V500 issues

[blw]

As promised on the "budget scanner" thread...here's my own thread regarding my issues. I'll apologize in advance for the lengthy post.

When I took vacation back in May, I developed a severe backlog of b&w film- 35mm and MF. I'll be shooting a lot more 35mm now that I have a Leica. Not so much MF since all I have left to shoot with is a Holga.

Anyway, since I had several rolls of MF as well as many uncut rolls of 35mm to batch scan, and the fact that my local Staples store had the V500 on sale for $150, I sprang for it. Well it sat here all of June before I finally tried to jump into film scanning feet first a few days ago.

The first 3 frames of MF b&w went well enough. Then I went to scan the next 3 frames and this is where the problem started.

The thumbnails looked like this, but I hoped the actual scans would be different. Obviously they didn't improve. These were scanned with the V500 hooked up to my wife's Windows Vista machine (32 bit) because my little iBook doesn't hold a charge very long and I'm too lazy to relocate the charge cord.

Anyway, since these were so bad, I futzed with the DPI and whatnot a little more and tried again. This time the software locked up the computer completely. I had to hard boot the Vista machine and restart. When I tried to scan again after the reboot, I hit the "preview" button and got this error message:

"No response from the scanner. Make sure the scanner is on and properly connected. If using the Transparency Unit, remove the Reflective Document Mat."

Well, the mat has been off since I took the damn thing out of the box. Wires are all connected tightly- even the one from the lid to the scanner body.

Am I looking at a faulty scanner? Did I get what I paid for? Obviously I'm well within warranty, so I'm not too worried about that. Still...I've toyed with buying a scanner for so long that it's a real pain to finally bite the bullet and get bitten back so quickly.

Thanks in advance for any help anyone can provide.

 

[Ranchu]

Seems to me trying it with your mac will tell you for sure if you have a busted scanner.

 

[Stuart John]

First try to reinstal the epson software as something could be wrong with the installation

next on the end of the film holder you are using the medium format film hold I presume there is a cut out with a no entry kind of sign. That area has to be completely empty no film can overhang that area and that part of the scanner bed needs to free of dust and finger prints as that is the calibration area for the transparency light source maybe your film is overhanging into that area and causing some kind of problem even clear/blank area of film in that place causes problems.

If all fails return the scanner for a new one.

 

[charjohncarter]

I can't see the pictures, but I will say that it took me a while to get used to the V500. I'm happy with mine, but I have to turn on the scanner, wait for the cycle to finish and then start the Epson software. When the lid plug gets loose it will only work in reflective mode. So you firm the plug with the scanner off and then restart. After initiation, you can restart the software. I would start with a few negatives using the auto mode that way you will see if it is the scanner or your inexperience. Also, the thumbnail check box is important to remember. The thumbnails often don't come out correct, there is a spot to adjust: 6x6, 6x7, 6x4.5.

 

[Stuart John]

I am guessing the MF rolls are uncut and after the first three shots you slid the film fowards in the holder and the film is overhanging that no entry area I spoke about above.

 

[blw]

Ahh the curse of the long post and the difficulty of getting the photos loaded... I meant to mention that I did try the laptop as well and got the same messages.

But Stuart John, you are absolutely correct! I suppose I'll have to cut my roll after all. I'll try that in a minute and see if that does it- although I'm already convinced that is the problem. Thanks!

 

[blw]

Okay...I finally got around to cutting my negatives and I'm actually back to another problem I didn't bother mention in the original post. On the first three negatives, the scanner seems to be misaligning the frames. The bottom of one frame will have a bit of the top from the next frame. As you can see relative to the other frames above, despite the other problem I was having, it wasn't getting the framing wrong. But with the first three frames of the first strip of film, the scanner seems to misjudge the frames. I've done my best to show an iPhone photo of the screen showing the settings in Epson Scan with the resulting preview scans on the right.

I try to change the target size settings and Epson Scan changes them back or changes them to some other numbers when I click outside of those fields. Any ideas what is going on here?

Thanks again in advance.

 

[Ken Smith]

You need to un-check the thumbnail option for prescan.

That was the problem I had with my V500 when I used it for the first time and scanning some 6X9. Once I did away with the thumbnail option, I pre-scanned and then sized the final scan area when the pre-scan popped up. Haven't had any scanning problems after.

Now the MF negative carrier is a different thing -sucks for 6X9. I have a roll of Acros 100 I just finished in a Perkeo II that I have to develop. Will see if the smaller 6x6 negatives are easier.

 

[Stuart John]

You need to find the options to set for the correct neg size, what size are the negs 645, 6x6, 6x7, 6x8 or 6x9. Press the configuration buttom at the bottom and the configuation window will open from there choose the film size tab and set to the correct flim size. Mine epson does not find the frames on B&W negative films films if I set the film type to color negative or positive. It will only find the frames if I use the correct film type thats B&W film for B&W negative.