What's the stuff on the glass on the Epson 2450?

[dano1]

Hey all.

 

I've always assumed that the glass on my Epson 2450 was just glass. I

know it's not newtonian, because it gets rings when I put negs the

wrong side down on it.

 

For a long time I've noticed that the glass looked misty when viewed

at an acute angle with the light on in the rear. I've often wondered

what this mist was, but assumed it was just a natural property of the

glass.

 

Now I've been cleaning the glass with an amonia free glass cleaner,

not hearing any advice on the net as to use otherwise. I clean the

glass about every 30-50 photos. I have since I purchased it

refurbished in March put about 800 prints and about 100 negatives

through it. I scan prints and older large format negs for a second

job, and this scanner has served me well in that respect.

 

Recently I've realized that just rubbing the glass with a cotton cloth

will get the dust and fingerprints off without the use of cleaner. I

figured, using no cleaner was better than using cleaner, in case the

glass did have a coating.

 

Just now I looked at the scanner at an acute angle, I was not pleased

as to what I saw. The area I have been cleaning (I almost always use

the same corner) has some wierd markings amongst the mist. It almost

appears like ice does on a frost window, almost crystaline.

 

It's pretty odd, there are sharp, jagged edges of clearness around

areas that are mistly just like the rest of the scanner. This leads

me to belive that whatever I've been rubbing off is multi-layered,

thus the border is inbetween layers, while the inside is another

layer. I could be wrong though.

 

So, I'm here because I no longer know what to do. How should I be

cleaning this scanner? Have I done it any dammage? If I have done it

dammage, will it have an effect on my work?

 

TIA,

Dan O.

[custom film holders for fl]

Dan -

 

Are you sure what you see isn't really on the under side of the glass? If you need good instructions on how to take apart your scanner, go to the files section of the 2450/3200 Users Group at Yahoo Groups where there is a great .pdf file on this.

<P>

I have been cleaning my glass with a 3M microfiber cloth ($3 at WalMart) and it usually does a great job without using any cleaning fluid. If I have a stubborn smudge, a quick shot of cleaning fluid and the microfiber cloth clean things right up.

<p> Doug<p>

<a href="http://home.earthlink.net/~dougfisher/holder/mainintro.html">Dougs

MF Film Holder for batch scanning of 120/220 medium format film with flatbeds</a>

[neil_baylis]

I don't think there's any kind of coating on this glass. I've taken apart my 2450 and cleaned the underside, and it did help with the flare. Hard to get rid of all the dust, though.

[bill.akstens]

My Epson Perfection 3170 had a hazy glass underside right out of the new box. Probably chemical outgassing during manufacture. It doesn't seem to affect my scans that I've noticed.