Epson Perfection 4990: Pro vs Photo, vs Canon 9950F

[Z Man]

Anyone know what the difference is between the Epson 4990 Photo and the 4990
Pro, other than the price? Is there any difference in hardware or supplied
accessories, or just the included software? I will be scanning primarily
photos, some of which are very old and need to be cleaned up, but I might
also try scanning my 30+ year old set of slides. I use Photoshop, but I am
not particularly proficient at photo re-touching, so I would like the
scanner to do some of the hard work in terms of improving the images, before
I work on them.

I will be replacing my Epson Perfection 1200, which I bought in Sept, 1999.

The only serious competition to the Epson 4990 seems to be the Canon 9950F.
Any thoughts on pros/cons of these two models?

 

[Terry]

Anyone know what the difference is between the Epson 4990 Photo and the 4990
Pro, other than the price? Is there any difference in hardware or supplied
accessories, or just the included software? I will be scanning primarily
photos, some of which are very old and need to be cleaned up, but I might
also try scanning my 30+ year old set of slides. I use Photoshop, but I am
not particularly proficient at photo re-touching, so I would like the
scanner to do some of the hard work in terms of improving the images, before
I work on them.

I will be replacing my Epson Perfection 1200, which I bought in Sept, 1999.

The only serious competition to the Epson 4990 seems to be the Canon 9950F.
Any thoughts on pros/cons of these two models?

The difference in price of the 4990 Pro vs the 4990 photo is the
software. Pro has Monaco color management software, AI Silver Fast and
OCR software. The scanners are the same, I'm not sure if the software
is worth the extra $150.00, however the retail price of the software is
many times that.

 

[Terry]

Check here for reviews on the two scanners: http://www.photo-i.co.uk/

 

[Z Man]

The difference in price of the 4990 Pro vs the 4990 photo is the
software. Pro has Monaco color management software, AI Silver Fast and
OCR software. The scanners are the same, I'm not sure if the software
is worth the extra $150.00, however the retail price of the software is
many times that.

I did read the review at http://www.photo-i.co.uk/. That's how I found the
Epson 4990. They also liked the Canon, but they did not do a head to head
comparison with the Canon 9950F. As for the software, I know it is
important, but I already have Photoshop, so I don't know that I am willing
to pay the extra money for the bundled software.I'll have to give it some
thought.

 

[-]

As for the software, I know it is important

I have seen a few online posts stating that Canon now includes a version of
Silverfast. This is not noted on the Canon USA site but they just may have
never updated the website. You could call Canon to see if it is true. If
they are including Silverfast Ai (vs. SE which is limited), that probably
would overcome the software complaint which is the biggest gripe about the
scanner.

Doug