Inconstant results with Epson V500?

[s_zemliakov]

Hi guys,
I'm getting an issue with my V500 which I just can't explain.

I tried to re-scan some negs from last winter, but the images I got considerably worse, they're much blurrier and less sharp compared to the scans from the period just after the development in january.
I know this flatbed is not a high-end scanner but I always got reasonable results good enough for web archival.

After some researches I found out that this can be haze depositing on the scanner glass, so I tried to disassemble the scanner and cleaned it but nothing changed.

January scan




Today's




January's




Today's




The settings I use are always the same, 3200dpi and medium unsharp mask, if someone could help me I would be very grateful🙁

 

[retinax]

Maybe the scanner itself or the film holder it has somehow been knocked out of focus? The focus distance is an issue anyway, there are adjustable film holders (from a place called betterscanning or something like that) to optimize it. For starters you could perhaps try with shims.
Honestly the difference doesn't look dramatic to me and could be solely due to different post processing. Mainly the contrast is higher in the old scans.

 

[charjohncarter]

1. did you turn ICE on one scan and not there other? And if you are using the Epson 35mm holder sometime I don't get the tab solid in the scanner notch; so the negative is moved up slightly off the glass.

 

[tsiklonaut]

Epson holders are notoriously fiddly.

The only way to have a guaranteed consistent results on Epson flatbeds is to buy a dedicated wet-mount frame, IMHO. But it's a lot more work on scanning as well...

 

[Moto-Uno]

I've found on my Epson V600 that the best improvement I got was from doing away with the film holders altogether and placing the negatives under a thin sheet of glass somewhat larger than the negative strip itself . I mostly use 120 film and on the occasion that I get a Newtonian ring I simply move the negative and carrier a bit .

Welcome back "tsiklonaut" !
Regards,Peter

 

[Ko.Fe.]

Based on amount of crap and its different location on back then scans and less crap on now scans, it looks like back then scans were with different level or without ICE.
Now scans might have ICE activated or more level, it could make image more blurry from V500.
At least, this is what I noticed with mine V500.

 

[Mjd-djm]

Looks like differences in sharpening to me? Are you sure you used the same sharpening setting each time. There is a world of difference between medium and high in epsonscan.

 

[Lewis Francis]

You could rule out a problem with the scanner by scanning a print and seeing if it's also blurry.