Vuescan & 4870 - IR misalignment

[Zeev Lieber]

I've downloaded a trial version of Vuescan (8.0.14) for Linux, and
tried to scan a 35mm Velvia film with IR cleaning. I'm getting a
horizontal misalignment of the IR channel. The misalignment does not
look consistent, it changes from scan to scan, but always remains
horizontal. I didn't inspect the RGBI channels individually, I'm just
seeing the dust particle untouched, and a similar shape to either
right or left where "removal" was attempted.

Tried scanning with original Epson software - no problem. I saw in
some forum that the problem was attributed to dirty calibration area
on the scanner - mine is spotless clean, the scanner was just out of
the box. I cleaned it again, just in case - doesn't help.

I saw some messages on the subject, but no resolution. Anybody have an
idea?

Thanks
Zeev

 

[Jan]

I've downloaded a trial version of Vuescan (8.0.14) for Linux, and
tried to scan a 35mm Velvia film with IR cleaning. I'm getting a
horizontal misalignment of the IR channel. The misalignment does not
look consistent, it changes from scan to scan, but always remains
horizontal. I didn't inspect the RGBI channels individually, I'm just
seeing the dust particle untouched, and a similar shape to either
right or left where "removal" was attempted.

Tried scanning with original Epson software - no problem. I saw in
some forum that the problem was attributed to dirty calibration area
on the scanner - mine is spotless clean, the scanner was just out of
the box. I cleaned it again, just in case - doesn't help.

I saw some messages on the subject, but no resolution. Anybody have an
idea?

Thanks
Zeev

I had this misalignment twice now. Once three months ago, once three
weeks ago. The problem vanished after a few days. I don't know what
the cause is/was. After having described the problem to the Epson help
desk they told me to send the scanner in for repair (I'm waiting for
the problem to reappear before I do so - truly hope it will reappear
_during_ the warranty period).

I tried all kinds of scanning software (Epson Scan, Vuescan and
Silverfast), but all had the misalignment problem, so my scanner's
problem isn't software related.

The misalignment was sometimes horizontal, sometimes vertical. There
misalignment was worse near the edges - in the center the alignment
was nearly OK.

Jan

 

[JeffJames]

Add me to the list...

I just purchased a 4870 last week & ICE works beautifully every time
in EpsonScan but not at all in Vuescan. I haven't seen the ghosted
misaligned "fixes" but my problem sounds too much like Zeev's & maybe
Jan's repeated problems.
The fact that it works for me everytime in Epsonscan makes it look
like it must be a hardware/software combination. As if Epsonscan
performs some additional alignment procedure that Vuescan doesn't. I
love the color control of Vuescan & think it's great but I can't do
the dust removal which I can with Epsonscan.

What is the recomended way of looking for the misalignment? I'm
scanning colour negs, and I can see the dust on the preview when
viewing the output of any R,G,B,IR but only when Filter|clean = none.
As soon as I select Filter IR-Clean=light,medium or heavy the IR
preview goes all white with no visible dust and the RGB's still show
the dust as does the combined RGB output. Is that consistent with
other people's results?

Any advice on detecting the offset and suggestions are most welcome.

Thanks
JeffJames
Melb Aus.

 

[JeffJames]

It sounds like mine & zeevs issues are the probably the same, I
installed silverfast for the first time on the weekend & found that
Siverfast-ICE works fine on my scanner also. So, Epsonscan-ICE-OK,
Silverfast-ICE-OK, Vuescan-IRclean-NoGood.
Unfortunately the Silverfast doesn't do Batch, & 17 rolls of my recent
holiday is not going to be scanned 1 frame at a time. It seems such a
shame to have to stick to Epsonscan, as the colour control of Vuescan
is much better.

Ed, if your monitoring, they're hiding something from you I'm sure.
It would make sense that Epson & Silverfast must be doing some
(secret) extra alignment process on the 4870. Also - I played for
the first time over this weekend with saving RAW scans & then doing
batch from them, a wonderful idea... It works a treat & saves
reloading negs & de-dusting repeatedly when you want to change things.
You've got a great product, but there is something more to the IR.

I think Jans problems are probably a bit different as he his scanner
fails in all three scanning packages. Maybe his is an extreme case &
sometimes goes "over the edge" of the possible soft-alignment. Whereas
mine & Zeevs are only "out" by a correctable amount.

I don't like my chances of any warranty "repairs" (alignment) when all
works fine in Epsonscan & Silverfast.

Regards
JeffJames
Melb. Aus.

 

[Jan]

Interesting.
For your information : after 10 days of IR misalignment (in all
softwares), the problem disappeared as suddenly as it had come. IR
alignment seems OK again - I've done a few hundred scans with
Epsonscan since (I did one test with Vuescan also and the alignment is
OK). This is exactly what had happened 3 months ago.
Again I contacted Epson (just as I did 3 months ago), but they weren't
much of a help. It took them 3 weeks to tell me to send my scanner in
for repair - which I finally didn't as the problem disappeared.
Epson refused to expose any detail about the "warming up" phase -
factory secrets I suppose.
3 Months ago I also informed Ed Hamrick, but he hadn't heard of such
problem with an Epson 4870 before.

I'm starting to doubt again whether it's a software or a hardware
problem. Jeff's "over the edge" thing might be an indication.
Maybe Ed knows more by now ?

Jan

 

[im5150too]

I'm very interested in this topic, although as a novice, some of the
conversation is over my head. I gather the references here are
referring to using the 4870 for film. I believe my 4870 works OK with
ICE on film, but has almost no effect when scanning prints. I am
considering returning the 4870, as I also purchased a Nikon V ED,
which works great with ICE on film. I really need a flatbed to scan
hundreds of old prints, (maybe thousands), and would love to have a
result on dust like I'm getting with the Nikon.

Is there something wrong with my Epson? It seems like most people
here have had the same results with prints. Since it's a flatbed,
that seems unacceptable to me.

 

[Dan Hu]

Add me too. I too had the same problems. I tried vuescan, silverfast
se and Epsonscan, only vuescan had the ICE-misalign problem.