Artist Review: Epson Perfection V370 scanner

This is a guest post by Giacomo Sardelli (Disegni in Tasca). The original review was published in Italian.

Since I started the blog I have needed to publish my artworks in good quality, using a scanner for drawings and watercolour. After a month spent using the printer built-in scanner, I decided it was time to invest in a more suitable tool.

The Epson Perfection V370 Photo is an A4 flatbed scanner that also offers film and slide scanning function.

I'm not interested in film scanning, but I chose to buy this scanner anyway for several reasons listed below.

Before I start with the actual review, see this comparison between the built-in scanner of a printer (HP Envy 5530) and the Epson Perfection V370 Photo.


HP Envy 5530


Epson Perfection V370 Photo

CCD sensor suitable for watercolor paper

I chose this scanner mainly for its sensor. Scanners have two types of sensors, generally:

  • CIS
  • CCD

From an artist viewpoint, these are the differences:

  • CIS (Contact Image Sensor): the sheet must be in direct contact with the surface, otherwise any part of the sheet that is lifted even by 1mm will be blurred.
  • CCD (Charged Coupled Device): the color quality is better, scanning is faster, but the most important thing is the greater depth of field. So, even if the sheet is slightly detached from the plane, the image will still be in focus.

A CCD sensor is, therefore, the best choice for scanning cold-pressed or rough watercolor paper, or sketchbooks with a binding that lifts them from the scanner surface.

Resolution

The maximum optical resolution is 4800 DPI. Generally, I scan at 600 DPI, twice as much as requested for printing, while images for the blog and Instagram are reduced to 72 DPI.

Cover can be opened 180° to scan drawings on sketchbooks

Another interesting feature is the lid that lifts slightly, which is great for scanning thick sketchbooks. You can even unhook it and open at 180 ° to scan drawings more comfortably.


The lid lifts off the side of the hinge allowing for scanning of thick sketchbooks


Cover open at 90 °


Cover open at 180 °

Connectivity

The Epson Perfection V370 Photo connects to the PC via USB 2.0, the type B port is used at the scanner side, the type A (rectangle) port is used at the computer side. The USB socket and the power cord are on the hinge side of the lid, in a somewhat awkward position related to how I keep the unit on the desk.

It is worth specifying that there is no Wi-Fi connection, so the only way to connect it to the PC is by USB. It is not a great deal for me, because I prefer to have everything at hand on my desk.

All necessary cables are supplied.


Power and USB inputs

Film scanning

As I said, this scanner can scan 35mm films and slides.

I have not tried this function yet and I will avoid reviewing it anyway because it is not meant to scan drawings and watercolours. For those who want to digitize old family pictures is a nice feature, though.


The Epson Perfection V370 Photo in film capture mode. The document mat is removed to reveal the lamp in the lid, while the supplied film holder has to be placed on the document table.

When not in use, the film adapter can be stored in the lid and covered with the white document mat, so convenient!

Functions


The scanner has 4 function keys that allow you to scan and send via email, scan and save as pdf, send a copy to a printer, turn on the scanner and start Scan Utility.

I don't normally use these functions, but someone might find them handy.

Price

At the time of my purchase (June 2020) the Epson Perfection V370 Photo price was € 120 (in Italy), a more than affordable price for the features that the scanner offers.

A picture is worth a thousand words


To sum up, here is an image to help you judge. The image is uploaded as it was scanned, without any editing. Click for a larger view.

The picture was only compressed and scaled for faster loading time on the blog.

The interesting thing is that everything is in focus, even the cover that was at least 5mm above the scanner surface.

A cheaper alternative is the Epson Perfection V39.

Alternatively, if you want to spend less, a good scanner for drawings and watercolors is the Epson Perfection V39, these are the main differences:

  • The sensor is CIS , not CCD, therefore quality is slightly lower
  • The function for scanning films is missing, but this may not interest you
  • The price is cheaper: around € 85 (in Italy)

Conclusion

The Epson Perfection V370 Photo is an excellent scanner for drawings and watercolors with an excellent quality/price ratio. The CCD sensor alone is worth the higher price compared to CIS scanners, and besides it has the function to scan films.

If you have any other questions about this scanner, please ask in the comments!

Comments

I used this scanner nearly every day for almost 10 years! It was a tough workhorse that scanned beautifully (until it finally died). Worth every penny several times over.

Hello Giacomo, thank you for reviewing and writing detailed review for the same. I usually paint on watercolor paper 14*20. I wanted to read something like this before deciding on investing amount this big. I have a most basic inkjet printer Canon pixma with inbuilt scanner and I used it for scanning my artwork. it was really disappointing. The I did some research on converting an artwork to electronic image and found lot of people use cameras DSLR/mirrorless even point and shoot which give excellent images.
After reading your review I think this scanner is worth considering because it still cost a fraction of money I will be spending on entry level DSLR.

Can you please help me to make decision.

Thanks
Manish

In reply to by Manish (not verified)

Hello Manish. Are we talking about cm or inches? If you work with 14x20 cm I would totally reccomend the scanner. The quality is definitely better and you can scan at much higher resolution than you would get with any DSLR. I already own a mirrorless but I bought the scanner because it's very hard to photograph the artwork with decent light. If you were talking about 14x20 inches, well, you should try to do some stitching using the scanner you already have and see how the workflow is for you. Cameras are used when the artwork is very big or when the media is "3D" such as oil paintings where the paint can be some mm thick.
But for watercolors up to A4 size, scanner is the way to go, in my opinion.

For those willing to dive into a little bit of tech, I use an opensource tool called Hugin to stich oversized scans together. With a little bit of learning, it's actually very easy to use!

hello Giacomo, so I have this scanner and its ok for small formats, but I wondering which its the best option if I want some one bigger.

thanks for your time

In reply to by mariano (not verified)

@mariano
If you want to scan large formats at one go, you can look at the Epson XL scanners but they are significantly more expensive than A4 scanners.

Giacomo: Many, many thanks!! I desperately (and quickly) needed a scanner specifically for water color illustrations and I was having such trouble making a decision. So many choices, at such a big range of prices. I read your detailed post, and ordered this model overnight. I am on a huge deadline! I just set it up and it is such a good scanner compared my old one which did not make scans good enough for work. It helped me so much to understand the “CCD” aspect that makes such a difference. I did not know that, I thought only dpi mattered. Thank you so much for helping another artist!! You really provided such helpful info plus the comparison scans of watercolor work. I am grateful to you!

I can't afford a monthly subscription for a scanner. Am I missing something or is there a way to use this scanner without paying $10 per month like the Driver Support One is seemingly forcing me to do? Thanks in advance.

In reply to by K.B. (not verified)

@KB
You don’t need a monthly subscription. You can download the free driver from their website to scan.

Great scanner as you see for watercolor drawing, A4 pages in B&W and Color but be prepared a very long learning curve for anything else eg. Passports or anything else with mat reflective or glossy finish. Everything can be done but do you have the time and effort when it can easily be done with a cheap all in one Scanner inkjet printer fax.
Epson website supply plenty of drivers but again if you have the time to find out what the programs do as there is information like this is used for that but you need this.

Hi Teoh Yi Chie (and Giacomo Sardelli) thank you for your work! I've been following your blog a long time now (from tips on refilling my pentel pocketbrush, to scanners - you're doing an awesome work!)

Recently, I've been trying to get a hold on a scanner that I could use to digitize my art (very often watercolor and pastel paintings up to 100x70cm); so far I had been doing it with a camera, but flattening the innumerable bulges on a large watercolor paintings to have it photographed in a dozen small tiles under a cloudy sky and then stitching them together to get a 300dpi image file is too much work!

I've been thinking of a scanner with a removable (or at least a 180degress lid) so that I could scan the watercolor paintings flat in tiles and get the lighting, pain-stalking flattening and camera distortions out of the equation. I was sold on the V370, but it seems both Epson V39 and V370 can't be found in the eu market any longer.

Now I'm considering Canon scanners, but I have two concerns; your thoughts are much appreciated:
a) you can't remove the lid on the canon scanners - how would I be able to scan my large pieces?
b) Canon scanners have a CIS sensor and I am worried that it won't focus properly on wavey/bulged paper - I have an hp scanner/printer/fax with a CIS sensor, and horrible image quality aside, no matter how hard I press the watercolor paper on the glass, parts of it are always out of focus - Don't you have a similar experience with the canon ones?

Thank you!

In reply to by Fotis Kalafatis (not verified)

@Fotis Kalafatis
For larger pieces of work, using a camera is still going to be more convenient. The main thing to note is to make sure you have proper even lighting.

Your 3-in-1 scanner is for scanning office documents, not for scanning art or photos, which is why the scan quality is not good.

Unfortunately if you want go go with CIS scanners, you'll still have the problem of blurry images when the paper is not in contact with the surface.

Your artwork is huge. Stitching together multiple pieces after scanning is going to be a lot of work. And you have to make sure you get the proper alignment for each scan before you stitch which makes it even more challenging.

You may be able to find some tutorials on Youtube on how to photography artworks or watercolour paintings.

In reply to by Teoh Yi Chie

thank you Teoh Yi Chie! All very valid remarks! You're verifying my fears that I'm stuck with photography then :/

Thus far I've been photographing the artworks and stitching the pieces (sometimes up to 20 photos per painting to produce a single 1:1-sized 300dpi reproduction). It's been very satisfying result-wise (I use a program called Hugin for the stitchings and while it's very fiddly, it's also extremely capable). But setting up the camera and the painting, shooting it in tiles, and then stitching them, are very tedious processes and very error-prone. I was hoping that a scanner would speed up and simplify the process by taking away inconsistencies (ie cameral misalignments, bad focus, paper buckling and (worse) having to wait for the perfect cloudy sky for the photoshoot)

In reply to by Fotis Kalafatis (not verified)

Hi Doug, at this point I think what you need to do is to reduce variables in your workflow. It doesn't make much sense to wait for a cloudy sky to take the pictures, because that means variable lighting every time, that can even differ between each photo of the same artwork!

I would suggest to study a way to setup a space with studio lights to have a reliable lighting source, constant distance between the artwork and lights, a tripod with a manual DSLR camera with fixed aperture. This way you'll have way more control on your shootings, and it will be easier to stitch everything together.

In reply to by Giacomo | Dise… (not verified)

You're absolutely right; photographing with natural light is a very hit or miss experience - I'm currently exploring cheap tricks for diffused highCRI lighting for a tight budget.. we'll see what comes of this! thanks!

PS. apologies to both Doug and you Giacomo, I accidentally hijacked Doug's thread

Thanks for the review. I am interested in knowing how much time does it take to scan a sheet of paper at a normal resolution. This is an important information for me in order to choose the scanner, but I have not been able to find it anywhere.

Could you please explain it a little?

In reply to by Giacomo Sardel… (not verified)

Good morning,

Thank you for your review. I’ve been contemplating buying this scanner for awhile. Read other reviews about it and some say it’s good for scanning large artwork. I’m an inspiring painter and some of my paintings range from 18 by 20 cm and smaller and I wanted to know if this scanner can scan large pieces like that. Thank you in advance!

hi there. this has been helpful. thanks..
my question is about the whites and off whites.. i need to scan antique prints/paper and i have a hard time finding a scanner that does not whiten or yellow the look of the old paper..
because i sell online i need my scans to look exactly like the print i a, selling so the buyers can see exactly what they are getting..
i have an epson v600 and i think i have a lemon as i need to adjust every single scan to look proper. i don’t have the time to go thru every scan to do this when i am scanning 100+ prints to sell.
so, i guess i am asking about the colour matching including the neutrals/whites as well.
let me know what you thank. and many thanks for your blog!

In reply to by marckle myers (not verified)

@marckle myers
The scanner should not automatically adjust the colours of the scanner.

Meaning if you scan old yellow paper, it should not automatically process it to look white. At least that's what my scanner is doing.

If you already have a scanner, check the settings to see if you can turn off the automatic adjustments if any. Or if you can't, you can put something extra to scan (will take up space) to give the scanner some colour reference.

E.g. If you're scanning yellow paper, you can place a small piece of white paper beside your yellow paper. The scanner will detect the yellow as yellow and not white because there's already the white paper there.

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