#EPSON Perfection V750

[alanyahnke]

Me and Pooch [Near Jordan, Minnesota 1953] by Alan Yahnke Via Flickr: Me with my Dad's old dog Pooch. This may have been taken on my 2nd birthday. We had just moved to this farm the year before. That is where I grew up. I moved away when I was about 19, going to school, then the military. It was sold to my brother Donald while I was in the military. That's a 1949 Ford my Dad bought new.

[ultralowoxygen]

A diner by Daniel Dawn Via Flickr: If you are interested in my works, they are available on Getty Images and Adobe Stock; prints on Photos. . Follow me also on Portfolio Website | Instagram | 500px | Facebook Page | EyeEm | Wix |

[yixiao-photos]

About me

My name is Yixiao Zhang. This site is exclusively for my analog works.

I am an analog photography enthusiast based in Atlanta GA, US and Suzhou, China. I started shooting film in 2017 using an Olympus OM-4 camera from my elder cousin. Since 2020, I develop B&W film at home and scan them with an Epson Perfection V750 Pro scanner. 

Favorite film: Ilford HP5 PLUS. 

Favorite camera: Olympus OM-4. 

[7whistlepig7]

Extinct or not?

Really big birds: Giant Teratorn fossils (about 5 million years ago) have been found in Argentina. With wingspans of 20 feet and weights of 150 pounds, they didn’t have many enemies. Resembling vultures, rumors of their survival persist. 2009 Production Scanning | ImageDigitizationSpecifications v1.0 | Epson Perfection V750 Pro

[invisiblehour]

Epson Perfection V750 Pro (film scanner) for sale- $500. Works great. I just had to upgrade to V800 so I can scan 8x10 negatives. (at Central District, Seattle)

[jollysportingbear]

Sea Outside by Øystein Horgmo Via Flickr: Film: Bergger Pancro 400 Developed in Rodinal 1+25 Scanner: Epson Perfection V750 Pro

[wulfprints]

PHOT201 Evaluation

The Brief

I found Weird & Wonderful to be an interesting and stimulating brief. I loved its open-endedness which allowed me to write my own story, rather than have one chosen for me. I also enjoyed particularly its links with cinematography, which is one of my biggest interests alongside photography. I find that cinema has a unique ability to convey emotion, one that even photography does not often have.

My Response

During the first month or so of this brief, I had it set in my mind that I would create a project titled Polaris. While Polaris still sits in my mind, it did not become my response to this brief for one main reason, it would have been shot mainly in the studio on a digital camera. This began to bore me, and became a limiting factor to my creativity. The inherently neutral and ‘perfect’ nature of digital media can become a creative prison personally.

The solution came unexpectedly in the form of a visit to Lacock Abbey where, of my own accord and not intending to start a new project, I shot a single roll of medium format black-and-white film. This pulled me out of a period of creative block and inspired me to start creating again. After this shoot, I decided to start a new project, a heavy undertaking considering how much time I had already spent on Polaris. This new project would become Hallucinations, and would be shot purely on film and developed by me.

What I Enjoyed

What I enjoyed most about this new direction was how personal it felt. Rather than a computer chip measuring a sensor’s output and then writing that data on to an SD card, I was exposing light to a photo-sensitive film, and then developing it with my own two hands. I had taken the place of the sensor, and this made the process so much more interesting. I felt like I had an attachment to the film.

Not only this, but there was also a sense of danger in that I could very easily fail. One small mistake and an entire roll of images could be destroyed. An entire roll that could not be retrieved. This danger allowed me to think more about each image, and also slow myself down and take more care. Digital media; with all its perfection, its ease of use, and its safety; can encourage a particular nonchalance, which I feel there should be no place for in art.

Experimentation & New Experiences

I knew how to process and scan film to an amateur degree before embarking on this project, but I feel I have really come to grips with it and learnt lots of lessons during it.

For instance, my development of film used to be quite rushed and casual, I made mistakes here and there and it didn’t matter much to me. During this project I have slowed down and taken more time with my development, I have researched the best methods of development, the worst mistakes to make, and I have taken much more physical care with the film. I never go near my film without something covering my hands (e.g. cotton gloves), and I have found that most steps of processing will be of higher quality if you set aside twice the amount of time you think you’ll need.

In addition, before this project I would scan my film on an Epson V750/V850, and I was never very happy with it. It always looked quite dull to me, and was never sharp enough. I knew that I would have to remedy this to undertake Hallucinations, and so I learned how to use the Hasselblad Flextight X1 which we have a few of at PCA. This scanner costs more than a family car and has the quality to back its price up. Now when I scan film, it looks great. The tones are deep and the sharpness is unrivalled. I don’t even scan on the highest resolution and I am still astounded by the sharpness of this scanner.

Finally, I’ve experimented with film much more than I ever have before. For instance, I’ve pushed and pulled HP5+ (almost) to its limits, I’ve used films I’ve never used before (Delta, TMax 3200P), and I’ve used kit I’ve never used before (Mamiya 7II 135 converter). This experimentation is the best bit of photography to me.

In the future I would especially like to develop my use of high-sensitivity films. For instance, I have used Kodak TMax 3200P, and I was very impressed with it, but I would like to compare it to Ilford’s Delta 3200. I would also like to test Ilford’s HP5+ at 3200, which is purportedly possible.

Also, I would like to try out some new cameras. I would like to try using a large format camera, and I would also like to have another go at using the Tomiyama panoramic medium format camera (6x17” negatives are too good to pass up).

Limitations / Problems

My first limitation came in the form of a scanner. I had started this project using an Epson V750/V850 flatbed scanner, which just wasn’t up to the task. As discussed previously, I had to learn to use the larger and more expensive scanners in our digital darkroom to complete this project. The scanners themselves are excellent, and worth every penny. Unfortunately, the software that comes with the scanners, of which there is no alternative, is absolutely atrocious. The software has clearly not been updated in at least a decade, and there is effectively no support for it anymore. The ‘3F’ file format, which is supposed to be akin to a raw file from a camera, is unopenable in any other program, and therefore was useless to me. I spent about a dozen days solid in the digital darkroom, from 9AM until as late as 9PM, just getting the levels on the scans as good as I could get them. For some images this seemed an impossible task, and could take up to half a day just to get a single successful final image. In two separate instances I spent over a day scanning images, only to find that every bit of work was useless. This was, without a doubt, the worst aspect of this project, and totally mentally drained me.

I feel that this aspect of the project was completely inefficient, and wasted a huge amount of my time. If I could streamline this process, I would have a much higher quality end product, including more detailed write-ups of the process. Unfortunately so much time was spent sat in a dark room scanning film, that I feel other aspects of my project are not as good as they could/should be.

A second limitation was the occasional attitudes that I received from members of staff of the National Trust. On one or two occasions I was asked (politely, to be fair) to stop taking photographs. I was told that it is fine to take pictures with phones but, when using more ‘professional kit’, it is not allowed. This is a very strange ethos in my opinion, and I feel that, if anything, the National Trust should have been thanking me for basing a project purely on them. After all, on the rare off-chance that my photobook became widely produced, it would be excellent publicity for them.

In addition, the National Trust have a habit of putting massive green stickers and signs all over their properties which detract from their immersion. I understand that they probably have legislations that they have to adhere to, but it makes it incredibly difficult to undertake a project based on timelessness and immersion when every corner of the buildings have stickers on them, which clearly place the image in the modern day.

Thirdly, the amount of people in these properties made it difficult to take timeless pictures. After all, a nuclear family walking around in jeans and t-shirts with DSLRs and iPhones doesn’t exactly scream 19th century. This is hardly anyone’s fault, of course more people than just myself want to view the properties, and that is totally fair. In a perfect world, I could visit a property during a time when it is closed to the public.

The good old English rain. This puts a massive damper on working with slow exposure times and tripods, especially when working with expensive kit that doesn’t belong to me. I’ve been known in the past to walk in to the sea with my DSLRs, but this is because I know that if I drop it I only have myself to blame. If I used a Mamiya 7II (potentially £2500) which belonged to the college in the rain, and it broke, I’d be up shit creek without a paddle. As a result, I had to push film quite far in some instances to avoid using a tripod. This subconscious pressure also caused me to rush at times, which deteriorated the quality of my final images. In the future I must always remember to slow down and take it easy. In addition, it may be prudent to consider a setup to allow me to confidently use cameras in the wet without having to worry about damaging them.

Lastly, I do think that there is some fluff/hair/dust on my final images. This was unavoidable with the kit that I had access to. I had to choose between using cotton gloves which shed fluff, or not using any gloves and getting fingerprints/oil on my negatives. I chose the former, believing that an air blower would remove most, if not all, of the fluff. Unfortunately this was misguided. In the future, I need to find a better solution. Perhaps gloves made from some other material would shed less.

Conclusions

In conclusion I did enjoy 201.I have felt tied down in previous years both at school, sixth form, and occasionally during my first year of university, but I feel that this brief gave me the total freedom that I have always craved, and this allowed me to thrive creatively, knowing that anything I created was almost purely a result of my own decisions.

I think that a photobook is a great way to deliver images, and I will keep hold of mine for a long time.

I think that I was working against the odds more often than not during this brief due to changing paths midway through and wrestling with decades old software, but I’m actually quite proud of what I’ve created. I’m proud that I’ve undertaken a project using almost entirely analog processes, given that just ~18 months ago I had never shot film, let alone processed or scanned it. I feel that my understanding of analog photography has snowballed over the last two months, and I am now a lot more confident using these processes.

This project has taught me to love analog processes, and I shall be using them even more in the future. For instance, I have plans to start creating traditional prints in the darkroom, using enlargers and photo-paper. I would also like to start using our specialist darkroom to experiment with specialist processes such as cyanotypes, liquid lights, and anything else the college (and health and safety guidelines) will allow me to.

[alanyahnke]

One of my guitar playing friends 77 by Alan Yahnke Via Flickr: Mamiya Sekor 500 DTL - Epson V750 Scanner

[raygoodwinprofessionalpractice]

PHOT104 - Economy - 10-14/4/2018

I loaded up my Olympus AF10 Super with a Roll of Ektar 100 and travelled to Exeter. With the idea fresh in my mind, I walked around Exeter for hours, scouring the location for suitable cars to take photos of. The vast majority of these images were taken in the St. James area. The 35mm lens was perfect for this kind of photography, I would of felt a 50mm would of been too tight, the 35mm focal length gave me some room to breathe. I have no idea what settings the Olympus chose to shoot these at, all I had control over was the ISO of the film. Even as the AF10 Super is an automatic exposure camera, there wasn’t any issues when it came to exposure, they all came out well exposed. Although, I did have a fair few issues when it came to flaring as I was shooting in the direction of the sun sometimes. My makeshift lens hood (also known has my hand) didn’t work for every shot when this was an issue. 

While I stuck to the basic composition of shooting straight onto the side of the vehicle, some compositions are different as I couldn’t get to the correct position for that particular look, so I had to compromise for another. These images were scanned with an Epson V750 Pro at 3200dpi. I wanted to scan at this resolution to great a nice large image with plenty of detail. I also really like the colours that Kodak Ektar 100 gives, it really make the colours (especially reds) pop out at you. I have also shot a roll of Ektar 100 with my Ziess Nettar (on 20/4/2018) which needs to be developed and scanned as soon as possible.

The composition is pretty much nailed down for now, it will be continued to keep a uniform aesthetic of my images (depending on how I can take the image). Although I have taken two roll of Ektar, I feel that using one more roll in 135 format in Plymouth could be useful. This would give me varied variety of vehicles and locations. 

[i-am-dustyman]

Moronic Design Department

You'd think that Epson's high-end "Perfection" series of film scanners (V600, V700, V750 ,V800 etc.) would be able to handle the most basic of tasks, allowing three negatives of a 6x7cm strip to be scanned at once. Nope. Their stupidly designed film holder handles only two full frames. The third frame gets severely chopped. Scanning three 6x6cm square images isn't a problem but, really, 6x7 is just as common a format. What is ridiculous is that the scanner bed can easily handle the larger 8x10 sheet film, so it technically *can* cover a three negative 6x7 strip. The only reason it doesn't is because A MORON DESIGNED THE FILM HOLDER. And don't get me started about the dumbass interface of Epson's large format 7900 printer and its incessant nozzle cleaning annoyance. Epson are idiots.

[alanyahnke]

Back Across The Bridge 1977 by Alan Yahnke Via Flickr: Mamiya Sekor 500 DTL - Epson V750 Scanner This bridge led from the road to what use to be Helena, Minnesota for which Helena, Montana was named after. That is my old Dodge van I had at the time this was taken.

[alanyahnke]

Morning Glory by Alan Yahnke Via Flickr: Minolta X370 - MD Rokkor-X 50mm 1:1.4 (1979) - Expired 35mm Kodak 200 - Epson V750 Scanner

[alanyahnke]

Full Colts by Alan Yahnke Via Flickr: Canon Elan II E - EF 28-105mm USM lens - Kodak 100 Gold - Epson V750 Scanner