Preview Issue, Epson V500

When previewing negatives, sometimes 35mm but primarily 120, the Epson does not scan the whole image but chops it into parts. The 120 film holder contains 2 x 6x6 negatives, the software setting is 6x6, but I'll get one or both images comprised of the gap between frames, with part of the other negative in the square and part of the one I want to scan missing. I place the negatives or slides carefully in the holder.

I don't believe I can set a marquee line before a preview scan, only for an actual scan after the preview. Does anyone have a solution?

What software do you use? With Epson Scan, sometimes when the spacing is uneven, or when the first frame from the bottom of the holder is say cut short, the software frames the rest incorrectly. I go full preview and manually define the frames to scan.

zanxion72 said:

What software do you use? With Epson Scan, sometimes when the spacing is uneven, or when the first frame from the bottom of the holder is say cut short, the software frames the rest incorrectly. I go full preview and manually define the frames to scan.

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I'm no expert, I use the software that came with the scanner. I haven't found a way of manually setting framing before a preview. If there is one can you describe how I access and set it?

I have the V600 and the position the plastic frame is mounted correctly on the glass one of the nodes on the edge fits into a sunken indent on the side plastic frame of the glass. Sometimes you can select a strip 6X6 or 35mm check it out in the worse case remove all software related to the scanner and do a fresh install if on Mac dump all Epson Scanner "prefs".

ced said:

I have the V600 and the position the plastic frame is mounted correctly on the glass one of the nodes on the edge fits into a sunken indent on the side plastic frame of the glass. Sometimes you can select a strip 6X6 or 35mm check it out in the worse case remove all software related to the scanner and do a fresh install if on Mac dump all Epson Scanner "prefs".

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I'm aware of the frame registration guides in the plastic holder, and how they determine negative size. I've also removed and updated software a few times. Very occasionally after a long scanning session the software "forgets" where it is and freezes up. Those do not solve the problem which has been there since I bought the scanner seven years ago, and have been the case with three different computers. I can't find a way of telling it I want both 6x6 120 negatives scanned fully as seen in the film holder. Sometimes I can "trick" it by putting only one negative or slide in the holder, but that's time consuming and doesn't offer the best plane flatness with one end of the strip hanging. It scans 35mm fine so long as the first frame doesn't have leader included. The single exception is it sometimes drops one frame from a double strip, scanning 11 not 12 frames. This is not because the frame is under or over exposed, the Epson just takes a dislike to a photo sometimes!

I've spent hours in the past trying to find a fix to the 120 problem but it beats me.

On the preview window there are two tabs, the thumbnail view and the normal view. Click on the normal view and then use the crop controls to add/duplicate/delete frames. To batch scan all selected frames you have to select them all by clicking on the desired ones while holding the ctr button.

zanxion72 said:

On the preview window there are two tabs, the thumbnail view and the normal view. Click on the normal view and then use the crop controls to add/duplicate/delete frames. To batch scan all selected frames you have to select them all by clicking on the desired ones while holding the ctr button.

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Sorry to be pedantic, but doesn't that require previewing the negatives first? If my preview has chopped the image up, surely selecting the frame isn't going to repair a view comprised of two negatives and the space between merged into one? I need the negative or slide as a whole to be previewed before choosing a scanning marquee, don't I?

blockend said:

Sorry to be pedantic, but doesn't that require previewing the negatives first? If my preview has chopped the image up, surely selecting the frame isn't going to repair a view comprised of two negatives and the space between merged into one? I need the negative or slide as a whole to be previewed before choosing a scanning marquee, don't I?

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Yes, but when switching to that, you get the entire negative area on screen and from there you select areas to scan. When you switch to that, it will re-run a preview scan.
As soon as I get home I can get you a screenshot of what I mean.

zanxion72 said:

Yes, but when switching to that, you get the entire negative area on screen and from there you select areas to scan. When you switch to that, it will re-run a preview scan.
As soon as I get home I can get you a screenshot of what I mean.

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+1. clicking that tab shows the entire negative as scanned, not broken into thumbnails. At that point you can use the marquee tool and scan the frames manually yourself. I really wish Epson would improve their software. I find when scanning multiple thumbnails I can't walk away from the computer. I need to move the mouse to get it to start scanning the next one in the sequence. It'll just sit there doing nothing otherwise!

Hah! I thought it was something quirky on my computer that when you hit scan or prescan and you don't move the mouse then nothing happens. Indeed about time Epson improved their software.

ced said:

Hah! I thought it was something quirky on my computer that when you hit scan or prescan and you don't move the mouse then nothing happens. Indeed about time Epson improved their software.

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No- not just you. Epson really should put out a "professional" software package that's a lot more polished than their current offering.

Ces1um said:

+1. clicking that tab shows the entire negative as scanned, not broken into thumbnails. At that point you can use the marquee tool and scan the frames manually yourself. I really wish Epson would improve their software. I find when scanning multiple thumbnails I can't walk away from the computer. I need to move the mouse to get it to start scanning the next one in the sequence. It'll just sit there doing nothing otherwise!

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I am not at my scanner now, but when using the marquee tool you should be able to outline several photos. After that you should click a little "all" button to select them before "scan" so you can walk away.

pbromaghin said:

I am not at my scanner now, but when using the marquee tool you should be able to outline several photos. After that you should click a little "all" button to select them before "scan" so you can walk away.

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ok- didn't know about the "all button". I do know when I am in thumbnail mode it will NOT scan multiple images unless I move the mouse. I'm using a mac so I don't know if that means anything. I'll try the "all" trick though with the marquee tool though. That would be a serious time saver.

I have a V700 and V500 that I run on Windows 10 computers. Epson scan runs the same on both scanners and computers.
My basic configuration for evaluation of the negative ( I sometimes select NO Color Correction)

Closing the configuration box and pressing the Preview button I get
same truncated thumbnail garbage that the OP asks about.
Selecting the Normal tab I get
Pressing the Marquee box I get a "marching ants" box that can be positioned and adjusted. The mouse cursor becomes a Hand when inside the marquee box, clicking and holding the box can be positioned as desired, releasing the click and positioning the cursor over the edge of the box until the cursor turns to a double headed arrow then clicking and holding that edge can be adjusted as desired.

Now pressing the double marquee box a second marquee is displayed offset to the first that can be moved to the next frame. The next marquee will be the same dimensions as the previous adjusted marquee.

Finally when all frames are selected with a marquee box select the ALL box then press scan.

All marqueed frames will be scanned in the order their marquee boxes were applied.

Mac version should operate similarly.

shutterfinger said:

I have a V700 and V500 that I run on Windows 10 computers. Epson scan runs the same on both scanners and computers.
My basic configuration for evaluation of the negative

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That looks very useful shutterfinger. I've uploaded an entire photobook for the printer today, and found time to finish half a roll in the rangefinder at lunchtime, so I'm totally photo'd out for the evening. I'll look at it properly tomorrow and apply the settings to my desktop with Win10. That's very much for all the replies.

There is an option in EpsonScan software to pick either 6X6 or 4.5X6 when scanning 120 negatives. Set the option correctly and it should find the individual frames OK.

Thumbnail in Epsonscan uses edge contrast to identify the frame edges and when set correctly with strong edge contrast the thumbnail only captures the central 95% to 98% of the image and may crop off a side if the edge contrast is soft.
I prefer the entire frame therefore I use the manual marquee method.

Shutterfinger, thanks! That's exactly what I was trying to describe.

dabsond said:

There is an option in EpsonScan software to pick either 6X6 or 4.5X6 when scanning 120 negatives. Set the option correctly and it should find the individual frames OK.

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For some reason, even when I do that, my scanner sometimes still messes it up and I have to do what shutterfinger showed. It might even go from working to not working and back to working in the middle of a session.

shutterfinger- thanks! Very useful!

Hi there
I started using a V500 and at first had no issues, but then Windows 10 started barfing and after pressing the preview button I get an error message saying "No response from the scanner"
I see about folks are using Windows 10, so hoping someone has an idea what I can do?
I've searched the net, downloaded drivers, messed with compatibility mode etc.
I appreciate any help.
Thanks

What maintenance do on Windows? defrag the hd? clean the registry? 64 bit or 32 bit version of Win 10?
Are you using the USB cable that shipped with the scanner? Have you tried a different USB port on the computer?

https://www.iobit.com/en/advancedsystemcarefree.php or https://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/download which requires more configuration for cleaning than ASC.

I sincerely appreciate your reply, since this has really annoyed me.
I started off having no issues, scanning a number of 6x45 negatives in a row with no issues.
Then allofasudden I started getting the message that the scanner could not be detected, AFTER the epson scan program launched, and I configured what I wanted to do, and it started making the scanner move about when I pressed the preview button.
I started thinking Windows 10 64bit had a registry issue since the program had worked for awhile and then started barfing.
After scouring the net, seeing other people having issues with Epson scanner drivers, I downloaded the demo of Silverfast and found that did indeed work, though the demo version wouldn't let me scan negatives, it didn't give me the error message and did complete a scan.
Assuming this was a windows 10 incompatibility (which had been documented a lot) I went to the effort of loading WindowsXP Mode within VirtualBox, loaded just the epson driver, noting that Epson only has a single driver for this scanner, the same one whether using windows2000 or windows 10, and after getting the scanner to work in the Virtual XP, RECEIVED THE EXACT SAME ERROR MESSAGE!.
Needless to say I was perturbed, since I actually like the epson scanner software because of how it recognizes more than one negative frame on the preview, eliminating the need for me to crop out the extra space between the frames as I'd need to do with another program like Silverfast.
However while resigning myself to the notion that I couldn't use the Epson software I started thinking in more detail about what the error message said and the recommendation it mentioned, which was mainly to check that the transparency cover that you remove from the lid when scanning negatives was properly removed?

Looking at my negative insert, I noticed one end of my strip of 6x45 negatives was extended out of the negative carrier and was hanging out over the edge of the glass on the scanners surface near the hinged end.
Not knowing anything else to try, I slid the strip over so that it was entirely on the glass surface of the scanner and tried again.
Wouldn't you know that it actually worked?

So apparently something with the epson scan software doesn't like it when the scanner initializes and runs it's scanner doohhicky, ether in the lid or below, to the end and see's that negative sticking out over the edge.
I'd say it's not the driver, since the Silverfast software said it used parts of the epson driver to load, so something with the scanner software itself didn't like it.

I'm hoping that was actually it, since I was then able to scan several negatives with no issue, since it'd be a real pain if this is an intermittent issue.
Sorry for the long winded response, but wanted to be clear on what I did in case someone else has a similar issue, and hoping someone can confirm what I did?

thanks
Barry

The rear section of the base glass is the Calibration Area. If it is blocked or has enough dust it will cause scan problems. The "scanner not found" notice threw me as I keep the calibration strip clean.
I have had Windows issues that the Windows maintenance utilities mentioned in this thread and by private message would not solve and had to do a fresh install to fix. I have fixed many more irregularities by running the registry cleaner and Windows built in file system repair utilities System File Checker and Deployment Imaging and Servicing Management should be run in conjunction with one another to fix system problems.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/search?query=sfc /scannow
for the benefit of readers.
Happy scanning.

I quit fumbling with the negative holders a long time ago. They did nothing to flatten the negatives, and often they would often come loose or sit crooked. The business about it being optimized to sit so many millimeters above the glass to stay in focus was lost on me. Diminishing returns. And sometimes the masks would block part of the image area...

These days I lay the negatives flat on the scanner glass, usually emulsion side DOWN so they'll curl away from the glass. Then I place an 8x10 piece of non-reflective picture frame glass on top to flatten the negatives. Then scan. Much faster. Images are sharp and with no distortion. Also, I've never seen a Newton ring doing this. As mentioned, just remember to keep the top half inch or so of the scanning area clear.