EPSON PERFECTION V330 PHOTO Scanning issue

Strange thing...
Newton's rings form when there is a reflection of light between two shiny surfaces glued together...
On flatbed scanners, the slide is held in a guide that is a few millimeters away from the glass, which should prevent the phenomenon.
Now, if the slide touches the glass because it is terribly curved, it is possible that this occurs at that level.

To flatten a slide, one would need to reduce the tension on the photosensitive layer by a slow increase in humidity... not easy.

There are also anti-Newton glasses: http://www.betterscanning.com/scanning/insert35.html
This can work, but at the risk of losing a bit of light...

Hello,
Thank you for your response:
Here is what Epson says in their section below:
"Stripes appear on the scanned image of the film or slides (Perfection V330 Photo only)"
When clicking on this link, here's what it says:

"A pattern of stripes (known as Newton's rings) sometimes appears on images scanned from transparent materials. This phenomenon can occur when the film is curved.
Place the film or slides with the bottom edge facing up and display the image using the thumbnail preview mode. Then flip the previewed image by clicking on the (mirror) icon in the Preview window. For more details, please refer to the section on Adjusting Color and Image Settings."

I admit I don't quite understand what they mean by:
"Place the film or slides with the bottom edge facing up..."
I will check your link on anti-Newton glasses.
Anyway, THANK YOU.

Thank you for your response. I had already tried flipping the photo, but it didn't help.
I did another test this morning with no less than 7 scratches appearing on the scan.
And I swear that the slide itself has no scratches and is not warped (at least not to the naked eye, like that).
I am attaching it here.
I am starting to wonder if my EPSON V330 scanner has an intrinsic problem.

No, the scanner is a few years old and it is no longer under warranty, but I have used it very rarely.
Well, your feedback is important...
Maybe the scanner is out of order.
I have a lot of slides and films to digitize, and I am wondering whether or not to invest in a new scanner. I will call an authorized Epson repairman tomorrow and ask him if he has any idea where the problem might come from.
Thanks again.

Parallel. No, there's nothing on the glass.
It seems there is, under the glass (which is, however, hermetically sealed) and at its edges, what looks like slight condensation.

The most disturbing thing in this story is that these green and red lines do not appear on all the slides. I just made one and there are absolutely no scratches on the digitized slide!!!

That said, I can't continue like this.

In case the problem is humidity that is slightly warping the slide (but I see nothing with the naked eye), is there a way to remove this humidity?
Or maybe, place the slide between two glass plates?

Perhaps my scanner needs a sensor cleaning? (But if the sensor were the issue, I would have these scratches on all the digitized slides, right?

Hello,
I couldn't get back to you earlier due to other issues.
In the meantime, I contacted EPSON's customer service by sending them my results of scratched slides and scanned negatives
(even though there are absolutely no scratches on the originals).
They also asked me to send them a scan of a book page and a scanned A4 sheet. No scratches appear on these last two tests.
It seems to be exclusively due to the scanning of negatives and slides. EPSON does not think it is due to the "Newton rings."
They believe there is a mechanical problem somewhere.
They therefore referred me to an authorized company in Rennes to which I sent the same tests 2 or 3 days ago.
I just called them, and the person at the reception told me that the technician is in contact with EPSON and that this same technician thinks that these scratches might be due to a deformation of the slide! (We are back to square one).
They should get back to me either today or Monday to give me a repair estimate if there is a repair...
I think you are right, and there must be dust on the sensor or the mirror. As for the "Manual service" or the "technical manual," it seems there isn't one. At least, not accessible to the public.
I did try to disassemble the scanner but quickly stopped because, as you said, there seem to be hidden screws everywhere...
In any case, I will wait to see the estimate.
So, I'm starting to consider the possibility of buying a new scanner. But which one to choose? There are many options, but I don't have a big budget: 200 or 300€. I saw that there is an EPSON Perfection V600 that seemed decent, but I'll need to go check as I'm not very knowledgeable about this subject.
To be continued, then. I'll keep you updated.
Best regards,
P.S. And thank you again for your time!

Wait for the customer service's response...
If they don’t find anything and send the scanner back to you, I’m afraid it will happen again... random failures are the hardest to find!

Personally, for slides I have a Nikon Coolscan that I bought second-hand...

But flatbed scanners are trendy now... I have to say they do more than just slides!

Ok, thanks for the advice.
As for the scanner, what I need is a scanner that can handle slides and, secondly, negatives.

1) What is the exact model of your Nikon Coolscan?
(so I can check it online and see what it's all about)

2) Does it also handle negatives?

3) What is the quality of the scanning?
(I mean, is there any loss of sharpness?

I have used a Nikon FE a lot as a camera for my slides and negatives.

The problem is that it seems you have to pay a lot for a scanner to get very good scans, right?
But there must be equipment with a good price-quality ratio.

As for the trend of flatbed scanners that do "everything", with all that they do, they don't do much well anymore! I think it's better to have "dedicated" scanners for slides and/or negatives. That's what I need.

In the link (very technical) below, they don't seem to have a high opinion of the quality of the V330 scanner regarding sharpness.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwimiYGFyfbuAhUxAGMBHfXaAAsQFjADegQIEBAD&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.filmscanner.info%2Ffr%2FEpsonPerfectionV600Photo.html&usg=AOvVaw2WdRMnUzx0NlxPJDjYnSM5

So, my V330, which is below that, must be even worse?

It is a Nikon LS2000
The technique of the scanner is different because we expose the slide to project it onto the sensor. It is the slide holder that moves, not the analysis ramp, as is the case with a flatbed scanner.
That is why it only works with slides or strips of silver film. For mounted slides in frames, there is an automatic feeding system that I have never tested!

It should be available second-hand, but since it is old technology, it is likely that the lamp may be a bit worn out and that the colors could suffer. In fact, I should eventually look into this issue with mine.

Color negative management can be done through external software if it is not provided by the scanner... You can easily find tutorials to do it with Photoshop or others.

As for flatbed scanners... I have no idea about the V300... I do have one, but it's a large Epson A3 and it does not handle transparencies.

Thank you for your good advice and your time.
I noticed that you have your website which I went to visit.
I better understand your in-depth knowledge on the subject!

<underline>"That's why it only processes slides or film strips. For mounted slides in a tray, there is an automatic feeding system that I have never tested!"</underline>
If I understand correctly, the NIKON LS2000 also scans film negatives? However, it scans slides but rather without the trays?

Thank you, that's good to know.
Actually, I am preparing a book of some of my photos of the Mont-Saint Abbey where I worked for 17 years with thousands of digital shots but also film ones where I worked with Fuji slide film (if I remember correctly, Provia and Sensia, I believe). It turns out that I have 2 or 3 "gems" in film slides, which is why I want to digitize them.
The problem is:
What is the "real" level of quality in terms of sharpness when digitizing slides with my Perfection V330 Photo scanner?
From what you are telling me and what I've read, I shouldn't get my hopes up...
Well, for a book, the sizes won’t be very large since they need to fit in an A4 format book.
That said, it is very likely that once the book is out, I will hold an exhibition of my photos in 20x30 or 30x40 sizes (and there, digitizing with my V330 might give me unpleasant surprises!).
That's why I'm asking you these questions about your scanner.
As I mentioned, I have a budget of 200-300€ maximum if I consider getting a new scanner, possibly used.
I will keep you updated on the response from the Rennes customer service on Monday.
Best regards,

Good evening,
Here is their reply! And they took all this time!
Which does not tell me where the issue was...

Here are the results. They are actually almost better than the originals!

On another note, I called the authorized EPSON company in Rennes to find out which part was defective and needed to be replaced. The person didn’t seem willing to tell me, but when I mentioned that I had a second V330 and that maybe I could use it to replace the defective part, she said she would check with the technician and would get back to me this afternoon. Still no response, but I’m not counting on it too much...

Well no, I don’t have a second scanner. I said that to motivate them to give me the reason for the breakdown!
What you call the light source, is it the one behind where the arrow points?
If that's the case, I tried to disassemble that part a few days ago but turned back because it seemed too risky.
Is it then just a matter of changing the bulb???

Yes, I think he has a serious problem.
So I will have to get another one, an EPSON V600 or a V800 (but the latter is beyond my budget).

If I may, and you are not obliged to respond, here are 2 photos attached:
The 1st scanned with a V600 (€308) and the 2nd with a V800 (€764).
When zooming in, it's true that the V800 is a bit sharper, but for more than double the price, I'm not sure it's worth it?
EPSON V600


EPSON V800


As I mentioned earlier, this is for an A4 format book followed by a photo exhibition in 20x30 format or why not 30x40 (but the latter format may be too big for a decent quality photo).

I zoomed in at 200% on the two photos and placed them side by side to see below.
There is a slight difference between the two, but it seems to me that it is not sufficient to justify the purchase of a V800 for €764!


I presume that you are a photographer and much more technical than I am.
You mentioned earlier that for better photo quality, one should work in RAW or TIFF format. Even though my FUJI X-M1 allows me to work in RAW, I never use it!

I must confess that I mostly work in JPEG...
In fact, I used a SONY DSC-HX9V in 4:3 format at 16 MP for my photos of Mont-Saint-Michel a lot (because it was discreet and easy to put in my pocket at work but it only works in JPG) and a little with my NIKON FE in film.

I imagine that I don't have to worry too much about prints smaller than A4 for my book, but how can I know if a particular photo in the book will be viewable in terms of sharpness in 20x30 or 30x40 format for a photo exhibition? (sorry for my ignorance).
I ask you this question also because a professional photographer recently told me that you should NEVER work in JPG because it is a "destructive" format.
Here’s what he says:
<underline>"Compression creates little virtual squares in the image and chooses the average value of each square... The higher the JPG quality, the smaller the squares (and vice versa), it’s destructive compression.
And then comes an additional non-destructive compression by counting series of 0000 and 111111".</underline>
I won't bother you anymore, and thank you again.

For someone who is not a photographer, I find you quite knowledgeable.
In any case, more knowledgeable than me.
"However, when you work on your photos, you should no longer save them as JPG"

But if you only have JPEGs coming from your DSC-HX9V camera, how do you retouch the photo without damaging it???
Anyway, I always keep an original JPEG that I don’t touch. I only work with JPEG copies.

Well, for someone like me who loves photography, it’s still silly of me to take advantage of a format (I imagine it’s the equivalent in film of what’s called a negative).
I believe I’m not a technical person, but I tend to think that a camera with its billion pixels is not sufficient to capture a photo that "speaks" or that has a bit of "soul." There’s the person taking the photo with their sensitivity.
What beautiful photographs I have seen taken with a Brownie or those sepia photos by Eugène Atget.

Well, I think you’ve convinced me regarding the RAW format... I have software called RAW THERAPEE that I must have gotten either with my LUMIX FZ200 (which does RAW) or my FUJI X-M1 which also does RAW, or rather RAF.

P.S. I’ve almost always taken my photos in JPEG even when I had the choice of RAW. I guess I acted this way because it was more "convenient" for me. But I realize that when I process my JPEGs in JPEG VIEW or PiCASSA, the photo loses a lot...
After your last message, I understand better...
A HUGE THANK YOU FOR YOUR PATIENCE AND KNOWLEDGE.

I just hope that my sepia from Mont-Saint-Michel can be printed in 20x30 or 30x40 format...

I did indeed run a test with an original JPEG photo this morning:

A color photo taken in JPEG of 3.69 MB, processed in PICASSA to modify it to sepia and enhance the contrast, reduces to 3.38 MB...
This same photo of 3.38 MB processed in JPEGView for 3 additional modifications reduces to 1.33 MB!....
The result is hard to accept... Disappointing...

Can this software, to some extent, save my situation?
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjnxoq1pJHvAhUKBGMBHZk0BV4QFjADegQIAxAD&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.andybellphotography.com%2Fblog%2F2019%2F01%2F28%2Ftopaz-jpeg-to-raw-ai-first-looks%2F&usg=AOvVaw1ueZR9Fg0fDl4UqfNZgbyt

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwi4zd3uqZHvAhWsxIUKHcESDkUQFjAAegQICBAD&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.lartdelaphoto.fr%2Ftopaz-jpeg-to-raw-ai%2F&usg=AOvVaw3CmbIxdxmjht9mBrQkz3xD