V800 - for B&W, dust removal not working

Pál_K

Cameras. I has it.
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According to Epson, for true (non-chromogenic) B&W negatives, I need to enable the “dust reduction” option rather than use their Digital ICE. Okay, fine.

The problem is, at any setting - low, medium, high - no dust whatsoever is ever removed. I can scan the negative with dust removal enabled or disabled and the image is equally dusty. The same dust spots in the same places. No difference.

I’m using the Epson film holders (which has plexiglass itself) and I clean that along with the scanner’s glass surfaces. Even so, there’s always some dust and some of my negatives from 45 years ago actually have dust on them. Regardless, I can clean that stuff. What bothers me is the total inability of the software to remove any dust. Either big or small. Really, the software has no effect.

Am I missing something? Do I need to do anything else other than check the box to get dust reduction? I’m in “Professional mode”. LOL.

My scans range from 1200 dpi to 4800 dpi.

Most of my negatives are old Versapan (Ansco), Plus-X, or Tri-X. I’ve also tried dust reduction with color (C-41), 35mm and medium format. Still doesn’t work.
 
Dust removal that just uses software, like on your epson, really never works well. Digital ICE uses hardware to detect the dust. The scanner has an infrared light source that shines IR though the film. The sensor has a row of IR sensitive pixels. Chromogenic films (C-41 and E-6) transmit IR, but dust blocks it; so the system can detect exactly where the dust is at on the film! This does not work on regular B&W film because the silver in the film also blocks IR.


The dust reduction on your scanner uses software to guess at what spots on the film are dust and which are part of the image. Because it cannot actually detect dust, it doesn't really work well.
 
I don't have the v800 so have no experience. Do have the v700, however, and remember not bothering with the 'dust reduction' after playing with it for all of 30 minutes! . Keep the dust off manually as best you can and use clone and/or heal tool in PS to deal with the rest! 'Tis the only way!
 
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