Just thought I'd post an example of Digital Ice capabilities.
What's nice about having this "optional" feature is that you can scan twice, with and without the ice, and use the best parts from each scan.
This is straight from the scanner (no adjustments).

Thanks for posting this. I've been wanting samples of ICE's work on one of those old textured prints. Got one of those handy?

I presume this was an Epson 4870 scanner? I have one on my "to get" list but am forbidden to acquire anything before the holidays. I don't have many old, torn photos, but I sure have a bunch of 35mm transparencies that I'd like to convert to digital for printing. It works magic on dust particles.

Vikki:

Could you try scanning an old diamond/honeycomb textured print and posting the with/without ICE results? I'm really interested in seeing this.

Doug, I'll hunt around this weekend to find one I can experiment with.

I was experimenting with my new Epson 4870 earilier tonight so I thought I would share the results.

This picture of my mom has a very noticible honeycomb texture. Other than that there isn't much damage. So when I used ICE it messed up her features. But it may give you an idea of what it can do. Both were scanned at 300dpi, but without any additional features (such as color, etc.)

For the second set of pictures I used the descreening filter: the first one I used the "general" setting, and the second the "fine print" setting.

The third is a close up of each of the four scans.

Although I am having fun with my new scanner, I still have a lot to learn. For example, I have no idea what to do with the other software (SilverFast) that came with the scanner. Anyone know the pros and cons of SilverFast vs. the Epson software?

After reading some great review of SilverFast here at RetouchPro I decided to give it a try....I'll just post the close ups of the results.

The descreening filter seemed to work better than on the Epson software. The ICE did about the same? The color is different but I didn't change any settings. I'll have to do some more messing about to see how to best get rid of the honeycomb.

Several people mentioned scanning at an angle. I assume they mean just placing the photo on the scanner bed at an angle? I'd like to try every means possible to make this pic as nice as possible.

Thank you for posting those. It's a shame what it did to her face. Are there controls for that?

SilverFast is handy for scanning film, in that it has presets for several films (works much like profiles). There is a QT video with instructions on how to utilize the SilverFast software.
I'm still experimenting myself. I'm having a difficult time scanning some negatives. I have prints to match to, and I can't get a match with the scans. I'm astounded by the amount of dust and crud on these new negatives, and disappointed that I can't match the prints. I'm pretty sure my expectations are too high, and that part of the problem is that I'm not familiar with the software settings.
I'm surprised at the lousy results you got with the digital ice, but then again, it's really great for removing cracks (such as my earlier post) and not really meant for texture. There is a dust and scratches feature, but it's basically the same as Photoshop's.
More later, gotta run.

Doug, there is apparently no control over using ICE...you either use it or you don't. I did notice that SilverFast has a masking mode but only when using the dust and scratches feature. I did read that if you use ICE on a picture without damage it will "find" some to repair...apparently high contrast areas?

Vicki, I tried scanning negatives yesterday with less than stellar results. They were washed out and needed major color correction. I just tried again using the film "profiles" in SilverFast and it is a major improvement. I doubt it is a match to the print but I'm happy it doesn't look like my tries yesterday!