Experience with Restoration & Epson Digital Ice?

[blue dog]

I am using an Epson 4490 to scan 100's of antique B&W negatives. Has anyone found any useful application of their Digital Ice feature for this type of photos? In my experience it takes FOREVER and the results are far, far worse than without using it.

[Doug Nelson]

I have no first-hand experience, but there are other posts here voicing disappointment with ICE for flatbeds. It uses a different technology than the slide-scanner version, which has a great reputation.

[BillFrey]

I bought the 4990 and was very disappointed with ICE. I bought it for restorations, tested it for days and never used it again. I turn off all the scanner software's settings and do the work in photoshop.

[duwayne]

I have been using an Epson 4990 for about 1 1/2 years. The digital ICE technology was designed for film scanning and works very well for 35mm slides and film negatives (especially medium format film). It was never intended to be used for reflective scanning (of prints). While Epson implemented ICE for reflective scans, I have not yet found a use for it.

[BillFrey]

Hi duwayne,

I've been scanning in my family's 1930's and 40's film negatives. I'll give it another try since you said it works well. Perhaps I only tested on reflective material... it was a year ago and now I'm not positive if I tested on both the film and print.

Thanks

[xvvvz]

ICE only works on the chromogenic black and white films (think C41 and E6 film processing). It will not work with traditional BW film because the silver grains are not invisible to the IR light during the second scan, so ICE tries to correct what it percieves as "errors." You will find the same problem occurs with most Kodachrome slides that you try to scan with ICE.

Doug