scanners and both were defective. The first one had a large piece of plastic shaving under the scanning glass. The second one did not operate as the scanning light did not illuminate and I had to return that one too. I really liked the features that this scanner offered but I am not convinced of the reliablility of this product and would not recommend. If you decide to buy it-check your unit out closely when you get it home.
Rating:
Summary: Check out the 2450 before you buy
Review: I don't know about other customers, but my 2450 is worthless to me. It looked good and got good reviews and for my interest in photography I thought this was the answer to my needs. I assumed that it really would work with windows XP. That's questionable. Epson doesn't write the SmartPanel software and there have been many issues with that. After having new, updated software installed from Newsoft and the SmartPanel still didn't work, I then received an e-mail from Newsoft which said that there likly would be problems with the new version too. A phone call to Epson brought no resistance and a quick offer of a refund. That alone might have saved a customer for future purchases of Epson products. But not this 2450.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Scanner for the Money
Review: I bought this scanner a few days ago, and was surprised by the quality of the scans. I took some 4 x 6 photos(taken with a Canon A-1 from approx a mile away) and scanned them at 1200 dpi. Be ready for some large files. They were about 75 meg for each photo. When I printed (13 x 19) them I couldn't believe the level of detail. I don't think it would be any better scanning photos higher than 1200 dpi. My only complaint is DUST. I can see lots of dust on the inside of the glass, and it shows up on the scans. I have heard it is a problem with these scanners, and there is no guarantee that if I got another one it would be any better. I guess I will have to get good with some software to try to remove the dust.
Rating: 
Summary: Solid Scanner, Shaky USB Interface, Weak Epson Support
Review: The Epson 2450 Perfection is a good scanner, but I was very disappointed with the incompatibility of the USB interface with an add-in USB 2.0 card (Belkin F5U220 - not a hub). I am using WinXP Home. Using this setup, the scanner prescans, but it cannot complete any final scan without an error. It works OK using a USB 1.1 interface, but very slowly on high-density scans (35 mm slides, film). I solved the speed problem by switching to the firewire interface. (Epson does not supply the firewire cable.) Epson customer service was quite unhelpful, blowing me off with the convenient theory that only USB interfaces on motherboards can be expected to work properly with their equipment (where is that in their specs?). I'm not alone with this problem as a Google search will reveal.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent, with a few flaws
Review: The Epson 2450 is a great scanner for the money. It can handle photo scans, OCR, and transparencies with fine speed and quality. Many of the reviews here (as well as the technical information) should satisfy your curiosity about how well it performs, so I thought I might point out a few shortcomings I have experienced, as these might be more informative than general praise. The scanner itself: I wish there were a dust guard built in on the sides. Unlike higher-end flatbeds (or even some cheaper scanners) there is a significant gap between the top and the glass, and this has allowed extra dust to get in there during many a transparency scan. Other than that, I have no real complaints, The included software: Silverfast is a bit of a pain to use unless you are willing to commit a significant amount of time to getting things right. TWAIN works well enough for most applications. Also, as of two weeks ago, there was STILL no Max OSX software bundle included with these as standard equipment. That means that you have to run Elements and Silverfast in Classic (OS 9) mode or download TWAIN for OSX and use it with Photoshop, if you are lucky enough to own that. Finally, at least with TWAIN, the transparency scans were often REALLY off. If you use full-auto mode, black-and-white negatives are almost always read (on my computer, at least) as color positive film. Not a huge problem to correct with a decent photo editing program, but still a pain. Also, in both the auto and manual modes, TWAIN often fuses adjacent negatives together for no apparent reason (though it's sometimes because the gap between them is a tiny bit 'dirty'). Underexposed negatives are sometimes cut altogether and do not get scanned in either Auto or Manual mode. Finally, with MANY negatives I have scanned in, including 35mm's and 4x5's placed into the PROVIDED holders, the program just decides that the vertical or horizontal sides of the pictures are superfluous information and should be cut, resulting in a lot of clipping. This is just plain stupid and really inexcusable, unlike, say, the fusing problem, which makes sense but which should have some sort of manual override option (like 'cleave'). Actually, that omission makes both of these mistakes rather inexcusable. I would be a lot more annoyed with the shortcomings of the provided software if I did not have Photoshop, as many of its bungles would then be insurmountable. Other than that... This really IS a good scanner for a good price. If you're poking around for one in this price range, look no further. You really can't improve on this unless you are willing to drop significantly more money and/or buy a separate transparency scanner. I recommend it with few reservations.
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