Switch to Home mode and you can control a few settings, including adjusting brightness after a preview. The default mode is the scanner equivalent of a point-and-shoot mode on a camera, handling virtually all of the settings for you. The driver, complete with Epson's usual three modes, will be immediately familiar to anyone who's used other Epson scanners. The V500's front panel includes one-touch scan buttons for scanning to a PDF-format image file, copying (sending a scan to your printer), e-mail (creating an e-mail message with the scan attached as a document), and calling up the Epson Twain driver to scan and save a file to disk. It can save recognized text to a format suitable for editing and can save files in searchable PDF format for document management.
ABBYY FineReader 6.0 Sprint is a capable optical character recognition (OCR) program appropriate for basic OCR for personal use.
Photoshop Elements (my unit came with version 4.0, though Epson insists it ships with version 3) is a fairly sophisticated photo editor that's appropriate for the relatively serious amateur photographer the V500 is aimed at. In addition to the Epson Twain driver, which you can use directly or call up with almost any program that has a scan command, the bundled software includes two application programs. You install the software, plug in the scanner, connect a USB cable, and turn it on. Setting up the V500 is typical for a flatbed scanner. Even more important than the individual features is the way they work together, as a well-designed, fully integrated whole that makes it easy to take full advantage of each part. The scanner's long list of impressive features includes a 6,400-pixel-per-inch (ppi) optical resolution, which is more than enough for scanning 35mm film an LED light source that doesn't need time to warm up when the scanner's been sitting idle and hardware-based Digital ICE for digitally removing dust and scratches from film. This makes it most appropriate for anyone (short of a professional photographer) who needs to scan a backlog of prints and film (including slides) to digital format. Like almost any flatbed scanner, the V500 can handle all-purpose scanning, but it's focused on photos. It offers high-quality scans for both prints and film and features an LED light source that eliminates warm-up time.
Epson has knocked one out of the park with this scanner. A case in point is the Epson Perfection V500 Photo ($249.99 direct). I don't generally use sports metaphors in reviews, but sometimes there's no better way to put it.
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