Front manual feed epson 3800 for Digi Negs.

[Andrew ren]

I had to feed the pictorico OHP via the front slot of my 3800 as try to avoid the Pizza wheel thing.

now, as I exam my pt/pd prints carefully, i noticed that there are some subtle vertical "banding" lines on both ends of the prints, probably have inch from the border, then I checked the Digi Neg, its on the Neg itself! anyway idea why this happened?

(I double-side taped two pieces of Epson Enhanced Mat(8.5 x 11) to make it a bit stiffer, then just lay a sheet of OHP same size(8.5 x 11) on it and feed through from the front and hit print...)

Cheers


Andrew

[Dave Aharonian]

HI Andrew,

I do the same front feed on my Epson and have no problems but I have never needed to tape the Pictorico down at all. I feed the Pictorico in the front by itself, and it prints perfectly. I realize this is not helping your issue, but it seems to work fine for me.

Dave

[PViapiano]

I find that the Epson spits out my OHP when I feed it without a backing sheet, front feed.

And yes, once or twice I have found, not banding per se, but a "scrunching" of pixels in the area Andrew speaks of.

[Andrew ren]

Dave,

do you mean you just feed OHP with no backing support? did you change the settings on the 3800, something like building a custom paper configuration?

Paul,
How is your Nuarc 26-1k coming along? I bought another one as backup, just in case.
Yes, its not a "banding" precisely speak, just some(1 or 2) fine vertical lines on both borders.

I went over to the local Wallack's store picked up a sheet of 16x20 2-ply board, around 1.3mm in thickness, will try to tape the OHP(13x19) down on it. The only reason i can think of is that the backing sheet needs to be stiff and flat enough, because @ the beginning 3/4" and end 3/4" on the OHP was just "hanging" their with barely no back-support, I also made the backing sheet(16x20) larger than the actual OHP(13x19) itself.that will deliver greater support on the edges of the OHP.
We will see.

Cheers

Andrew

[Andrew ren]

And Dave,

Do you notice there is degrading of the sharpness on your Digi Negs if you print the OHP without backing sheet?
as I think that the 3800 intends to see something thicker if you use the front feed, and if it's a thinner media as OHP, the head probably won't perform perfect in this case and you might see some sharpness lose on it...

Just a thought.

Cheers

Andrew

[Colin Graham]

Andrew, I occasionally used to get some odd magenta-heavy bands at the ends of sky-heavy negatives using QTR, but this might not be the same problem you're having. I could correct it by reorienting the negative before printing, flip 90 or 180 for example. Lucky hack, but it might be worth a try if you get stumped.

I've been through several 3800s and the first unit I owned worked fine feeding the OHP without backing through the front loader, but the subsequent units did not. Seems to depend on the unit itself, but tech support did confirm that the front feed slot wasn't designed to work with such thin material.

[Andrew ren]

Colin,

I might take a chance to try feed OHP via front slot without backing sheet tonight.
Also will scan one of the problematic Pt/pd prints and load it up to here...

Cheers

Andrew

[Andrew ren]

All right folks, here it is. Notice the strips on both borders(vertical). its on the OHP.

[PViapiano]

The NuArc is great...finally have it dialed in, but printing mostly gums with it lately.

I see the lines you're talking about but that is different than my sporadic quirkiness.

[Dave Aharonian]

I'm baffled by those lines! So far I'm fortunate in that it hasn't happened to me.

And that's a gorgeous image!!