Epson 2450 photo scaner

[david clark]

Hi All, has anyone tried a Epson 2450 Photo scaner for 4*5 and 6*6 negs? Thanks

[Jean-Marie Solichon]

Hi David, Unfortunately it seems that Epson 2450 scanner does not accept 4x5 transparencies, only 120 film.

[Bob Ashford]

Hi, There should be a review in the British Journal of Photography on Wednesday 28 Nov. It will compare to a unit 20x it's price!!! By the way the transparency / neg area is 4 inches x 9 inches so it will scan 4x5. regards Bob.

[Jean-Marie Solichon]

My apologies. My mistake came directly from Epson french web site wich stated the scanning area for tranparencies at 7,7x22,9cm. Checked on the UK Epson web site which is correct. By the way there are several threads and links about this scanner in the medium format forum.

[Stephen Weaver]

Hi I just purchased the Epson 2450 this weekend and my initial scans on 4x5 velvia are excellent !

[Chris Partti]

I've been using the 2450 to scan 6x6 B&W negs for about 2 weeks now, and (I think) I've more or less got the hang of it. It's capable of scans that can produce 11x11 prints that usually appear as sharp as (sometimes sharper than) my wet darkroom prints of the same size from the same negatives. (I'm printing with an MIS quadtone set on the Epson 1280.) My guess is that the wet darkroom prints might start to have a sharpness advantage as magnification increases further, but I don't know for sure since I don't usually print 6x6 bigger than 11x11 or so. This means you should be able to get good quality prints from 4x5 negs up to about 20x24 (if you have a printer that big). I can't really say anything about how it handles color (although it's done well for me with both chromogenic and traditional B&W film). In addition to the threads on the Medium Format Digest, there's a review of the 2450 at www.virtualtraveller.org.

[Wenbiao Liang]

I was also interested in the Epson 2450 photo scanner.

However, this scanner does not support "set focus position" function.

What this function is:

when you scan a slide or negative, you need to put the slide or negative in a film holder and then put the holder on top of the glass. There is a space between the film and top of the glass, (and therefore eliminates the Newton rings?), this space is 2.5mm.

But, when the scanner is out of the factory, the default is to set focus of the lens to "glass top", being 2.5 mm above the glass may throw the lens out of focus? I don't know.

When a transparency adapter is used, you need to plug in a small plug at the back of the cover, this will tell the scanner driver to re- focus the lens to a position 2.5mm above the glass top, but only if the scanner supports the "set focus position" function.

This sounds good, right? until I downloaded the source code for Epson's Linux driver. After reading the source code, I believe, this scanner does not support the "set focus position" function, only the Expression1600, Expression1640XL and Expression1680 models support this function.

So, this factor alone puts me into re-consideration of purchasing this scanner.

I guess the depth of field will make the image sharp enough, but not the sharpest possible. Although putting the film on top of the glass will generate a sharp scan, it may also generate Newton's rings. But being an relative expensive flatbed scanner ($700 CND), it's a bad desicion for Epson not to support this set focus position function, otherwise 2450 is really a good scanner.

The review listed above also suggested: putting the film on top of the glass gives better scans.

Thanks Wenbiao

[orgel]

On the issue of film holder vs. direct on the glass:

See also:

http://www.virtualtraveller.org/epson2450.htm

and:

the digital photography section of the forum on www.luminous- landscape.com

FOR MORE INFO ON THE EPSON 2450

The British Journal of Photography is doing a review in their Nov. or Dec. 2001 issue.

[Jerry A. Hyman]

I purchased the Epson Expression 2450 Photo scanner about a month ago and it has been used extensively since then. My 4X5 scans using the holder has produced very sharp scans in both B&W and color. I also like the Silverfast software that comes bundled with the printer. It's hard to believe how fast this technology is evolving and how cheap it getting (I paid $399 for the scanner). I have been very satisfied scanning any negatives or transparencies larger that 6X6. I use the firewire cable and the speed is fairly fast. My only complaint is that the 4X5 holder does not hold all of my 4X5 films flat, so they end up on the glass. I believe that the depth of field is great enough that the above mentioned issues (set focus point) have no apparent affect on my prints up to 11X17 from my Epson 1280 printer.

Regards

-Jerry Hyman

[orgel]

Here are some comapirison samples between the Epson 2450 and the Minolta DImage Multi Pro, costing 7 times more.

[orgel]

Here are some comparison samples between the Epson 2450 and the Minolta DImage Multi Pro, costing 7 times more.

The Minolta is obviously a lot better, but not 7x better.

[Mike Marcus]

Hi all, I have read with interest all your accounts of the Epson 2450 scanner, and I am now interested in getting one, but have not been able to find a retailer in the UK that has one yet. Does anyone know where I can get one of these scanners in the UK now? please email directly if anyone knows. Thanks Mike.

[Kristjan Aunver]

Hi David! I've been playing with my new 2450 for two weeks and I'm very pleased with it, exept for one thing: it struggles in vain to recognize my 4"x5"-negs (both color 'n b/v). it can only recognize pos.4"x5", so I have to scan them like that = problems!!!! I'll contact support for advice and hope that they can solve my problem!

[denis Gay]

I am also interested in the Epson 2450 photo scanner. I read in this forum that this scanner does not supprt set focus position function. I had a phone call with Epson in France about this problem. Epson said : we don't supply ourselves a driver for Linux. The focus adjustment is made when choosing "transparencies"(that means that you are supposed to put transparencies in the adapter and not on the glass top )instead of the default position = on the glass top. I think it would be interesting to scan a transparency on the glass top with the default position in order to check if Epson france is right. Another solution is to use the Qubyx's solution that means to replace the Epson glass with a newton's ring free one ? Is it possible on the Epson scanner ?

[Chris Groenhout]

I was contemplating replacing my trusty 1640su scanner with one of the new 2450's but having tested one for the past 6 hours I'll be sticking to what I have. The 2450 is a fine scanner with some good features but actually slower than my 1640su running USB. Interestingly enough I tested the 2450 with both USB and firewire and the speed was identical - bizarre! I do like the extended image size for scanning panoramic transparencies - if only they supplied a 120 holder which ran the length of the light source (ala 35mm holder). With the speed issue, batch scanning is agonising but handy at times and I'll admit that the 2400 dpi scans off 35mm Velvia were quite good. It's easy to be overly fussy about any scanner, but remember that this one is US$399 and scans large format transparencies at 2400 dpi - awesome really, but not for me... now anyway. http://www.chrisgroenhout.com

[Kerry Owen]

Look at Norman Koren's site and one of his contributor's answer involving focus-very interestng. Seems the reader shimmed his filmholder at different heights and put the film on the glass. Look at the different results. I am enjoying this scanner for my 120 film- 2.25 sq, 2.25 x 3.25, and 6x9. I have 900 Athlon and 650 megs of ram, it does fine, not too slow.

Look at these links: http://www.normankoren.com/Tutorials/Epson_flatbeds.html

http://apogeephoto.com/feb2002/epson2450.shtml

http://www.virtualtraveller.org/epson2450.htm

These and the reviews at CNET convinced me to get this scanner, and I'm glad I did. I still need to do the focus test to see how my scanner measures up. The contibutor at Norman's site finds that 3/16 is his scanner's ideal height for film above the glass for sharp scans. Interesting reading.

[Nicholas Holowaty]

Epson's 2450 uses USB 2.0 which is as fast if not faster that Firewire so it's not strange if you have USB 2.0 on your computer as well. Ive used the Epson 2450 on 35MM slides and have had great luck with it. t's great up until 11X14, so I'm looking at a Canon FS4000 so I can get up to the A3 size. I can't even imagine how it would be for 4X5.