Epson Perfection 4870 Photo - scan 13x18 cm film?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Frank Loeffel
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Frank Loeffel

Hi

I see that the Epson Perfection 4870 Photo can scan two sheets of 4x5
inch film.
So I assume that the scanner's hardware could do a sheet of 13x18
(128mm x 178mm) or the slightly smaller 5x7 inch format.

I know I'd need to modify the 4x5 holder or make my own holder.

The question is, can the software scan this size of film? I'd be
mostly interested in transparency film. I don't own this scanner yet
so I can't try it.

If you don't have this model scanner, as it's pretty new, maybe you
have experience with it's predecessor's software concerning 13x18 cm
film.

Thanks much in advance

Frank
(stated e-mail address will not work. Use frank dot loeffel at gmx dot
ch)
 
The scanner can handle it but be forewarned that the EpsonScan software may
or may not be able to handle it depending on what resolution you want to use
and whether you want to use ICE. Supposedly, Epson is working on this and I
believe that the third party apps (Vuescan and Silverfast) aren't limited in
this way.

Doug
 
The scanner can handle it but be forewarned that the EpsonScan software may
or may not be able to handle it depending on what resolution you want to use
and whether you want to use ICE.
Click to expand...

I have the Epson 4870 scanner, but don't have any film (or experience)
larger than 35mm. Just to test this though, I made up a sheet of paper
13x18 cm and scanned it in transparency mode. It seems to work, to a
point.

My computer is a 1 ghz AMM cpu, with 256 meg of RAM and a 3-drive raid
zero array, and running Windows 2000. Scanning into Photoshop 7 using
the supplied Epson scanning software in transparency mode at 1200 DPI
with no sharpening or color processing results in the following file
sizes and scan times for 130mm x 180 mm:

No Digital ICE:
24-bit Color = 150 MB, scans in 6:15 as B&W negative, 3:15 as a color
negative
8-bit Grey Scale: 50 MB, 6:01 as B&W negative
This operation used about 330 or so megabytes of ram, which means it
had to page from RAM memory to the hard drive, which slows everything
down a lot and raises the chances of a system malfuntion.

With Digital ICE: Same resulting file sizes;
19:04 to scan as color negative, 24-bit color, WITH ICE, using 656
megabytes peak memory. Most of this operation has to be carried out in
virtual memory, and my pc complained more than once of needing to
expand the system pagefile.
The B&W negative scanned as 8-bit greyscale took about 24 minutes
with Digital ICE, I think, though I lost the exact number and don't
want to re-run the test right now.

My conclusion is that to use the Epson 4870 scanner on larger size
negatives at a DPI of 1200 requires a fast new computer with at least
1 gigabyte of RAM memory. I'll have such a system to test this idea on
in a week or so, as soon as the replacement for my DOA Intel 875 main
board gets here from Newegg.

- Cecil
 
A couple of followups to my own posting;
My CPU is a 1Ghz "AMD" and not "AMM",
Also I said 1 GB of RAM memory is required but I didn't mean that
literally, what I meant to say was that for best results a pc system
should have 1 gig or more of RAM and a fast processor. I'll be running
an Intel P4 2.4Ghz and 1GB of PC3200 RAM memory with Windows XP pro
and will provide some feedback as to performance using this same
scanner and piece of test paper in a week or so...

- Cecil
(The supplied email address is spam bait only... )
 
(e-mail address removed) (CecilWilliams) wrote in message literally, what I meant to say was that for best results a pc system
should have 1 gig or more of RAM and a fast processor. I'll be running
an Intel P4 2.4Ghz and 1GB of PC3200 RAM memory with Windows XP pro
and will provide some feedback as to performance using this same
scanner and piece of test paper in a week or so...
Click to expand...

Cecil, thanks for the considerable effort you expended for the tests
and your posting. Sorry I post this to the group but there's no other
way.

If you can follow up with the faster computer I'll again appreciate
the efforts. My Computer has 1 GB of physical RAM and a semi-current
CPU (PIV, 2.26 GHz).

Thanks
Frank
 
Cecil, thanks for the considerable effort you expended for the tests
and your posting. >>
Click to expand...

My .02 cents here. I bought a 4870 lsat week and hooked it up to my VIO 1.5
Gig P4 with 512 RAM with USB 1.0/2 ports. Forget it! Don't waste your time.

I'm now running it on a brand spanking new HP 3 Gig, P4 w 1 gig RAM and
firewire conenction. Not a problem.

David N.
 
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