Epson 4490 Drivers

[Rayna Benincase]

Alsocurious about which will have an easier workflow for scanning 220 medium format film: how many 6x4.5 frames can be quickly scanned at a time for previews? How many can be fully scanned at one time?

I have a 3200 and it definitely doesn't have ICE, and annoyingly Epson didn't rewrite drivers for 64 bit. 3rd party ones work, as does making a 3200 entry into the 4490's Vista or XP 64-bit .inf driver file.

I hear ICE works, but I have some scanned images of snow scenes where there is just so much little pieces of snow on branches, etc. that I can't imagine ICE handling that well, but I guess it supposedly does. Film is easily cleaned so I guess the main use of ICE is against scratches or dust that's been exposed on the film.

For cleaning scratches from old film in my scans (or pro scans needed for 35mm - always with things like ICE disabled), I like to meticulously fix them. It gives me a chance to 'get intimate' with every square cm of the photo, where I often find other things to be fixed.

I would expect the 4490 too should be cut short on it's life, as the v500 replaced it and the v600 has already replaced the v500. I am a rare happy Vista64 owner and do not plan to update anytime soon. If you are considering buying new (or referb) you should consider it more of a short term purchase or just go and get a v600.

When I was choosing, 35mm scanning was not a thought. I have a Plustek that scanned wonderfully in that arena. The big thing for me was the light source. I wound up favoring the lamp (4490) as opposed to the LED in the v500. It turned out to be not much of an issue and life goes on.

I have no problems with Epson's software. Or their film holders. But lots of people bitch about them, especially the film holder. They've always worked fine for me.

I usually leave their dust removal on (not ICE, that takes WAY too long for someone who doesn't print from their scans) and I usually put the USM on high. The auto exposure does tend to blow highlights, so a bit of histogram adjustment can be in order if you use the automagic exposure.

You'll probably just have to play with it for a while to get a feel for it.

ages ago(permalink)

I go the other way. ICE works better than "dust removal" and seems to be just about the same level of slowdown. I also tend to leave the USM for much much later along in the process and do it in Photoshop when I'm done.

The Epson software is 100 times better than what HP puts out. Which, given how much HP software sucks, doesn't say much.

ages ago(permalink)

Epson has no per-emulsion color corrections, which is a big problem as there is no standard for printing color negative film. This nearly guarantees that color negatives are going to need color correction on every frame.

ages ago(permalink)

The Epson software seems OK about 80% of the time with colour negatives. I tend to leave most settings at their default (mostly off!) setting and process the scan in photoshop.

Silverfast is a bit slower to use but it gives excellent results with positve film and with black and white negatives.

For colour positive I usually use 4 pass scanning in Silverfast which takes a lot of time but really brings out the shadow details and reduces noise.

ages ago(permalink)

Way of the Rocket, there is a non-obvious little popup menu between the "preview" and "scan" buttons, which lets you switch from "thumbnail" view and "normal" view. If you switch to normal, you can drag out your own selection rectangles wherever you want them, rather than having the software cut off the borders of the frames.

I ended up going at my filmholders with a block of wood wrapped in sandpaper, so I could scan all the way to the black borders around the image (see any of the recent film scans in my stream for examples).

ages ago(permalink)

Have had a 4490 for about one year, have scanned about 100 films both 35mm and 6x6 or 6x9, it works smoothly.... and it's a reasonably priced alternative to dedicated film scanners. To me, the software does just enough as to be non invasive in "pro" mode.

With BW, I tend to keep down the default gamma to 1.5, the results just look more natural to me (however, most usually I do also greyscale S-curve correction in potatoshop).

Never used dust removal or ICE, I always found it quicker to go after little dusts and hairs with the stamp tool in pshp.

ages ago(permalink)

Thanks for the tips everyone. Time to break out the sand paper to do some operation on the holder.

As for ICE and dust removal, I find both add some strange artifacts. I will have to experiment a little more. Haven't played with the gamma much, but I do agree that the defaults looks a little off...

ages ago(permalink)

sorry to join your group without having any medium format photos up yet, but i have just purchased a 4490 and have a few questions. On trying to scan negatives with the epson software, it doesn't let me scan more than a standard 35mm photo width, i can manage it with vuescan, but get a dollar mark due to it only being trial version. Is there anyway round this with the epson software? I doesn't work either in the MF holders, it cuts pictures at random intervals, any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

ages ago(permalink)

when yu are scanning black and white negs, do yu scan them in greyscale or colour?

i use a microtek scanner and the software that came with it (have tried vuescan but don;t like it).

i find i get better results with b&w negs scanning in colour then converting to greyscale.

anyone else?

ages ago(permalink)

I have the 4990 - I tried to use Silverfast onces and just couldn't get my head aroud it. I'm going to try again because from what everyone says it is the better option than Epsonscan.

ages ago(permalink)

Malcolm: I'm not sure I understand the problem you're having. When you do a preview scan you only get a strip the width of a 36mm strip? I have a 4490 and routinely scan 120 without any of the problems you mention. You are doing a preview scan first, right?

I never quite understand what people don't like about the Epson software.

ages ago(permalink)

Malcom, are scanning in thumbnail mode with the Epson software? If so, make sure you select the appropriate film size in the configuration menu first.

But I'd suggest learning how the scanner works in professional mode. It will give you much more control over your scans and should give you better results.

I hate the Epson film holders, they're filmsy and do a bad job keeping film flat, but the Epson software isn't so bad. Silverfast offers profiles for specific color negative films which can help streamline that process and Vuescan is a very good program, but for B&W and slides, I find Epson Scan is adequate. It gives me clean scans with maximum info and that's all I need, since I use Photoshop to do the rest.

ages ago(permalink)

thanks for the replys, when i looked for film sizes it only lets me choose 35mm sizes, there is no choice for 120 / medium format film. Does your epson software have this option?

Scanning in grayscale did provide some better results, but i still can't scan the full negative.

ages ago(permalink)

HELP! i just got the Epson 4490 photo scanner. It will scan photos and 35 mm negatives decently, but please take a look at what it did to my 120 film. I've followed all the right settings and also uninstalled and reinstalled the drivers. has anyone else had these problems? is this the scanner or my fault?

then it did scan this one "ok," but the colors are so messed up. one is without and one is with color correction option. the colors are so off. and i had to inver the colors in photoshop to work.

Epsons support is a total joke, no one listens or even knows what I'm talking about. They just read off their papers. I don't think they've even used a computer before.

ages ago(permalink)

Carafornia,

I went through the same problem and found the answer somewhere on the web... there are 3 small holes on the top of the film holder. Just make sure you are not covering those and everything will work.

ages ago(permalink)

Thanks Francesco. When I scan my 120 film at 2400 dpi it's saying it will take 30 min, while using epson software. Is this at all right? the color still seems off and are the other softwares any faster? this can't be right.

ages ago(permalink)

For me DigitalICE is something you really don't want to turn off.

First of all to do manually the correction that it does automatically it will take you much longer... second the shadow-based algorithm that uses to remove dust and hair is pretty impressive.

For me a single frame at 2400 dpi takes about 15 mins, which is very acceptable to me since the scanner costs less than 100$.

About colors try to avoid the scanner's optimizations. Turn them all off and just scan and then work in photoshop to get the colors you want.

Personally the only options I leave on are DigitalICE and backlight medium.

ages ago(permalink)

Lots of interesting stuff here. Has anyone noticed hideous artefacts if the dust off or ICE are turned on? I don't have any trouble when I turn everything off, but when it's on I get these nasty diagonal localised smears.

ages ago(permalink)

The "dust removal" feature is awful. Don't use it. ICE doesn't cause the smears, that's the dust removal doing its job.

ICE does take about 10 times longer to do the scan. So scan without it first, then if dust is a problem, go back and turn it on. Most of the time a good brush or canned air will get you dust free.

ages ago(permalink)

The right way to scan BWs is Silverfast, not Epson's, turning off all options, which can influence on the "true" scan, in colour, of course, and then work on it in Photoshop. Get greyscale using channels

(RGB). In colour, Epson's software, is suitable, but, again, it is pretty hard to control the final results, using the scan software, even backlight. The best solution still is a Photoshop.

ages ago(permalink)

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