What a difference a clean scanner makes !

[reno77]

I was wondering why my Nikon coolscan kept bleeding colors at the edges. Found out from here that its because of a dirty mirror.

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=004Kig


Before Cleaning

After Cleaning

 

[glchua]

I own a coolscan too, recently posted a question here on care of the scanner and nobody replied:
http://forums.clubsnap.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=34876

How do you clean the mirror? You followed the instructions on Photo.net?

 

[reno77]

I followed what Charles Miller said in 1) and 2) to bring the mirror to the front of the scanner. Cleaned the mirror by blowing the dust away using a normal lens blower, then use some cotton buds wetted with lens cleaning fluid to gently clean the mirror and the front portion of the lens. You'll need a torchlight to see if there is any dust particles on the mirror. The back part of the lens can only be cleaned by disassembling quite a bit of the scanner.

( http://home.cogeco.ca/~camera911/ls2000.html )

I was trying to do that but there are 2 small black screws on the metal casing which are hard to remove.

I'm going to keep my printer covered in a plastic bag from now on seeing that the mirror is not protected at all and dust WILL fall on it.

PS: The mirrors are silvered on the front so use as little force as possible when cleaning them. The cleaning technique given by Leif Goodwin seems the best.

 

[thamwk]

Nikon Singapore quoted me $150-$300 for cleaning and servicing. Don't think it's worth to pay for the service. Will try the method during the weeked. So far after opening up the scanner and perform the cleanning, any reoccurence of the problem?