Preview works but no scan? Epson Perfection 1640 + Vuescan

[Mesabound]

I recently pulled out this old flatbed from a friend's garage, dusted it off, and am now trying to get it to work.

For the most part, the issue I'm running into is that when I hit "Scan" in Vuescan I nearly always get a result like the first attached image, despite the fact that you can see in the second attached image that it comes up fine when I hit "Preview"

Adding to my confusion is that I was able to get a scan result when I scanned some color negs by first previewing and then hitting scan, but nothing else has worked.

It is an old scanner so I've no idea if this could just be a defect of age but it definitely works to some degree and looks quite clean.

 

[MattKing]

The software settings appear to be the ones you would use to scan a letter size page, rather than a negative. Is that what you are scanning?

 

[Mesabound]

I am scanning a print here

After more research the issue definitely appears related to having selected 48 bits. The Perfection 1640 can only go up to 42 bits (which Vuescan oddly does not offer to me as an option). I assume 24 bits at 1600 dpi should be fine for the purpose of digitizing some old negatives/prints?

 

[Kino]

24 bits should serve you perfectly fine.

 

[Mesabound]

Thanks. Would anyone have a good resource that can further explain bits, dpi, how they relate to each other in this context, and where the differences begin to show up?

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

Here's some reference material from Epson.
https://epson.com/Support/Scanners/Perfection-Series/Epson-Perfection-1640SU/s/SPT_B126021#manuals

 

[Kino]

This should work: https://www.scantips.com/

 

[Mesabound]

Awesome, appreciate it!

 

[grat]

Check to make sure scratch / dust removal is disabled. It's a feature that scans the negative with an infrared channel-- the problem is the silver in black and white negatives (and I presume prints) causes the scanner to lose it's mind, and produces very odd results that look similar to your first image.

 

[Wallendo]

I have used VueScan for over 15 years and have always found the Hamrick's very responsive to e-mail questions. If they find a bug in the software, they are very quick to fix it.

As a work-around in the meantime, the most recent versions of VueScan have a feature where you can "scan" from the preview. To make this work, do your prescan at the final resolution you want (1600 dpi in your example), and then extract the final scan from your prescan. I am at work right now and don't have access to my home Mac, but I think it should be easy to figure out.