Weird scanning lines...

[dreilly]

Anyone have any idea what's causing this? 120 Tri-x souped in Diafine. Don't appear on the negatives, at least, not to my eye.

I'm still trying to get the ASA right on this old film, hence the underexposure. But still, the lines?

Scanner: Epson 4180

 

[kaiyen]

what scanner? if epson flatbed, you might be covering up the calibration area.

allan

 

[aad]

If you scan twice, do the lines overlay exactly? They look like something on the neg.

 

[dreilly]

I'll try them on my home scanner, a 3170. Any other ideas? thanks
doug

 

[dreilly]

Results of the "control scan" at home: no lines. There's something afoot with my scanner.

Kaiyen...it could be. Usually I notice that if anything is covering the calibration area then even my preview is impossible to decipher. But...I am working on my own technique of scanning where I use a plate glass, a little raised on one side to avoid Newton's rings, to keep the negative flatter than with the plastic overlay. However, I still use the overlay, for two reasons:

1. the calibration
2. the light diffuser

If the plastic panel is a little off, might that throw off the scanner's timing or spacing or some-such? I'll test that theory on Monday!

thanks everyone, I'll keep you all posted

 

[planetjoe]

Hey, Doug.

I've seen these lines from time-to-time from my Dimage Scan Multi, using Vuescan. I originally supposed that heat had something to do with it (i.e., a long scanning session), but they were almost always fixed by running Vuescan's "calibrate scanner" function, whatever that does.

I think that they're individual scan lines - try multi-pass scanning. Good luck.


Cheers,
--joe.

 

[Ash]

I've got similar lines when I've had the MF negs too close to the left of the scanner (where the top of the scanner is to my left, and it scans left to right) - if your scanning surface is long enough, shift everything an inch away from the front of the scanner. That solved the problem for me - I use a piece of glass from a clipframe. Glad you mentioned how to remove those newtonian ring things!

 

[xvvvz]

Is the top one inch of the glass scanning bed absolutely spotless and smudgeless? If not, that could cause miscalibration problems. Also, have you tried that scanner on another PC just to make sure it isn't something specifically related to your PC? Sometimes you can get those lines when there is an electronic interference problem from a bad cable or an electronically "noisy" device nearby. This can be anything from a lamp with a bulb going bad to a nearby fan or air conditioner. If possible, try moving the scanner and its cable away from anything other devices other than the PC to minimize the chance for interference.

Doug
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www.BetterScanning.com