problems with my new 4490 scanner

[alpenglow]

Greetings to all who have a 4490 Epson Scanner.

 

I purchaed this scanner recently for scanning my medium format film... both 6x6

and 645. I've been trying for the past two days to scan some of my 6x6 positive

film, but no matter how I arrange the frames in the holder it will always crop

off part of the images. Sometimes more or less is cropped depending on how I

position the frames, but never will it scan an entire frame without cropping.

I'm at a loss as to what the problem is. Have any of you run into a similar issue?

 

Thanks,

Mike

[ted_kozak]

I tried for a few days too and gave up. I managed to scan a few slides, but have had no luck with negatives. I even read the instructions first, for a change!

[scott_kinkade]

I've got this scanner, Mike...just finished using it tonight, as a matter of fact. Are you doing a preview scan? My procedure is to tell it I'm scanning negatives, tell it I'm using the negative holder, then hit the "Preview" button (you are using the software and not the buttons on the scanner, right?) The preview will scan the entire negative holder, with a generous overlap around the edges...and it knows where that holder is because I fit the little tab on the holder in the little notch on the scanner. When the scan is finished and the preview is displayed, it has a highlighted square that is a best guess on where one of the two scanned frames is. It's usually a little off, so I just use the mouse pointer to move the corners and edges of that square to encompass the frame I want. Then I hit the "Scan" button, and the square I just defined is scanned. After that frame is saved, I drag the square down to the other frame, making minor adjustments in size if necessary, then hit the Scan button again to scan the second frame.

 

That should be enough detail, but let me know if you need more help.

[rjm photo]

I have an earlier model Epson flatbed (which I think immediately preceded your model). I was having the same problem until I read an advisory on the net that the "Automatic Thumbnail Preview" should be unchecked (turned off). After following that advice I am able to view the entire negative and then some when making my desired crop, manually, to my 2 1/4 negatives prior to the final scan.

 

Maybe you have a similar control on yours.

[a_petkov]

Try another scanning software like VueScan. I believe you can download a trial version.

[alpenglow]

Thanks Scott and Robert for the tips. I'm not at my scanner at the moment, but I'll try again later today.

 

Scott, I was scanning chromes, not negatives, so I had "transparency" highlighted. Should that make any difference? And I was also using the "Preview" scan mode. So I'm not sure why I was having those problems. But I'll give it another go in a few hours, and report back.

 

Thanks again guys,

Mike

[jon_shiu]

Hi, assuming it's like the 3200: in Epson Scan, choose professional mode. Then click the little button attached to the side of the preview button and choose normal instead of thumbnail.

 

<p>

Jon Shiu<br>

Elk, California<p>

 

Mendocino Coast Black and White Photography: <a href=http://www.jonshiu.com>www.jonshiu.com</a>

[ian_tindale]

You have to explicitly tell it you're aiming for either a 6x6 frame, or a 6x4.5 frame (or

indeed, a 6x7, 6x8 or 6x9 frame size). Press the 'configuration' button, go to the 'film size'

tab, change the 'Medium Format Film Size' menu to your target frame size. All will be well.

 

Occasionally, very occasionally, I've had it unable to discern the correct framing, despite

my telling it as above. This might happen if there's a shot that essentially partially

disappears into the film base in the edge regions (ie, had hugely underexposed portion

along an edge of a neg) and similar tenuous scenarios.

 

Also, once or twice, I've had a

situation where it can't chop into frames until I've jiggled the film so that there's at least a

portion of edge along the length, visible to the scanner. In other words: in certain

circumstances, where

the frame image actually manages to straddle both edges of the scanner's holder, it

occasionally can't recognise it as a frame - it needs to see 'round' the frame, as it were, by

identifying a distinct difference between the exposed frame and the film rebate, at not

only the top and bottom of the frame, but along at least one edge, too. I don't think this is

a definite rule, but whenever I've encountered a film strip that just doesn't dice into frames

like I expect it should, this is invariably what's causing it, and reorienting the film by just a

tweak usually sorts it out.

 

So, if you scan 6x6, tell the software you're doing so. If you change to 6x4.5, tell it you've

changed. If you do 35mm, it doesn't need to know - it sorts it out from the film holder's

little holes along the leading edge of the scan bed.

[mark liddell]

I've only ever used silverfast with mine and had no problems at all.

[brian_valente]

I have 6x7 negs (rb67) and got it working. Don't know if you have this problem, but you have to scan one neg at a time. If you try to put a sheet of three in it gets confused and cuts off all sorts of things.

 

try inserting just one neg

 

Cheers

 

Brian

[custom film holders for fl]

The miscropping via auto cropping is a common problem. The software is trying to make an educatated guess in regard to cropping but it is often fooled. Sometimes it is just off a little. Other times it is off a great deal. I don't think you save any time with auto cropping because you can't trust it, so you need to go back and check/compare each negative to make sure you didn't miss anything. You can set up a manual batch scan for multiple frames and have individual setting for each frame with very little effort. In case the helpful suggestions from other posters here aren't complete enough, I have put up some tips for EpsonScan here:

<p>

<a href= "http://www.betterscanning.com/scanning/batchscanning.html#_Epson_Scan_Twain" </a> "Batch Scanning Tips"

</a>

<p> Doug<p>

<a href="http://www.betterscanning.com">BetterScanning.com</a>

[OCULUS New York]

Under no circumstances use Epson (read: crap) software. Use the Silverfast that comes with it (and myabe even buy the upgrade if you want to on the fly photo retouching). You should have no problems after that.

 

Cheers,

Ray Hull

[kelly_flanigan1]

Here I have a mess of Epson flatbeds, ones from 300, 600, 1200, 2400, 3200 dpi "rated". I use the stock Epson software all the time, and the aftermarket stuff too. The older Epson drivers often didnt have this "newbie" auto stuff, and one can crop any way one wants too. An upgrade in Epson software often requires one to uncheck this auto crop monkeybusiness. Often here I have gone back to the more professional older Epson drivers sometimes to speed up the workflow. In a copuple of rare times I have had the driver for one flatbed use the same dll names with different sizes, so a multiple driver doesnt work. Once we had one with a conflict that causes the scan times to go 100's of times longer, with the software royally confused!

[alpenglow]

Wow... thank you everybody for the replies and coming to the rescue. You all had some great suggestions and here is what worked for me...

 

Robert and Jon... I did as you said and, in the preview mode, turned off "thumbnail" and made it "normal". It then scanned just as Scott described where the entire holder was scanned, allowing me to click, drag and define the specific area I wanted scanned.

 

Then I also did as Ian suggested and explicitly defined the size of the negative via the "configuration" button. This too worked as the scanner then looked for a 6x6 negative, rather than the 645 size that it uses as the default.

 

And thank you Doug for the Batch scanning tips. I will be sure to check them out and experiment. Much appreciated.

 

I wouldn't have been able to figure this out without all your help. Nowhere in the instructions does it give any explanation along the lines that you gave. This is certainly an area that requires clearer explanation from the folks at Epson.

 

So many thanks again, and I hope I can return the favor in the near future.

 

Mike Klensch

www.aglowphoto.com

[ian_tindale]

I should clarify in case anyone's reading this in the future (what are you doing here? get back

to your own time before you irreversibly change history, I mean, the future).

 

My comments related to the Epson Scan version 2.5 or 2.7 software. This weekend I

downloaded the version 3 (3.0q) of the same, and the buttons and widgets and things are in

a slightly different layout now.