Epson V850 green scan line issue

[gabrielopardo]

I'm having a scan line issue with my new v850. I don't believe it is a calibration area issue, because the line doesn't appear in the first scan, only in scans after. It also only happens on the left most strip of the 35mm film holders, in the same spot every time. Curious if anyone has seen this issue before, really hoping it's not an issue with the sensor on a brand new scanner

Things I've tried:
Both Epson film strip holders
Different film strips
Cleaning inside and outside of glass and the calibration dots

 

[koraks]

Welcome to Photrio!
I suspect this may indeed be a sensor defect, specifically a single defective pixel in the red sensor array. IDK if the V850 or its driver has any built-in algorithms to automatically suppress such a defect. Either way, since it's a new scanner, I'd get in touch with Epson or the seller and ask for a replacement.

There are more issues with the negative btw, but those are unrelated to the scanner.

 

[gabrielopardo]

Welcome to Photrio!
I suspect this may indeed be a sensor defect, specifically a single defective pixel in the red sensor array. IDK if the V850 or its driver has any built-in algorithms to automatically suppress such a defect. Either way, since it's a new scanner, I'd get in touch with Epson or the seller and ask for a replacement.

There are more issues with the negative btw, but those are unrelated to the scanner.

Ah man that is really unfortunate. It is new, but I bought it off Facebook marketplace. Nice older lady who said she ended up sending in all of her old film to be archived and never ended up opening it. It was still completely in its original packaging, tape and seals and all. I registered it with Epson last night, and the warranty expired in 2022

Yeah I noticed the other issues with that one, I wasn’t taking to much care to dial everything in then I was mostly just trying to figure out the green line I got a scan I was pretty happy with tonight using the right side of the scanner though!

 

[gabrielopardo]

Would anyone happen to know what scanner repair costs are like?

 

[koraks]

You'd have to reach out to Epson, but I doubt they'll actually repair this unit.
I think your best bet is to 'scan around' the problem if you're only using 35mm and/or 120 film.

 

[gabrielopardo]

You'd have to reach out to Epson, but I doubt they'll actually repair this unit.
I think your best bet is to 'scan around' the problem if you're only using 35mm and/or 120 film.

I was planning on scanning 4x5 as well, I’ll have to check to see if the 4x5 holder positions it in the path of the dead pixel.

Thank you for your help!

 

[koraks]

The 850 can scan up to 8x10" film, right? That means you should be able to scan at least 2x 4x5" without hitting that defect.

 

[film4Me]

Unusual for a new Epson scanner to be faulty, haven't seen that before. Take care who you get to fix it. You could try getting a quote from Epson.

 

[gabrielopardo]

Unusual for a new Epson scanner to be faulty, haven't seen that before. Take care who you get to fix it. You could try getting a quote from Epson.

Yeah I’m feeling pretty unlucky with the whole deal. I’m pretty confident it was new though, the lock stickers were still in place and they didn’t come off in a way where you could replace them.

The nearest Epson authorized service location to me is “The Portland Printer Place” in Portland OR.

Going to reach out to Epson first and see what they think.

 

[Hassasin]

Change USB cable and power source (plug PS into a different power branch at home) , both can have this kind of effect on scanner (apparently). I had a Minolta Dimage Scan Dual III I bought once, had similar line, seller sold me another unit at super low price (first was cheap too, both hardly used) and second one had same issue, so seller sent me a third unit. None of these had power supply but I used an original Minolta supply anyways. Third unit had same problem, but seller sent me scans from two and neither showed anything on his scans. Wound up keeping all 3 units for cheap, then different USB cable removed the line (well, no more lines, can't be 100% sure USB cable caused it, but that is how I got there.

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

When you say that it doesn't happen on the first scan, do you mean the prescan or the first full regular scan?

What resolution are you using and have you tried others?

Does anyone know how to clean the sensor? Maybe it's dirt?

 

[beemermark]

I was planning on scanning 4x5 as well, I’ll have to check to see if the 4x5 holder positions it in the path of the dead pixel.

Thank you for your help!

On my V700 I just position the 4x5 on the glass and scan

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

On my V700 I just position the 4x5 on the glass and scan

The lens that scans the 4x5 film holder is better than the the platen glass scanner lens, which is used for 8x10s.

 

[Graham06]

• Epson support might help even though the scanner is out of warranty
• The area at the top of the glass area is used as a calibration section every scan. Make sure the glass, the lid, and the film holders are clear and clean
• Do you notice that you don't have just one line, there are at least half a dozen.
• It might not help much, but you could do your own correction in Photoshop: Scan a white page or clear film, or a series of gray ramps, and make a curves correction for each line that minimises the defects. It will be a hassle to apply. Much better if the scanner has a built in calibration/ hot pixel setting. Epson support would know. I have seen nothing user facing in the documentation.
• I have the wet mount kit. You get marginally cleaner scans, but for you it will let you avoid the bad lines if you need to.
• The highest resolution is only available for a smaller area in the center of the glass. It may be that only one sensor is defective. I don't know the exact trick to trigger the highest res sensor, but I scan at 6400 dpi and downscale by 66% in Photoshop for a 4800 dpi final res. ( sharpening, dust detection and all other effects turned off in Epson Scan. Sharpen in Photoshop, smart sharpen 190% 1.1px radius) For my Epson 850, if I try use anything higher, sharpening highlights that each _row_ is scanned differently and it looks awful.

 

[brbo]

• Do you notice that you don't have just one line, there are at least half a dozen.

I noticed that too. But most of them are probably on film, the green (single pixel width) is most probably a stuck pixel. I would try forcing calibration a number of times. Sometimes Vuescan can force a scanner to calibrate on demand (Scanner | Calibrate). Not sure it will do anything for Epson V700 as sometimes scanners do a calibration automatically prior to every scan. Doing many scans in succession might help then, turning the scanner on/off between scans... I've seen these come and go. But, of course, it might also be a dead pixel and nothing will help. I don't think that Epson ever offered the service of mapping out dead pixels via software, but it certainly won't hurt asking Epson support...

• The highest resolution is only available for a smaller area in the center of the glass. It may be that only one sensor is defective. I don't know the exact trick to trigger the highest res sensor, but I scan at 6400 dpi and downscale by 66% in Photoshop for a 4800 dpi final res. ( sharpening, dust detection and all other effects turned off in Epson Scan. Sharpen in Photoshop, smart sharpen 190% 1.1px radius) For my Epson 850, if I try use anything higher, sharpening highlights that each _row_ is scanned differently and it looks awful.

There is only one sensor in the scanner (there are two lenses though).