A short while ago I
bought an Epson Perfection 1650 Photo flatbed scanner. The price was right for a 1600 dpi
scanner that also has a light source built into the cover and enables one to
scan slides/negatives. I needed a
decent flatbed and also liked the idea of this being an interim step to a film
scanner such as the Nikon Coolscan 4000 or the Polaroid SS4000, which will be
purchased “soon”, certainly before he end of December if I choose Polaroid.
So here is the question: When I scan slides that are sharp (8X
loupe) the scans are not critically sharp (fuzzy) to some varying degrees.
Epson support said . . . “turn off the auto thumbnail feature
of the TWAIN because sometimes the scanner reads the slide holder and can not
get good focus on the slide. These
being done the scans are sharper BUT still nor critically sharp. If I turn off the TWAIN un-sharp mask
they are really fuzzy. The scans can
be sharpened in PS.
The entire scan is slightly
out of focus and it is consistent.
If I had a warped slide that was partially in focus I would say it is a
depth of field problem. But as the
entire area is out of focus I am not quite sure what is causing it? I am scanning Velvia at between 300 to
600 dpi.
Is this what I should
expect from this type of scanner?
Thank you . . . . John Rossi
