Kodak PS80 scanner rainbow effect causes?
 

We have two Kodak photo scanners, a PS50 & a PS80. They scan photos perfectly. They're smooth and match the photos.

We've started to get a rainbow effect of the edge of the photos. This edge is the edge first fed in. It only happens in the first inch of the photo and the rest is scanned fine. What causes this and is there a way to fix this? I attached an example. The baby has been blacked out, but you can see the top of the photo and see what I'm talking about.

Kodak has stopped making these photo scanners and we cannot get any help from them. We also cannot install the program into another computer because of Kodak webpage that's needed after the program is installed. Kodak has removed this webpage from their site. When you install the program, it installs without a problem, but when you open it the first time, it goes to verify the program and you receive an error message because it cannot connect to it. It will then shut down. You cannot use the program because of this.

We went and bought an Epson ff-680w photo/document scanner and the scan quality is terrible compared. We've tried all different settings, but the scans are dots and not smooth scans. We have tried all different settings and they all create the dots up close and not smooth photos like the originals. Yes, we've tried all of the different dpi settings and all of the automatic settings, but nothing changes. Up close, all photos are tiny squares, not smooth images.

Is there another photo scanner that scans photos like the old Kodak PS scanners? We're having a hard time trying to figure out what our options are.

Thanks

That looks a bit like a light leak from somewhere given the arced shape of the bottom edge. As the photo feedds the light source becomes blocked.

Is it present with both scanners?

At one time they offered an option for phone activation in lieu of internet activation.

Has that gone away too?

(No one ever accused modern Kodak of business smarts. They developed Video8 and Digital imaging, but were so wedded to wet process photography they missed the bus.)

Agree, that looks like a light leak.

For an alternative, not sure if any other ADF scanners would be better than the Epson FastFoto, several have a higher DPI than the Kodaks, but not sure how good their color accuracy would be since they are primarily intended for document scanning. There is a photo scanner from Plustek (https://plustek.com/us/products/film...z300/index.php), but not with ADF, although it appears it would be faster than a flatbed scanner.

Do you have the negatives? Have you considered a film scanner?

Also, if you are looking for alternative software, you might check to see if Vuescan (https://www.hamrick.com/) supports the Kodak scanners. It would be worth sending an email to their support department, they are very responsive and might consider adding these it they are not already supported. Their software is very reasonably priced.

Canon LiDE series work great for photos, I have the CanoScan LiDE 600F scanner and produces amazing scans, You have to match the native scan resolution in software to avoid scaling artifacts. Just don't use flatbed scanners for slides and negatives, you get poor results, HD resolution at best.

I think Canon was the first to use RGB LED light source in the LiDE series instead of a white LED or even the ancient halogen tube, The results are amazing.

Definite light leak.

Honestly, no loss there. Kodak always made overpriced crappy scanners. These exact models were fast, not quality. Around 2010, due to the 08-09 recession, "Kodak" scanners didn't actually exist anymore, and it was some unknown UK company (Alaris) that bought the brand name, everything made in China now. (Kodak still exists, but as a chemical company, not photo anything.)

You're going for speed over quality. The output of "fast" scanners always sucks. I'm sure this is so you can scan gobs of customer photos in minutes, but it's not great output. At best, it's a quick/dirty scan to find images that need actual quality scans done.

Kodak had to exit photo altogether after bankruptcy. (I didn't even know they still exist until that out-of-nowhere stock short squeeze back in 2020. It went from $2 to $30 in days, then dropped to $5-10 days later, then slowly drifted to $3 in the past year. I'm sure it'll see $1 before it sees $30 again. Politics and insider trading were to blame, and it never received scrutiny.)

Of of the best scanning softwares, along with Silverfast. I rarely use OEM.

I was never impressed with Canon scanners. I think they're now "one of the best" because so many companies left the scanning business, such as Nikon, and others companies from the 90s/00s that I don't even remember the names of off-hand. Epson is still here, still great. I don't recall how long Fuji has made scanners, nor sold in North America (probably much longer in Japan).

The Epson V600 was an exception to the rule. Other Epsons may be as well, in fact probably are.

An interesting review at
https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/kodak-...ng-system-ps50

Looks like it was marketed to photo stores to do rapid scanning of customer's snap shots. The specification focus appears to be automatic scanning of 4x6 snap shots. (IMO a market that generally does not place quality as the first priority, or require high resolution >600 dpi scanning. The #1 concern is often fast turnaround with minimal effort required by operators with minimal user training required.) It has no support for scanning negatives or slides.

It was TWAIN-based so it would seem there should be third parts software that can talk to it but the installed base may not have been large enough to warrant third party interest.

Given that the review dates to 7.5 years ago, and it supported Windows 10, the product was likely discontinued not all that long ago and there still should be some support from Alaris for it. It is still listed in an October 2022 Alaris publication.
https://www.alarisworld.com/-/media/...umablespdf.pdf

But my impression is there is no support, at least in the USA so it may well be an orphaned product at this time.

We have tried multiple scanners, but non scan with as high a quality as the Kodaks. Is there a way to fix it? I've tried many different cleaning steps, but none have worked.

I did find that if the edge fed in is light, there is no rainbow, if it's dark, there is. The problem with that is that not all photos have a light edge, plus extra rotating after.

We scan hundreds of photos a day, or used to. Trying to find another scanner that scans as good.

Is that to say that photos with a white border scan OK?

What is the width of the rainbow (from the edge of the print paper (not edge of the image)?
How wide a border is needed to mask the rainbow?
Does having room lights on or off make a difference?

Sounds as if a piece that masks a light source until the photo has feed part way into scanner active area is missing from the scanner.

Modern automatic feed are not high quality nowadays, They are 600dpi at best, don't waste your time on looking for one, Flatbed ones are better in terms of native resolution. Time to hunt for another Kodak automatic feed one, you maybe lucky finding one in a good working condition.

On the software side, you don't have to use Kodak's software, there are 3rd party software but require some getting use to.

Here's the Answer
 

Well, I finally got to talk with a man from Kodak and get a full answer. All other Kodak employees just wanted off the phone, didn’t know the answer, didn’t care,… PS50/PS80 was discontinued, end of story.

He told me they stopped all photo scanners because of the price, repair price & insurance price. They were losing money with all the scanners being sent in for basic repairs. Yes, the people had paid for the insurance, but the insurance price didn’t cover the actual cost and time it took to repair the scanners sent in. That’s why they stopped all photo scanners. They were basically losing money. Their scanners were much more expensive because of the scan quality, but backfired with basic repairs.

I understand the quality difference. Scanning one photo on a flatbed is much better, no matter what, but if you're scanning multiple rolls of old prints to save, that's where the Kodak scanner works.

Anyway, we still have the PS80 and he explained that it was one repair that was often sent in. The rainbow effect is caused by the front scan light that’s inside the scanner. It needs to be realigned and you must have the specific instructions (special screwdriver) to take apart the scanner, reset/replace the light bar and then put back together. That’s why you’re forced to buy insurance. You need the actual instructions to take apart the scanner, fix and then put back together. The instructions sent with the scanner and that you can download are the basic instructions. That's why they make their scanners like a puzzle. They also don’t offer the parts needed for the repair, unless you have a license for it. Fujitsu does the same.

We've tried new Cannon, Fujitsu, Epson,… scanners that scan "Photos and Documents", but the quality is terrible. Grainy and not smooth.

I'm just going to try and find a Kodak repair store that has the information and can do it without the need for any special parts.

:depressed: :screwy: