I bought an Epson v700 off eBay.

[Tjw]

Hello community. I just received a v700 at a good price off eBay. It was advertised as being in perfect condition but when it arrived, it reeked of smoke... Smells kind of like it was in a house fire or maybe something smoked, I don't know the history. I cleaned it well and the smoke smell is entirely gone. Additionally, it did not smell on the inside of the scanner giving me some hope the optics would be fine.

The link at the bottom of the post is a full scan from a 6x8 negative at 6400dpi and scaled back to 3200 in Photoshop for easier uploading. Sharpening and ICE turned are off. Scanned using Vuescan saved as RAW. I mounted the slide on a homemade wet-mount with Gamsol as the fluid, cheap ANR glass, and acetate (A guide I somewhat followed). I adjusted the height to fit the focal length of my scanner. I tried playing with the red green blue analog gain to make the histograms end close together as suggested online but I'm not experienced enough to know what is correct. I scanned at Red: 1, Green: 1.5, Blue: 1.5.

My camera: GX680iii
Lens: GX 100mm possibly shot near wide open.
Scanner: Smoky Epson V700
Film: Portra 400, self developed using BVY's Flexicolor chem list (Thanks bvy. My negatives look great!)

I know most of you do not have the time to look at this and that is fine. If you can fire up photoshop / GIMP, here is the described negative:https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nebGTZ5wD3PZvJ6aww0uTX38wXrqB3A2/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nebGTZ5wD3PZvJ6aww0uTX38wXrqB3A2/view?usp=sharing

I don't know what I am looking for and if I want to try and return this scanner, I need to do so quickly.

 

[kmg1974]

you can always complain to the seller. if the smoke was not mentioned, then it is a deceptive ad. So, you could contact the seller, tell them that you have an issue with the smoke and are thinking of returning the item, and see if they agree or make you a different offer.
I recently bought something from a seller, one of the cables was missing, making the whole item useless unless I go and buy the cable somewhere else...the seller accepted the return

My advice to you would be, if you are in doubt, return it due to misleading ad

 

[Kino]

Don't you have something smaller than 453MB to show?

 

[Frank53]

Out of curiosity I downloaded and opened the file.
Now I wonder what your question is. I did not see any smoke.
You said the smell was only on the outside and it’s gone now and if it was cheap (what a scanner of this age should be), why send it back?
I have a few questions:
-why do you scan as a negative? Just tell your scanning software that you are scanning color negative film and you’ll get a beautiful positive.
-why such a huge file? The real resolution of the V700 seems to be something like 2300dpi. Everything more is just filling up your harddisk.
If you’re just starting with scanning, why not use the Epson software. Imho it is a lot easier to use then Vuescan. You can always try other software if you’re not happy with it.
Regards,
Frank

 

[faberryman]

why such a huge file? The real resolution of the V700 seems to be something like 2300dpi. Everything more is just filling up your harddisk.

You have to scan at 4800 to get 2300. Scanning at a lower resolution won't get you 2300. Scanning at over 4800 won't improve things.

 

[Frank53]

You have to scan at 4800 to get 2300. Scanning at a lower resolution won't get you 2300. Scanning at over 4800 won't improve things.

So 6400 is way too much, I think.
Regards,
Frank

 

[Sirius Glass]

Yet another reason to avoid eBay and buy at KEH or at Photrio.

 

[klownshed]

For the purposes of testing the scanner it would make sense to me to use the stock negative holders with EpsonScan using the defaults to get a good scan.

If that works you can fiddle about later to try and get the best from it without inserting too many additional variables.

The V700 has dual lenses. One which works with the negative holders and the other for use without them with the print/neg directly on the bed (with or without film guide). Try both using EpsonScan to Give the scanner a proper workout.

As for smoke smell, what kind of smoke? Cigarette or burning electrics? If it’s the former it shouldn’t affect the scanner once cleaned properly. If it’s the latter then you should probably send it back.

 

[Doug Fisher]

If you can smell the smoke then it is very close to certain you will need to open it up and clean the underside of the glass and the optical path to remove the outgassing and/or smoke buildup. Here is a page of resources I put up to help learn what you need to know in order to open up an Epson scanner:

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

Doug

 

[Tjw]

Thank you everyone for the responses!

Why is it a negative? At 6400dpi? Because I wanted to post a raw scan for anyone to analyze their own way. Additionally, I wanted this scan to be at the highest resolution even though the real resolution of the scanner is rated around 2200dpi, I used 6400 for the purpose of testing. I use colorperfect to convert to a positive in post.

My next step is to clean the mirror. Thank you for the link for dismantling the scanner! Looking at the pictures, cleaning the mirrors will be easy. I'll give that a shot.

I expected the scans to be sharper, it looks like the scanner lens is still a little out of focus despite narrowing it down using thick pieces of paper as height increments. I'll continue to fine-tune my process to pull more detail out of it. Still, it is certainly capable of making great web photos. I put some scratches on it taking off the screw caps and I destroyed the caps themselves so I would feel guilty trying to return it in a different condition. I may just clean it up the best I can and use it for a few months. I can always relist it on eBay and get what I paid for it.

 

[shutterfinger]

Download the factory service manual here: https://www.manualslib.com/manual/1000666/Epson-Perfection-V700-Photo.html
or I can put my copy up on my google drive if necessary.

The mirrors, lens, sensor are in a sealed box, only the top two mirrors can be accessed by removing the lamp cover.
I purchased mine as a refrub at the Epson store. The Microtek 8700 Pro I sold gave better scans.

 

[Kino]

Thank you everyone for the responses!

Why is it a negative? At 6400dpi? Because I wanted to post a raw scan for anyone to analyze their own way. Additionally, I wanted this scan to be at the highest resolution even though the real resolution of the scanner is rated around 2200dpi, I used 6400 for the purpose of testing. I use colorperfect to convert to a positive in post.

My next step is to clean the mirror. Thank you for the link for dismantling the scanner! Looking at the pictures, cleaning the mirrors will be easy. I'll give that a shot.

I expected the scans to be sharper, it looks like the scanner lens is still a little out of focus despite narrowing it down using thick pieces of paper as height increments. I'll continue to fine-tune my process to pull more detail out of it. Still, it is certainly capable of making great web photos. I put some scratches on it taking off the screw caps and I destroyed the caps themselves so I would feel guilty trying to return it in a different condition. I may just clean it up the best I can and use it for a few months. I can always relist it on eBay and get what I paid for it.

When you scan beyond the native resolution of a scanner, the data has to be interpolated. Interpolation requires pixel averaging. You don't increase sharpness by increasing false resolution.

 

[Wallendo]

VueScan is great software, in fact I am running it as I type to scans some slides, but it has a significant learning curve. I do not try to adjust the scans using VueScan, I generally scan the images using no color correction, or occasionally using the "neutral" setting. VueScan does a good job of inverting the scans and removing the orange mask, so I let is do so. I then finish the process in PhotoShop.

The scanning process tends to blur the images. As a result, most scans will need a little bit of sharpening.

The image you posted has been scanned using incorrect settings, I see no evidence of problems with the scanner. You may find Epson's software easier to use. On the other hand, try scanning the image with VueScan using no modifications with the sliders and left the software invert the image. Add a touch of sharpening after that, and I think you will happier with your results. I suspect the poor coloration in your scans, especially the bright magenta shadows, resulted from trying to align the three color histograms prior to inversion.

 

[shutterfinger]

When you scan beyond the native resolution of a scanner, the data has to be interpolated. Interpolation requires pixel averaging. You don't increase sharpness by increasing false resolution.

The Optical Resolution of the V700/750/800/850 is 6400 dpi. Optical Resolution means the sensor, lens, mirror, light system limit with no software interpolation.

 

[faberryman]

The Optical Resolution of the V700/750/800/850 is 6400 dpi. Optical Resolution means the sensor, lens, mirror, light system limit with no software interpolation.

And the actual resolution is 2300. You need to scan at 4800 to achieve that resolution - lower and you don't get 2300, higher and you don't get more than 2300.

 

[shutterfinger]

And the actual resolution is 2300. You need to scan at 4800 to achieve that resolution

And I'll continue to scan at the scanners optical limit then resize as needed for the application. I trust optical measuring equipment over ones eye.

 

[Ted Baker]

When you scan beyond the native resolution of a scanner, the data has to be interpolated. Interpolation requires pixel averaging. You don't increase sharpness by increasing false resolution.

The actual sample size of the sensor is 3200dpi or even bigger. It never changes (unless you switch to the lens that covers entire flatbed area, and then its 2400dpi). The epson use a technique called pixel shifting in an attempt to increase the resolution. You should expect to get the best results by selecting 6400dpi and re sampling as required. However you will probably find that the extra time and effort is many cases is not worth the effort.

I have the 4990 which is very similar but only has one lens, and the sensor size is equivalent to 2400 dpi I scan at 4800dpi for best results otherwise 2400dpi to speed things up.

 

[Kino]

To each their own... Everyone has their own way of working.

I think the quoted resolution figures are optimistic at best.

Not saying you're wrong, just saying I wouldn't do it that way