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From: JJ on 31 Dec 2009 12:33
Recently picked up an Epson 4490. Although it seems to be scanning photos
ok, I am having trouble getting it to align properly on 35 mm color
negatives. I place the negatives into the holder exactly as in the
instructions. There might be 5 negatives per stripe. The first one
generally aligns ok, but by the third there is a separation between the
third/ fourth negatives. Just to see what would happen, I took one of the
color negative strips and cut it up into its 5 parts and scanned
individually. Worked fine that way. However, I have LOTS of negatives I'm
trying to scan into digital and I don't like the idea of having to cut them
up. These color negatives are from the 1950's- 70's and they are clean.
Any fixes or suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
JJ

From: Barry Watzman on 31 Dec 2009 20:04
I don't know how Epson determines where the images are within a strip.
They MIGHT be simply "assuming" some "standard" image-to-image spacing.
The problem is that the image to image spacing is actually set by the
camera that actually took the images, and may not correspond to what
Epson is expecting. FWIW, Nikon scanners sometimes have trouble
separating images and/or finding the initial edge of the first image
also, when using motorized strip feeders.


JJ wrote:
> Recently picked up an Epson 4490. Although it seems to be scanning
> photos ok, I am having trouble getting it to align properly on 35 mm
> color negatives. I place the negatives into the holder exactly as in
> the instructions. There might be 5 negatives per stripe. The first one
> generally aligns ok, but by the third there is a separation between the
> third/ fourth negatives. Just to see what would happen, I took one of
> the color negative strips and cut it up into its 5 parts and scanned
> individually. Worked fine that way. However, I have LOTS of negatives
> I'm trying to scan into digital and I don't like the idea of having to
> cut them up. These color negatives are from the 1950's- 70's and they
> are clean. Any fixes or suggestions would be appreciated.
>
> Thanks in advance,
> JJ
From: - on 1 Jan 2010 11:15
It sounds like you are experiencing the common problem where auto-cropping
does not work (you did switch the format size parameter in the software
configuration box to your particular format though, right?). You will find
many references to this problem on the internet. Many people never realize
that they are missing part of their image(s) until they get an obvious error
like the one you experienced. If they did a careful comparison of most scans
though, they would probably be surprised to find how many of their images on
film are overly cropped or mis-cropped by the software's auto-cropping.
Auto-cropping is nothing more than a "guess" based on an algorithm and it is
often fooled.

Most people I know just set a batch scan of manual crops. It is easy to set
up and you know it will be accurate. In the end, this actually takes less
time because you don't have to spend time doing comparisons of scans to film
and then have to do the inevitable rescans. Here is a page of tips I put up
to help people learn about creating manual batch scans with the EpsonScan
software:

http://www.betterscanning.com/scanning/batchscanning.html

Doug
--
www.BetterScanning.com - Custom Film Holders and Accessories for Agfa,
Microtek and Epson Scanners


"JJ" <JJ455(a)eroltz.net> wrote in message
news:hhina3$sq8$1(a)news.eternal-september.org...
> Recently picked up an Epson 4490. Although it seems to be scanning photos
> ok, I am having trouble getting it to align properly on 35 mm color
> negatives. I place the negatives into the holder exactly as in the
> instructions. There might be 5 negatives per stripe. The first one
> generally aligns ok, but by the third there is a separation between the
> third/ fourth negatives. Just to see what would happen, I took one of the
> color negative strips and cut it up into its 5 parts and scanned
> individually. Worked fine that way. However, I have LOTS of negatives
> I'm trying to scan into digital and I don't like the idea of having to cut
> them up. These color negatives are from the 1950's- 70's and they are
> clean. Any fixes or suggestions would be appreciated.
>
> Thanks in advance,
> JJ
>


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