Epson v550 Thrown back at bestbuy for false advertising.
 

Im so mad! the box advertised scanning at 6400x9600 dpi at a bitdepth of 48.
bought it to replace my old scanner bought 15 years ago by hp that does 1200dpi scans.

got it home, installed it all and hooked it up.
put in my Late mothers 8x11 painting, automatic scan, 300 dpi....
ok lets go to advanced settings.
there it is 6400, wait 12800 dpi scans available? WooHoo!!

start scan at 12800 dpi
Epson Error: Scan size too large. Reduce scan area.. ←What?
ᅟI have 4 Terabytes of free space and 64gb of ram!
ᅟfine ok, whatever lets try a lower dpi.

start scan at 6400 dpi
Epson Error: Scan size too large. Reduce scan area.. ←What Again??

start scan at 4800 dpiᅟᅟᅟᅟᅟᅟᅟᅟᅟᅟᅟᅟᅟᅟᅟᅟ ←max for other scanners out today so it better..
Epson Error: Scan size too large. Reduce scan area..ᅟ←!$&$@#

start scan at 2400 dpi
Epson Error: Scan size too large. Reduce scan area..ᅟ← epson v550 is turning out to be CRAP.

start scan at 1200 dpiᅟᅟᅟᅟᅟᅟᅟᅟᅟᅟᅟᅟᅟᅟᅟᅟ ←my 15 year old printer/scanner/fax officejet dpi.
Epson Error: Scan size too large. Reduce scan area..ᅟ←!$&$@#@#$^ the &⋆^(&&@ god #%!@ #$#^⋆

start scan at 600 dpiᅟᅟ← .......
Scan complete. Complete garbage. Tore the v550 out. threw it back in the box, and physicly threw it at best but customer service.

does anyone know of any printer/scanners or dedicated scaners that can and HAVE specifically HAVE scanned an 8x11 @48 bit depth, at >2400 dpi? 4800 maybe? 6400 would be nice. the larger dpi the better. But specs on the box and on websites DON'T COUNT Epson flat out lied and was only as good as a 15 year old scanner printer model by HP. so we cant go by specs. actual successful output, not theoretical plausibility.

My mom has passed on, while working on a big "Lord of the Rings" fanfic novel. she did 60+ paintings for it too on 8x11 with brushes that sometimes had no more then 1 Hair for the paint... i want to scan them at the highest dpi possible on earth, and make wall posters out of them eventually. Hardware spec.boasting has left me quite jaded. Please help me figure out how to scan/what model i need of scanner, to scan these at a huge dpi so i can enlarge them for custom/professional printing without notable pixelation later.

I have the Perfection v600 (next model up). Pretty sure it scanned a full page at 1200dpi without a problem. I haven't tested higher as most print material doesn't benefit from it. The higher resolutions are mostly for detailed slide and negative scanning.

During the course of my work I've used the Epson Perfection V700 and I recently purchased the V800. You should avoid using the 12800 dpi mode because it will output a file that is interpolated. 6400 dpi is more than sufficient for archival scanning.

Regarding the scan area problem you're facing, what settings are you using in the Epson Scan software? If I had to guess there is a problem with the type and size of the document that the software thinks you want to scan. Can you attach an image of your current settings in Epson Scan?

epson scam
 

As my OP states, i returned the unit after extensivly trying to scan the surface of glass. so i cant get for you more pic's and screen caps, as the unit and its software has been uninstalled.

the document areas indicate 8x10 up to A3 but if you use the border selection to make a scan of anything in those sizes. (in fact even selections larger then 6 by 8 on the scanner bed apply to this) then you can not select any resolution over 1200dpi at 48bit color. at all.

this is not a user error. as went over every option from the startup of the software, to the conclusion, in different ways for over 4 hours. averaging 3 attempts per minuet. there is just literally no way with the v550 to scan anything other then 'slides' at resolutions above 1200dpi @48bit. short of third party software, a hack, or some patch from Epson that isn't out yet. Because i downloaded the most recent driver-software kit from Epson directly rather then using the driver disk. and during instillation i was asked is this for personal professional or custom. i tried picking each of the 3 install options and made the install set for all-users.

what more could i have done? ill tell you. Bought a better scanner from a company who doesn't bait and switch you with whats inside the box.

Until i see an A3 sized document scanned at 6400dpi @48bit i wont believe Epson in particular can do it. it's a scam for film slides only.

You've fallen into the marketing trap of scanners. Scan resolution isn't an outright lie, but certainly exaggerated to the hilt. It's been years since I've used a scanner for anything critical. But there's a huge difference between hardware and software resolution.

In a nutshell, hardware resolution is the finite number of steps a scanning mechanism can make (say 1200) horizontally, by the number of scanning elements on the scan bar (say 600). So the hardware resolution would be 1200x600 (I may have the horizontal and vertical flipped) but the optical (non-interpolated) may be much higher.

Also, unless you get into the higher end scanners $$$$+, the resolution may be accurate edge to edge, corner to corner.

I used to have cheap A3 scanner that did fine up to letter size, but anything larger would blur at the edges. I'd do large scans in pieces and merge them together in Photoshop.

If you really want professional level scans, you'll have to take it a pro shop as there's nothing in the consumer level price range, say <$800-$1000 what will do your Mom's paintings justice.

Here's an interesting article about finding the optimum scan resolution for the Epson V700, V750, V800 or V850 scanners. Note that he settled in at 2400 or 3200dpi as the optimum.

http://www.sebastian-schlueter.com/b...epson-scanners