Espon V850 and Better Scanning wet scan holder

[Steven Ruttenberg]

So, I just got my replacement V850, the other two Epson sent had dirt on the inside of the glass. This one does, but not in image area. Any, I am trying to calibrate the focus using the Better Scanning set up again only this time, I have run the range of 0 adj all the way out to 3 or 4 full turns and the image doesn't seem to get better or worse. In fact, in Vuescan, the preview images look great, but the image after scan looks like crap and when I open in PS, looks like crap. What I am I doing wrong? The slide is absolutely focused tack sharp over the entire depth of field.

[Steven Ruttenberg]

Here is what I am doing. I am doing the preview scan then selecting an area to do final scan on to scan at output resolution faster. Could this be the issue? Because the preview scans of the whole image look tack sharp, even at various height settings the preview looks better than the final image?

[Steven Ruttenberg]

And if I save the whole preview image it is sharp. So I don't get it? Is the scanner busted from the factory?

[minh0204]

This sounds more of a software than a hardware problem. May I suggest that you retry the procedure (scanning a small section at different heights) with Epson Scan?

[Steven Ruttenberg]

Sure. It will be a week though on the road. Interesting comparison I scanned full slide a at 1000 dpi and it was sharper than scanned crop.

[Doug Fisher]

Steve -

Are you sure that you have "film with film holder" selected in the software? This not being set correctly is often the reason for the problem you describe. You have to check this each time before you hit the scan button to make sure it has not changed.

Doug

[Steven Ruttenberg]

I will check this but I don't believe Vuescan has that as an option. When I first got the holder I calibrated it with 1 full turn and things great. Got replacement scanner now being difficult. I was trying to caliber ate at can resolution of 4000 dpi by choosing a section of preview scan. I am wondering if this is the issue in that it is not only scanning just that area, but it is enlarging it as well. I did a quickie 1000dpi full scan with Better scanning glass directly on scanner be film between the t would and that looked better.

I am starting to think a scan of the full image needs to be done in order to properly calibrate and could use lower scan dpi like 1500-2000 for expediency. Just a thought.

[IanBarber]

can you show screen shots of the Input and Output tab of VueScan

[Steven Ruttenberg]

Today, during lunch, I was carefully looking at the slide and noticed an area in between the branches at the most forward (closest to camera) and a few feet beyond that that was not in focus. The branches were sharp, but the ground just behind and back a few feet were not. Everything from that point and back was sharp again all the way to the mountains. The antenna farm was in focus as well.
What I believe happened, was that the tilt was a little too much so the point where the plane of focus passed underneath the lens was above ground a bit. This placed the focus "wedge" so that the branches closest to the camera intruded into this wedge thereby they are sharp whereas, the portion of the ground from the branches back several feet were outside (below) the wedge.

If you carefully scan the entire image on the light table it becomes apparent that the foreground and forward a few feet are not focused well. So, when I chose the cropped area to scan I just happened to pick this area, never thought to think it was out since looking at the image with a 3.5X loupe everything looked great. Not until you study the image a bit do you see that this area is indeed out of focus. So obviously no matter what I did for adjustments it would never be in focus. However, it never got worse either.

I am going to go back and choose an area that I can see for sure is well focused and go thru the process again starting from Epson's default height (adj screws flush) and then go from there. I will also take screen shots of the input and output tabs. I can't do any of this till this Friday as I am on travel.

[Doug Fisher]

>>I will check this but I don't believe Vuescan has that as an option. <<

While it sounds like you have solved your issue, for future reference, Vuescan does have this setting although it uses slightly different wording compared to EpsonScan. This is how the scanner knows which of its two lenses to use.

For the Epson flatbeds, a piece of exposed and developed film with a cross-hatch pattern lightly scratched across it with a very fine/sharp needle can be a useful focus testing pattern. Run your test scans at 3200 ppi. The ripples along the edge of the scratch often provide the best detail to use for judgement. That way, you don't have to worry about whether you had your camera lens focused well and/or that you are choose an evaluation subject in the scene that was in the intended plan of focus (which seems might have been what tripped you up during your last test).

Doug