Haze on Flatbed Scanner Glass?

[sepiareverb]

I'm running an Epson V700, only a few months old, and I have haze on the glass. Nothing even, but a wavy near pattern of 1/2" wide streaks. Ideas?

 

[bmattock]

I'm running an Epson V700, only a few months old, and I have haze on the glass. Nothing even, but a wavy near pattern of 1/2" wide streaks. Ideas?

Both my Epson flat beds (2400 and 4490) have some haze/dust on the inside of the glass where I can't get at it. Doesn't appear to affect the scans, so I'm ignoring it for now. If it really begins to bug me or if I think I can detect the interference in the results, I'll probably try to figure out how to open them up and clean the glass on the inside. Can't be that difficult.

 

[benmacphoto]

My V500 has the same kind of haze you described. And as bmattock said, I haven't noticed any affect on my images. So I'm ignoring it for now.

 

[Kevin]

My V700 is fogged as well. Have a look at these two links:

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?p=931412
http://www.clubsnap.com/forums/showthread.php?t=392674

 

[Keith]

I noticed this in my V700 about two weeks after I got it! 😱

One day I will pull the thing apart and clean it but for now it seems to make no diffrence at all ... much like a small mark on the front lens of a camera I supect ... and I've had to learn how to cope emotionaly with those! 😀

 

[sepiareverb]

I do have lots of visible effect when an image has a lot of deep black, beyond that I don't see it. Many thanks for the links Kevin I'll give this a go over the weekend.

 

[xvvvz]

That sounds more like noise due to Dmax limitations. Since the true optical resolution on these scanners tops out around 3200 ppi, try scanning at 6400 ppi and then downsampling to 3200 ppi in Photoshop. The averaging function to downsample often has a nice side effect of removing noise 😉

Doug

 

[Pherdinand]

i had the same after a few months of using the v700. There were also a few large white specks on the inner side of the glass, of unknown origins.
I *did* see the fog back on the scans, in dark regions of slides especially.
So i removed the four screws, took the glass off and cleaned it with a soft microfiber cloth. Dipped part of the cloth in isopropanol and wiped it then wiped it with the dry side too. Repeated a few times until it was sparkling clean.
After about a year or more, it started to fog again, so i repeated the procedure.
It's not a big deal. Just do it with a clean cloth and don't push too hard. And cover the scanner with something so it doesn't gather dust while open.

I will do it as many times as necessary. I didn't buy a 500 euro scanner to be lazy and hope that fog and junk on the glass won't be visible.

 

[xvvvz]

The haze is going to probably be present to some extent on any flatbed because in most cases it is caused by outgassing of the plastic over time.

Doug

 

[Trius]

In the US there is a product called Invisible Glass, which is favoured by those who show custom cars. I have found it to be the best product I've used for cleaning glass.