Epson V700 banding noise

Hope somone can help. I've been through all the various posts on v700 banding and ruled out the most common problems. The calibration area has been cleaned thoroughly, negs clean and developed in the same batch.

I'm getting banding on some 4x5s right across the entire neg. From what I can deduce, it seems to occur when negs that are faily dense (ie overexposed) with large areas of cloud. See the images below - all from the same hour's shoot. This happens on medium format scans when the images are over exposed/dense. Occurs on portra, fuji 160ns which I shoot regularly.

I'm fairly experienced at scanning and I've optimised my 4x5 holder very precisely, resulting in very sharp scans. I only use the holder too - no wet scanning direct to the glass as my particular scanner isn't too great in this regard. I've scanned the negs exhibiting the problem at a variety of resolutions from 600-4800dpi and I've flipped the negs around to orientate them to test using emulsion side up and down, and the banding still appears right across the scan.

My guess is it is some type of reflective issue but

Banding here across whole neg. Sharpened to accentuate the lines
Attachment 155287

Close up of the noise from another image
Attachment 155288

No banding/noise in this image rom same shoot.
Attachment 155289

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kazzam

it seems to occur when negs that are faily dense (ie overexposed)

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I think you already figured out the problem. The effect is the same with underexposed / underdeveloped negatives. The scanning software is trying to turn an improperly exposed photograph into something acceptable but is unable to. Try doing a Normal scan instead of a Thumbnail scan and try adjusting the levels yourself. You probably won't be able to.

Be sure the check box in the preferences marked "scan in draft mode" is not checked. Other than that, yes, if the negative is too dense, noise abounds.