Epson perfection film strip light?

[Don]

oops, sorry Don :O))

No problem, Bob! ;o)

Don.

 

[Don]

To answer a previous poster, inadequate warm-up of a scanner lamp has
serious consequences, so it's important to know whether or not the
scanner's manual says to do so. But, he's right re: the 4870. There is
no problem, but I just wanted to be sure, and this discussion has
helped.

Yes, adequate warm-up is really very important to get a cast-free
scan. But since it only takes a few seconds it's not such a big deal.

I could have asked Epson, but responses are faster in this newsgroup.

It's certainly on topic and helps other people too, as the thread
shows!

Not to mention that some manufacturers are very unreliable. My
experience with Nikon's so-called "support", for example, is that they
are massively incompetent seemingly oblivious to even the most
elementary things (and that's the self-professed "3rd level
support"!). So at the very least in here one gets a second opinion.

I also find this group very good! The traffic is pretty low so it's
quite manageable and there are some very knowledgeable people around.

As long as nobody mentions the "V" word, that is, because some of them
can be very touchy! ;o)

Don.

 

[Paul Heslop]

That sounds very good! Perhaps, as a cherry on top, you can even
shorten the period it takes to turn itself off when not in use (if
there is such a setting in the software). That would further minimize
any side effects.

Don.

I don't know about that one, software seems limited but I'll take a
look... when me head stops hurting!

 

[George E. Cawthon]

Thanks George. Yeah, I did that with my old scanner but it was a pain
so I wanted one I could basically leave switched on (All my electrical
leads are tucked away behind stuff)

I did wonder if the light only came on when that white board was
removed.

Doesn't have anything to do with the white board
removal, the light turns on when you select TPU in
the Document source and turns off if you select
Flatbed.

 

[Paul Heslop]

Doesn't have anything to do with the white board
removal, the light turns on when you select TPU in
the Document source and turns off if you select
Flatbed.

cool! :O)

 

[Paul Heslop]

I have a 3200..got it before my Nikon V. It's quite good for 120, not
great for 35 (capable of decent 6X9 or maybe 8X10, but softness appears
beyond that, though that's not necessarily a limitation)..I use it with
Doug's anti-newton glass carrier, which does improve sharpeness and
perhaps even tone range.

1) The light is fluorescent, which means it's not likely to burn out in
your lifetime. The discontinued 5400 Minolta also has a fluorescent
lamp..I've followed posts on Minoltas, Nikons, and Epsons almost daily
for two years and never heard of a lamp burning out. Additionally,
fluorescents are very stable.

2) The 3200 won't scan until the lamp is warmed up...software informs
me of that.
3) Just fyi, Vuescan works very well with Epson...I use it because I
also use it with my Nikon...convenient to have both scanners work the
same. I don't think it's better than Epson's application, whereas it is
better than Nikon's in B&W.
4) I wouldn't plug and unplug the lid, simply because theres no reason
to do so...is there?

John

That was the question, Djon, whether there was a need to, and you've
done a pretty good job of answering it :O)

 

[Don]

1) The light is fluorescent, which means it's not likely to burn out in
your lifetime.

That's just plain wrong!

For starters, let's take the fluorescents in your office which are
effectively the same lighting technology. I'm sure you would have
noticed they are regularly replaced. Secondly, when they are replaced
you'd notice the new ones are considerably brighter and bluer which
means the old ones deteriorated before they died. Anyway, here are a
few facts from my archives:

Cold cathode: typically 1000hrs
LED: typically 500,000hrs

This is under steady state conditions. The "ignition" spike on a cold
cathode lamp means that as used in a scanner, the actual life will be
significantly less, perhaps less than 200hrs of actual use. At a
minute or so per scan, that is still many thousand scans, but still
very small compared to an LED source, which has no degradation of life
when used with a small duty cycle. The life of a LED is pretty much
determined by the leakage of contaminants into the semiconductor
through the package, which is only marginally affected by whether the
device is on or off, and not at all by the number of starts.

I've followed posts on Minoltas, Nikons, and Epsons almost daily
for two years and never heard of a lamp burning out.

From that we can conclude that you have not followed very closely. ;o)

Google for "replacement scanner lamp" or "burnt out scanner lamp". I
haven't tried it, but I'm sure you'll get plenty of hits. Or try eBay!

Or just search the archives! There have been many reports of burned
out lamps, some after only 2500 or 3500 scans! Although such short
life is not typical and probably due to the fact that these lamps are
more susceptible to mechanical damage than solid state LEDs (another
reason to favor LEDs!) it's common knowledge these lamps burn out.

Additionally, fluorescents are very stable.

Forgive me, but that's just absolute nonsense.

For starters, if cold cathode are so stable you why do you need to
warm them up? Again:

LEDs are just like most semiconductor devices and have a "bathtub"
statistical life. A proportion of them fail early in life, before they
even get incorporated into the scanner, but those that survive keep
the same performance for most of their life before eventually just
fading out due to contaminants and carrier mobility.

Compare that to a fluorescent (cold cathode) lamp, which changes its
illumination level as soon as it is turned on for the first time, due
to deposition on the phosphors, and filters, which are merely dyes
etch resist, that fade with age and light. And the LED life, if the
heat is appropriately removed from the junction, can be tens or
hundreds of years (operational life, not just chronological life).

Then there is the calibration issue. A single CCD with three light
sources is just much easier to match the response than three CCDs and
a white source which changes spectral output over time and
temperature. Residual nonuniformity (which exists on all CCD devices,
its just a matter of how good or bad it is) with the Nikon will never
produce color banding.

So, I'm sorry, but your above statement appears made up with not basis
in fact.

3) Just fyi, Vuescan works very well with Epson...

If you came to this conclusion the same way as the above, I would take
this "recommendation" with a huge boulder of salt...

The facts are that Vuescan is notoriously buggy and unreliable - with
any scanner. Of course, casual users may not notice it but anyone who
cares for even a semblance of quality would not touch Vuescan.

4) I wouldn't plug and unplug the lid, simply because theres no reason
to do so...is there?

Yes, there is: Lamp life. You don't want the lamp to stay on if it's
not used. On the other hand you don't want to keep plugging and
unplugging as that is bound to brake some connection even before the
lamp burns out.

Don.

 

[Marjolein Katsma]

Don ([email protected]) wrote in

That's just plain wrong!

I have to agree. I had a little PIE film scanner with fluorescent tube
in it. It was burnt out well within a year, not many scans made. When I
opened up the box, I found the lamp could not be replaced without some
skilled soldering - and given that the scanner was hard to operate, and
continuously lost its settings, I didn't bother to find out even if
there was a replacement lamp.

It was a good learning machine though (and "cheap" at the time) - enough
to convince me that I really did want a film scanner, only a better one.

My Nikon LS-50 os on order and should arrive this month. ;-)

 

[Don]

My Nikon LS-50 is on order and should arrive this month. ;-)

Hey! You made the plunge! Congratulations!

As you know I've got one too so if you have any questions, after it
arrives, just fire away!

Don.

 

[Marjolein Katsma]

Don ([email protected]) wrote in

Hey! You made the plunge! Congratulations!

Yeah - waiting for that phone call that will make me drop everything and
rush out to pick it up!

As you know I've got one too so if you have any questions, after it
arrives, just fire away!

Thanks - but I fear you'll get sick of my questions before I'm done...

 

[Don]

Yeah - waiting for that phone call that will make me drop everything and
rush out to pick it up!

Oh, I hate the wait! When I got my LS-30 it was on order for just over
a week. Excruciating!

But when I upgraded to LS-50 it was in stock so I could take it home
with me right away and we've been together ever since! ;o)

Thanks - but I fear you'll get sick of my questions before I'm done...

Ah, don't worry about that, just ask away!

Don.

 

[Djon]

Intelligence is inversely correlated with frequency of comma usage.

I use high quality fluorescents in a proper office/studio setup.
Therefore I've not had to replace any in ten years.

Note especially Don's hilarious confusion #4. There's the little
matter of mechanical wear and tear.

 

[Guitarrich]

I found this thread very useful and interesting, but it didn’t solve my problem.
My Epson flatbed scanner was bought in 2005, and I can’t remember why it ended up in storage, but I suspect it didn’t work with later versions of Windows. The other day I decided it was ready for junking. I stripped out a couple of motors for a distant project, then THOUGHT I’d taken it to the tip - until I was vaguely aware that my wife kept asking why I HADN’T taken it to the tip! That occurred at the same time as my discovery of heaps of negs, from a particularly interesting period of my life, a d I wanted those images. I fooled around with smartphone apps - and there is one that works quite well, but damned if I was going to pay for it. Then I decided to use my SLR to photograph the negs, then I realised I needed a light source. I still had the lid from the old scanner.

So, I came to this thread wanting to know the operating voltage for the pair of slender tubes in the lid. Obviously nobody has actually mentioned this.

I took a good look at the circuit board for the driver, and decided it was probably a DC input, with a high voltage AC output for the flouros. Looking at the din plug thingy and the lead, I decided it can’t be a very HIGH input voltage. Again, studying the board I decided that the black wire must be positive and the red wire (and brown) is negative. I then connected them up to a psu and slowly raised the voltage. To my great delight, the tubes started to show life at around 8v, (into the driver board) and by the time I got the the max on that particular psu, 30v they were at what looks like full brightness.

Also rescued from the tip-run were the plastic film holders which still slot into the lid. I’m SO delighted!! Everything is going to be just fine!!

Anybody else facing this, here’s the summary:
30v dc into the driver, (snip off the din-like plug and give +30v to the black wire and 0v to the brown), and there’s a nice little negative viewer for you!!