Epson V700 - Optimal Settings?

[Andy M]

A few weeks ago I decided to temporarily jump ship from the digital bandwagon, and to try to further my photography by buying a film medium format kit (503CW), a 6x6 back and an Epson V700 scanner.

Having never shot film before, I'd been pretty impressed with the scans - shooting Velvia 50 and Provia 100F has been  - but having just bought a lightbox and 4x lupe I can now see that the scanner isn't doing justice to the film. Looking at the film through the lupe shows the colours and sharpness to be quite a lot better than the scans are producing.

I've not been using Digital ICE as the scans simply take too long (I'm an impatient fool! ), Unsharp Mask is set to 'medium' and I have backlight correction enabled. Scanning mostly at 2400dpi.

Can anybody suggest the V700's optimum settings?

[Doug Fisher]

All scans will benefit from some amount of unsharp masking.  Flatbed scanners need much more than dedicated film scanners.  I would not sharpen in the scanning software, I would use unsharp masking in Photoshop where you have more options and controls.  Unsharp masking is a bit of an art.  Search the net for many tutorials on various procedures.  If you are new to scanning, it is worthwhile to visit Wayne Fulton's site and work through the scanning tutorials at www.scantips.com.  Also, make sure that you have tested for the right height adjustment for your film holders.

With proper post-processing skills, you should be able to produce some nice images given your equipment.

Doug

[jerryrock]

Scan at a higher resolution, use the Silverfast AI software that came bundled with the scanner, if necessary reverse the "feet" on the negative/slide holder changing the height/focal area for the scans. I don't know why you are using a backlight compensation setting.

The firewire connection is much faster than usb.

The software settings take a while to master but once this is accomplished the scanner produces beautiful scans.

[Raoul]

I use the V700 on MF negatives. For best results I use:

- The 'betterscanning' negative holder with anti-Newton ring glass, carefully height-adjusted
- the highest possible resolution (6400 dpi)
- single-pass scanning is sufficient for normal density negatives
- Vuescan software

Obviously the V700 does not resolve 125 line pairs per mm (which would yield said 6400 dpi), nevertheless I found that using this setting and then downsampling is better than scanning at a lower 'resolution' straight away.

Scans from a 6x6 negative are initially 13000x13000 pixels, I downsample them to 6000x6000.

[hassiman]

I have a large amount of work on film and I am about to get a scanner... I have looked ath the Epson 700 but I have heard great things about the new Microtek M1....  I wish scanning wasn't such a black art....  8-(

[mcfoto]

Hi
I have had this scanner for a few months now. I have been scanning 35 mm widelux & nobelux film. A friend of mine scanned a few negs on the Imacon for comparison & well the Imacon is a LOT sharper period. I have been scanning on the Epson without the adjusting pads. So I decided to scan with the film emulsion face down on the glass ( without the film holders) & it is like a new scanner. It is way sharper period than being in a film holder. I am not using any sharpening at the scan stage & keep the dpi @ 4800. I get small pieces of darkroom glass to hold the film flat on the edge of the film. Give it a go as I just tried it today.

Hi
Update: with the B&W film I did not get newton rings but with colour neg I did. So I made a small card board thin film holder for one image for my nobelux image having the emulsion side down. This way I got no newton rings. I think the focus plane on the V700 is on the base glass. My results are better now.

[Doug Fisher]

>>I think the focus plane on the V700 is on the base glass. <<

It sounds like you have not changed to "film with film holder" when making scans using the film holder.  Contrary to what many reviewers and even the marketing department at Epson put out in the press packet, this is how you switch between the 6400 dpi lens which focuses at 3 mm and the lower resolution lens that focuses at the glass bed's plane.  This is a common error for new users and not noted well in the documentation.  That, or your scanner is defective.  Additionally, you need to check the software for this setting each time until you are sure it has "stuck" as the default.

Doug

[mcfoto]

>>I think the focus plane on the V700 is on the base glass. <<

It sounds like you have not changed to "film with film holder" when making scans using the film holder.  Contrary to what many reviewers and even the marketing department at Epson put out in the press packet, this is how you switch between the 6400 dpi lens which focuses at 3 mm and the lower resolution lens that focuses at the glass bed's plane.  This is a common error for new users and not noted well in the documentation.  That, or your scanner is defective.  Additionally, you need to check the software for this setting each time until you are sure it has "stuck" as the default.

Doug
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=144920\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Hi
I scan with Film(with Film Area Guide) for my Nobelux images 24x64 mm. I phoned Epson & they said that was the only way to scan that image shape.

HI
Update, I tried your way with "film with film holder" & I was able to select my nobelux image. I found at default ( 3.0 ) that this was the sharpest. i could not really see much difference between 3200 & 4800 dpi. Thank you the scans are much sharper now. the Imacon is still a superior film scanner though.

[drewk425]

Does anyone know of a good tutorial on scanning b&w film with the Epson V700?

[PSA DC-9-30]

Hi
I have had this scanner for a few months now. I have been scanning 35 mm widelux & nobelux film. A friend of mine scanned a few negs on the Imacon for comparison & well the Imacon is a LOT sharper period. I have been scanning on the Epson without the adjusting pads. So I decided to scan with the film emulsion face down on the glass ( without the film holders) & it is like a new scanner. It is way sharper period than being in a film holder. ..

I've been using an Epson V700 to scan 3x4" technical orthochromatic electron microscope film using "film area guide" with the negs. directly on the glass. I've also been scanning Kodachrome slides using the film (slide) holder (emulsion side up!), and have been disappointed with the sharpness. Just today I was wondering whether ditching the slide holder and placing the slides directly on the glass would improve sharpness.

Also, the Epson V700 does not come with Silverfast AI, but a bargain version, Silverfast SE. After futzing around with this software for a while I discovered that the only way to get a 16 bit scan is to scan in Silverfast HDR mode, which puts a horrific cyan color cast and underexposes by around 3 stops. I know that this is a good method of scanning if you have the Silverfast HDR software, but I'm on a budget and really don't want to buy it. So, I've actually been using the Epson scanning software, and getting 16 bit, 6400 dpi scans in Adobe RGB--would I really be that much better off using Silverfast?

[PSA DC-9-30]

>>I think the focus plane on the V700 is on the base glass. <<

It sounds like you have not changed to "film with film holder" when making scans using the film holder.  Contrary to what many reviewers and even the marketing department at Epson put out in the press packet, this is how you switch between the 6400 dpi lens which focuses at 3 mm and the lower resolution lens that focuses at the glass bed's plane.  This is a common error for new users and not noted well in the documentation.  That, or your scanner is defective.  Additionally, you need to check the software for this setting each time until you are sure it has "stuck" as the default.

Doug
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=144920\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

So, what if you're scanning odd-sized negs that don't fit in a holder? I'm selecting "Scan with film area guide". Does that mean I'm using the crappy lens that focuses at the glass plane (where the negative actually is!), or the good lens which is operating at the wrong height? Perhaps I should select "Film with film holder" and rig up a 3mm spacer?

[Doug Fisher]

>>Perhaps I should select "Film with film holder" and rig up a 3mm spacer? <<

If your film will fit in the smaller field of view for that lens, then yes.  The difference won't be huge but it would be noticeable in large prints.  Also, test different heights because 3 mm is often not truly the best.

Doug