Epson 4490 not recognizing film

[rjacksonphoto]

I've been using an Epson 4490 to scan 35mm negative film shot in a

6x6 camera in order to scan the whole piece of film including the

sprocket holes. I've had no problem previously with laying the film

in the holder for 2 6x6 frames. I simply preview and then select

the area of the exposure.

 

Today, however, I find that the scanner will not recognize one

frame. It will recognize all of the other frames, but when I try

this one frame, it just gives me a very dark scan with no

salvageable features. Nothing I've tried will bring out the scan.

It is the best shot on the roll (of course). The exposure looks

fine, so it's not like it is too dense or not dense enough. Any

ideas?

[custom film holders for fl]

This is a common question you will find asked here a quite often. You need to go into manual cropping mode because auto cropping is often fooled to varying degrees. In Home or Professional mode, click on the little arrow to the right of the Preview button, choose Normal, re-Preview, now manually draw your own marquees. You can create individual adjustments for each image and then scan as a batch if you desire. Here are more complete directions:

<p>

<a href= "http://home.earthlink.net/~dougfisher/holder/batchscanning.html" </a> "Batch Scanning Tips"

</a>

<p>

BTW, if anyone else is reading this and thinking about buying a 4490, they are on sale at Staples for $150 after two rebates. Since it is over $50, I think you get free delivery. Nice price for what you get.

<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>

[rjacksonphoto]

Thanks, Doug, but I'm not sure I made my question clear. Since I am using an irregular film size (for the holder), I manually select all of my crops. The problem is, there is nothing but a very dark, unsalvageable image there to place the marquee around. I went ahead and scanned it using the 35mm holder and manually selected the 24x60mm image. The scan looked fine but, of course, no sprocket holes. Just couldn't get it to work with the 6x6 holder. Oh well...

 

BTW, that is a great price.

[stephen_scardamalia]

Not sure if this is what's going on, but there was something that drove me nuts when I first got my 4490 (thought it was broken). There are some spaces in the film holder end nearest the lid hinge that the scanner seems to use for detecting the holder/boundaries. If your strip of film extends over these holes towards the hinge, it will throw off the scanner and you'll get dark garbage for results. Rotate your film 180 degrees so the shorter end is towards the lid hinge and that might take care of it. (The manual and markings on the holder aren't real clear on this.)

[rjacksonphoto]

Thanks, Stephen. I'll give it a shot.