Epson V-700 scanner sharpness

[mcfoto]

Been doing some scans of B&W and color negs lately. Have used both Silver Fast (SF) & Epson scan software. Even tried Vuescan and the best results are with Epson Scan. My settings are as follows:
(B&W) 35mm
Film ( with film holder )
B&W negative film
2400 or 4800 dpi
48 bit color
Sharpness at medium
My height adjusters are set to +
A few years back I talked to an Epson tech in Australia and he said when you set "Film (with film holder) the unit moves the focus above the glass plane. Now from my experience if you set the scanner for: Film ( with film area guide) I get a much softer scan. The Epson tech also said this is not explained in the instructions.
   I did a lot of scans using Silver Fast and they where all soft compared to Epson Scan with the correct setting. However others have been getting great scans using SF. From my conclusion it seems that the focus stays on the glass with SF ( even with sharpening) and the results are much the same as an out of focus camera image, while with Epson Scan the image is in focus. I tried Vuescan today with not much luck. I am staying with Epson Scan. For reflective scans SF works great as does Epson Scan.
Any comments
Regards Denis Montalbetti

[fdisilvestro]

As far as I know, the Epson V-700 does not moves the focus. It has two lenses, one focused at the glass plane, used with the film area guide or opaque originals (called the high resolution lens) and the other lens focused 3 mm. above the glass plane,  when you use the film holders (called the super-high resolution lens).

Silverfast has the option to switch between film area guide and film holder for the Epson V700. If you go to the general tab in the silverfast control window, you have the following options for "Original": reflective, transparent and transparent (full area).
Transparent (full area) = high resolution lens
Transparent = super high resolution lens

You should get the same focused results with Silverfast as in Epson Scan, provided you use the correct settings.

[mcfoto]

Hi
Thank you! Made a huge difference with SF. Makes sense now.