Epson Perfection 2400 vs. 1640SU

  • Thread starter Thread starter Steve Bond
  • Start date Start date
S

Steve Bond

Hello,

I have just bought an Epson Perfection 2400 Photo. I used it to scan a
bunch of photos for a colleague, at 300dpi. When I sent them to him, he
pointed out that one of the photos had been scanned before, and that the
first scan (done on a 1640SU at 300dpi) was much clearer. I checked and it
was true, the 2400 output had less contrast, was darker and looked
positively blurred in comparison with the razor-sharp output from the 1640.
I have been playing with the brightness and contrast settings but I cannot
get the 2400 to output an image that matches the output of the 1640 (at
this resolution).

Anyone have opinions on this? Are 2400 users happy with their scans?

Steve
 
I believe the 1640 can focus and the 2400 series cannot, maybe someone can
confirm this. Did you use the same scanning software for both?
 
I have a 1640SU, and to the best of my knowledge there is no adjustable
focus, either manual or automatic.

There are several things that can lead to the effect you are seeing. For
the 1640, the Epson Twain driver for *some* modes for some reason applies a
half-tone removal filter, with no way that I have found to disable it. When
doing this, it will refuse to scan at high resolutions (>1200 dpi) and
degrades the image quality at lower dpi settings.

Also, the M$ WIA drivers (at least in Windoze XP) do not usually give access
to the full features of scanners. I suggest using Epson's Twain driver,
making sure you select "color photo" and not "color illustration" or some
other mode. Also, make sure that the "unsharp mask" check box is checked on
the Epson Twain driver preview page. I'm assuming that the Twain driver for
the 2400 behaves like the one for the 1640

It is also possible that the previous scans done with the 1640 were post
processed to enhance the results. I find that I can improve the sharpness a
lot that way.

Don



Another factor is the non-adjustable focus of most scanners. You are at the
mercy of how well focused that particular unit is.
 
Thanks for the ideas Don, there are some things I can investigate there. I
am using the Epson drivers but I can check the settings you mention.

Cheers

Steve
 
Back
Top