VueScan and Epson 4870 Mac OS X

  • Thread starter Thread starter Alan
  • Start date Start date
A

Alan

Could others comment on their success (or lack of) with VueScan 7.6.80
and the Epson 4870?

My experiences are:

The Epson supplied software seems to work stand-alone, but lots of bugs
when scanning from w/in Photoshop (mouse would "stick" to a window
frame, Photoshop would crash, scans would halt half-way through, etc.).
I found it difficult to use--and initial scans seemed rather
oversaturated. Didn't explore it much.

I found out (from Ed Hamrick) that you need to quit Epson Scanner
Monitor (a faceless background app) in order to get VueScan to
recognize the scanner.

IR cleaning is not as effective as I expected. It gets rid of most
traces of hairs and other really skinny defects, but larger dust motes
are not eliminated. Also there are some light (white) spots about
1/1000 inch in size that I don't understand. (Ie they are a few pixels
in size when scanning at 2400dpi). It seems to me that IR cleaning
works better on my Nikon 4000ED.

When scanning 4x5 positives (the only subjects I have tried so far) I
found that they need to be put in emulsion side down (right reading
when viewed from above). The reason is that you want the inherent curve
in the film pointing upwards--if the film touches the glass surface you
get Newton rings. This means you need to turn on "Mirror" in VueScan.

I can't get Batch Scanning to work. I set VueScan up to scan 2 4x5
images side by side (in the Epson holder). It takes about 20 minutes to
scan and write out the first image. Then it crashes before getting to
the second image.

Can anyone comment on any of these experiences?

Mac OS 10.3.latest
VueScan 7.6.80
Epson 4870 Photo
Mac G5 Dual 2GHz

A
 
Are you using Firewire or the (Epson supplied) USB cable to connect the
scanner?
Douglas
 
I was able to replicate the problems (mostly) on a different
computer--VueScan crashing after a scan. I then switched to USB (yes,
USB 2.0, I was confused) and crashing seems to have been eliminated.

Thanks for the heads up.

noone is me on a different computer--long story.

Now that I have VueScan working, I need to get the scans looking
better. Next issue is glare from light areas like sky--thoughts?

A

==
 
You know, the problems this scanner has with different connections is a bit
alarming. I have to say though, USB is the most developed interface for
Epson products. I'm not surprised the scanner didn't like your firewire. It
didn't like my USB!
Douglas
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