Scanner Maintenance

[Geckorian]

Anybody took apart your scanner to clean the underside of the glass b4? Not sure how this come about but there seems to be dust/mold there :sweat:

 

[kitkat]

Anybody took apart your scanner to clean the underside of the glass b4? Not sure how this come about but there seems to be dust/mold there :sweat:

I used to work for the scanner production. pls be cautious. There are calibration point in the housing of the scanner during the boot-up of the firmware. Once it is misalign, your driver will have some difficulty in getting the calibration point, and it will affect the overall scanning quality.

A little dust will not "kill" most of the time for normal usage.

 

[ortega]

if you take it apart, you will notice that the glass is held by double sided tape.

 

[Ian]

Removal of the glass depends entirely on the model and brand of the flatbed scanner. Cheaper Canon scanners have glass that can't be removed without a serious effort as I found out recently at a friends house. Higher quality flatbed scanners aimed at the professional market usually have glass that can be removed without too much fuss and cleaned properly.

If in doubt send the scanner in to be serviced, but if it's a 100 buck unit just toss it in the bin!

Ian

 

[Geckorian]

Thanks all! Guess I'll have to live with it till I get a new one then :complain:

 

[synapseman]

I'm wondering what to do with my Epson 2580 also. It's quite new, and there's a spot of mould on the underside! Before that, already got some fogging.

Irritating.

 

[PhotoTime]

I should have read this thread before I clean up the inner side of the glass. I opened once quite long ago, and recently I open again. Scanning normal document seems OK, but when come to scan negative (MF), the image is very grainy, and lights then to fall off at the side. Is there anyway for us to do calibration by ourselves? BTW, I am using Epson 1200U, so it is an old scanner, and not worth to send in for service (I think the service cost will be very exp)

 

[kitkat]

I should have read this thread before I clean up the inner side of the glass. I opened once quite long ago, and recently I open again. Scanning normal document seems OK, but when come to scan negative (MF), the image is very grainy, and lights then to fall off at the side. Is there anyway for us to do calibration by ourselves? BTW, I am using Epson 1200U, so it is an old scanner, and not worth to send in for service (I think the service cost will be very exp)

Hi,

It will be difficult (not impossible) to do calibration yourself as the upper housing of the scanner may contains calibration point for the initialization (during rebooting for the scanner). You may have shifted this position point.

Just take a look at 1200U , did u move off any white strip that is at the glass ? There may be a black dot hidden at the edge of the housing which may be damage through cleaning.

 

[Geckorian]

I should have read this thread before I clean up the inner side of the glass. I opened once quite long ago, and recently I open again. Scanning normal document seems OK, but when come to scan negative (MF), the image is very grainy, and lights then to fall off at the side. Is there anyway for us to do calibration by ourselves? BTW, I am using Epson 1200U, so it is an old scanner, and not worth to send in for service (I think the service cost will be very exp)

Sorry to hear that. Wah your scanner even older than mine

 

[PhotoTime]

Hi,

It will be difficult (not impossible) to do calibration yourself as the upper housing of the scanner may contains calibration point for the initialization (during rebooting for the scanner). You may have shifted this position point.

Just take a look at 1200U , did u move off any white strip that is at the glass ? There may be a black dot hidden at the edge of the housing which may be damage through cleaning.

No, I do not remember removing any things from inside of the scanner. I think the white strip is still intact. If it is still around, does that mean that I need to align the lamp to align with the black dot?

 

[PhotoTime]

Sorry to hear that. Wah your scanner even older than mine

Yup, I got this scanner, thinking I can scan my slide into my computer and doing some printout myself. But after scanning several slides, I find the image is not sharp, and after enlarging to 4R, the image is just unbearable. In the end, I gave up scanning.

Recently, I cleaned the scanner, wishing to scan my wedding photos (MF) negative, and realised that the image is even worst than before.

 

[fastshot]

To get quality results from film scanning, I should use a dedicated film scanner. Those flat beds just don't have the good enough level of performance for film scanning. Flat beds are fine for occasional scanning of printed materials. In fact I find flat beds are a compromise at best.
For films - use film scanners (Minolta, Nikon, Canon)
For printed materials - use document scanner with document feeder (Fujitsu is great)
I have all 3 types and the flat bed is the least useful.

 

[PhotoTime]

To get quality results from film scanning, I should use a dedicated film scanner. Those flat beds just don't have the good enough level of performance for film scanning. Flat beds are fine for occasional scanning of printed materials. In fact I find flat beds are a compromise at best.
For films - use film scanners (Minolta, Nikon, Canon)
For printed materials - use document scanner with document feeder (Fujitsu is great)
I have all 3 types and the flat bed is the least useful.

I agreed. But I do not have high end dedicated film scanner to scan MF film, and I heard that flatbed scanner is a good substitute for scanning MF film. So I attempt to scan the MF film using my flatbed scanner, but didn't realised that it is not functioning well until I see the result.

 

[fastshot]

I agreed. But I do not have high end dedicated film scanner to scan MF film, and I heard that flatbed scanner is a good substitute for scanning MF film. So I attempt to scan the MF film using my flatbed scanner, but didn't realised that it is not functioning well until I see the result.

Unfortunately, there is no cheap MF scanner. My Minolta Multi Scan Pro cost me S$4000 (if I remember correctly) and is considered an "affordable" scanner compared to the high end stuff.

 

[kanni]

i bear to be different... if u look at the flatbed scanner in the market, u will realise that they are closing their gap with the delicated film scanners. Take for examples epson 4870 and canon canoscan 9960F

The image quality is superb.

I OT liao
For the fog or mold that u saw in ur document glass. It is due to high humidity environment. May be u check the operating condition offered by the manufacturer (in ur manual). Is ur room very humid?

I think u can open the housing upper and clean the mold. But remember not to use alcohol. It will fog ur glass. Use a clean silk cloth. AND in a less dusty room(air con room). Otherwise, the dust may go in and cause calibration error.

As for the alignment issue, I think it will be ok if you do not remove anything from the housing upper and do not have dust covering the detection hole.:sweatsm:

 

[PhotoTime]

Hi,

Just an update to a old thread, in case somebody finds that the glass panel of the flatbed scanner has fungus or foggy.

I am using the Epson 1200U Photo, an old scanner. I do not know how the other scanner works (I do not open and I do not have other scanners for me to explore), but I think that they should be working on the same principle. I.e. The CCD or the scan head is moving with the lamps.

Upon open up the housing, you will the scan head, the black box.

As long as you do not open the CCD, you are save. For my case, although my glass panel is clean, the scanned image is still very poor, so I have to investigate further. I opened up the blackbox, discovered the set of mirrors. The mirror are glued to box, and so, there isn't any risk of changing the angle of mirrors. After all, my mirror is clean, and the front element lens is also clean.

I open the back of the blackbox, and discovered the rear lens element and the CCD.

My rear lens element is foggy. The tedious part is after cleaning, and fixing back the the CCD, you will need to do alignment of the CCD. I am lucky enough to get the right alignment in around 2 times. Afterall, the position is controlled by the screw location, so you can't be too far away, and then, check the preview to see whether is the scan OK. If it is not OK, you will than need to use some imagination and some basic lens theory in Physics (or Photography) to do the alignment of the CCD.

Please bear in mind that I do not bear any responsibility if you open your scanner and spoilt your scanner, as what I described is just what I have done on my scanner. It may not be applicable to your scanner. Do remember that if you open the scanner, you will void the warranty, and you are opening on your own risk.

P.s. Can someone tells me how to show picture in the thread instead of having a URL?

 

[smtan24]

Anybody took apart your scanner to clean the underside of the glass b4? Not sure how this come about but there seems to be dust/mold there :sweat:

I cleaned my Epson 1260 photo before. There were some stains on the glass and one of it was effecting my scan. Use regular lens cleaning solution and put back the scanner. Getting cleaner image after the cleaning.:thumbsup:

 

[Geckorian]

Hi,

Just an update to a old thread, in case somebody finds that the glass panel of the flatbed scanner has fungus or foggy.

I am using the Epson 1200U Photo, an old scanner. I do not know how the other scanner works (I do not open and I do not have other scanners for me to explore), but I think that they should be working on the same principle. I.e. The CCD or the scan head is moving with the lamps.

Upon open up the housing, you will the scan head, the black box.

As long as you do not open the CCD, you are save. For my case, although my glass panel is clean, the scanned image is still very poor, so I have to investigate further. I opened up the blackbox, discovered the set of mirrors. The mirror are glued to box, and so, there isn't any risk of changing the angle of mirrors. After all, my mirror is clean, and the front element lens is also clean.

I open the back of the blackbox, and discovered the rear lens element and the CCD.

My rear lens element is foggy. The tedious part is after cleaning, and fixing back the the CCD, you will need to do alignment of the CCD. I am lucky enough to get the right alignment in around 2 times. Afterall, the position is controlled by the screw location, so you can't be too far away, and then, check the preview to see whether is the scan OK. If it is not OK, you will than need to use some imagination and some basic lens theory in Physics (or Photography) to do the alignment of the CCD.

Please bear in mind that I do not bear any responsibility if you open your scanner and spoilt your scanner, as what I described is just what I have done on my scanner. It may not be applicable to your scanner. Do remember that if you open the scanner, you will void the warranty, and you are opening on your own risk.

P.s. Can someone tells me how to show picture in the thread instead of having a URL?

Sounds like a weekend job PhotoTime but great guide nevertheless~:thumbsup:

Yahoo prolly do not allow hotlinking of images, so you will need an image server dat does. Eg. imageshack, photobucket or clubsnap member's gallery.

 

[PhotoTime]

Thanks, Geckorian. I just do not want to throw away the scanner, as the scanner motor,and whole scanner seems to be working fine.

I actually wanted to paste the picture in the thread, do you know how? Or only certain people can do it?

 

[Geckorian]

Thanks, Geckorian. I just do not want to throw away the scanner, as the scanner motor,and whole scanner seems to be working fine.

I actually wanted to paste the picture in the thread, do you know how? Or only certain people can do it?

Anybody can include images in their post. Other then the hotlinking issue I've highlighted earlier, all you need to do is to click on the Insert Image icon

. Simply paste the image's URL as prompted.

Eg.