Topic: opening up an Epson 3200 hybrid flatbed scanner?

[LT]

My scanner is about to perform some very important scans, but there's dirt inside it that is causing a line down the middle of any ned I scan.  It wouldnt be a problem for prints, but as the scan is enlarged, it becomes quite obvious  - I need to clean it, dont have the time,money or inclination to send it away for a proper service so ... does anyone know how to get these things open so I can blow away the dust?

[filmwast]

You should be able to remove the glass, and deploy a can of puffer-air without too much drama...

[al]

Glad I read this.  My last few scans have had lines down them, I assumed this was a very fine scratch on the emulsion due to a rough camera film guide or something, but a speck of dust on the scanner head sounds much more likely, the lines are always perfectly horizontal !

I'm going to try cleaning it before I waste any more hours cloning the damn things out at high magnification! Grrr!

[Francois]

I find this strange since most modern scanners have sealed optics packages...
I once took apart a Umax. It was held by only 2 screws on the bottom with hinge pins towards the back. I hope you can still open yours with the heads locked. It's a pretty rough and tumble process from memory.

The scanning head consists of a surface coat mirror which deflects the light towards the linear CCD. Be very careful with it.

[Susan B.]

I was told that you have to remove the glass in a dust free enviornment, which is why they suggest you send to an epson dealer.

Maybe create some humidity a bit prior---possibly put the vaporizer on for a few minutes before so that all the dust settles in the room and does not fly in easily.

Not sure if I'm right on this suggestion---Just a random idea.

[LT]

there really is no easy way to remove the glass - no obvious fixing etc.  so I ripped the top off!  It was already so full of dust that a few thousnad more particles wouldnt make too much difference.  I've delicately cleaned the scanner bar with an anti static soft brush, and put it all back together.  The line is still there, funnily, it is parallel with the scanner bar, so I tried moving the neg around the transparency area, and the line is always in the same place on the neg despite where it is placed on teh platen - so I'm guessing some kind of hardware/ software fault?  I've tried it with silverfast, vuescan and the epson driver and it is always there.  perhpas the scan stops working at the same point into each scan - oh well.  Looks like digi retouching will have to suffice, the scanner is way past it's warranty and I cant afford a new one. 

I always thought the inside was sealed, but when I snapped off the top, it was clear there are holes all over the place where the top snap-fits on, so all that dust free environment stuff is b0??0x.  the thing was full of dust

[Susan B.]

This is a longshot---
Did you try downloading new versions of the software?

Something like this happened to me on my old 2450 years ago. It was software related and I was able to fix it with Epson's telephone help. I just can't recall what it was!

Does this happen when you are scanning at lower dpi's or just higher res?

[al]

I think the problem may be ccd noise, not dust.  I did a test scan with an empty film holder.  Pushing the black and white points close together reveals a whole load of noise lines not normally visible with a wider range of levels. I'm only noticing these lines on some scans, but they are usually very low contrast negs from a combination of ancient film, ancient chemicals and ancient cameras!

Surely there must be a way to calibrate out the noisy ccd elements in much the same way as digi cameras do for B exposures? Time to read the manual and do a little research!




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[Francois]

Check to see if you use the wire that came with the machine. Scanners all use a ferrite magnet to reduce noise (it's the small round barrel shaped thing on the wire).

[Skorj]

I think ferrite beads are generally to stop emissions (Lenz effect?), and I doubt they would cause such a regular periodic result as displayed here. Still, you never know!

CCD fault, or dirt, or similar would still be my preference for this type of noise. When I push my levels close together (up at the white end), I get a grubby bed. Though, I can see one or two periodic bars (we're looking at different things I suppose):



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[Francois]

I got thinking too late last night (2:30am ) and might have found something...

Could it be related to what they call "hot pixels"?
I know scanners use a linear CCD array. They are also not immune to the hot pixel which is an artifact of CCD technology. This tends to occur in low light situation on digital cameras. This would be the same for scanning a very dense negative. It will always do a line in the direction of the scan.

[LT]

good point Francois, although the line in my scan is parallel to the scanner pass.  I think it's a problem I'm just going to have to live with - I'm a trad printer so scanning negs isnt overly important to me.

[al]

Whatever it is, I think we may have just invented "Empty Scanner Art" 

[LT]

or is that Noisy Scanner Art???

here's my pesky little blighter - luckily I only get one, but one is enough!



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[Francois]

 "They're called "hydro power lines" " - what's one of them?  Doesnt Hydro mean water?  (hydrocephalus, water in head) - so what's a water power line?

"Have you tried turning on the software scratch removal on the driver (the non-digital ice one) ?"

does vuescan have one?

"I was thinking it may be related to the lid scanning light but I really doubt any amount of dust would show like that..." nope, nothing to do with lid as it makes no difference where on the platen I put the negative, the line is always at the same point in the scan.  It's  got to be a software or hardware fault rather then scratches or dust.

clone tool it is then.

[LT]

sorry, I seem to have inadvertently abused my moderation option and edited your post to reply - didnt mean to do that.

whoops!

[Francois]

No offense Leon... for what that last reply was worth...

It's just that around here, the landscape is literally littered with overhead power lines. It costs too much to have them buried so the only place there you can take pictures without a single line showing is in rich neighborhoods... they receive a privilege from the power company 

The option is not available in Vuescan. I know it is there in Epson Scan though.

[Ed Wenn]

Whatever it is, I think we may have just invented "Empty Scanner Art" 

Agreed...I've thoroughly enjoyed the groundbreaking work on this thread.