A week ago I purchased an Epson 4870 to scan my 4x5 Velvia transparencys. My initial impressions of the scans were positive. However the other night I made an inkjet and there appeared clearly visable blotchy noise areas in the print. At first I suspected a problem with the printer but on closer inspection of the scan at 200% magnification I realised the noise was in the scan. The noise was worse in the darker areas as should be expected. The slide I scanned was well exposed and not particularly dark. I tried scanning the slide all sorts of different ways 48bit, 24bit, ICE off, and altering the levels. Turning the ICE off reduced the noise slightly. I have also had the same image scanned on a friends 4870 and the noise is similar. I purchased this scanner after reading glowing user reports on this forum and elsewhere. I thought that the Dmax of 3.8 would be more than adequate, my Canon FS4000 35mm scanner only has a dmax of 3.6 and It produces clean scans most of the time.
My questions are 1 Is there any special scanning technique that can be used with this scanner to minimise the noise. 2 Are there any flatbed scanners on the market that have superior noise performance (in a similar price range) or is the Epson 4870 as good as it gets.
I am beginning to regret this purchasing decision and would appreciate feedback from those who are experienced with scanners (and other 4870 users).
Thank You
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