Print scanning problem - weird marks on the scans!

[Don Simon]

Er hi again, really sorry everyone for what will be my 3rd new thread today, I'm asking more than enough of you already, but I've just discovered this problem and don't know where to go for advice (except for the manufacturer, but that doesn't even bear thinking about).

I've been attempting to scan 6x4 prints with my new CanoScan 8400F flatbed scanner, and no matter what resolution I use and however many times I ask it to recalibrate, these marks appear on the scans... like on the top of this scan...

I know it's not the best quality pic (had to be compressed to upload it), but you can see what I mean about the marks. The same marks appear on the other scans I've done, and in the same place. I have tried cleaning the surface of the scanner's glass with a microfibre cloth and it seems to have made no difference. Any thoughts on what could be causing this? I'd be very very very very very grateful indeed if someone could help me solve this.

 

[Big Mike]

If they are appearing in the same place on different scans...I'd think that it's most likely something on the glass. Maybe on the inside of the unit.

 

[Don Simon]

Hi Mike, I thought that too - until I scanned an A4 piece of paper and found no marks of any kind on the scan. These marks seem to appear only on photos; specifically, they always appear on the "sky" in photos. This is what I find odd; the marks appear in roughly the same place but are not exactly identical, so I don't think it's marks on the glass. Often the scanner also refuses to acknowledge that the sky is blue, so I get scans which are more or less perfect except for the sky, which for some reason is white and has marks on it.

Update: I just attempted to scan a book cover which is black but with a gold-"embossed" title. The scanner didn't like that at all; in the scan it looks like the book is about 100 years old and the shiny gold is now a kind of murky mix of different colours. What the...

 

[Meysha]

That is so strange. Your scanner doesn't like blue - but splashes blue spots over your skies.

Is your scanner old or cheap? Sounds like it might be just breaking down and it can't handle the pressure anymore. nooooo.
What sort is it?

 

[Don Simon]

A Canon Canoscan 8400F - brand spanking new (bought it a month ago, set it up and tested it with newspapers, then put it back in the box again until today).
Cheap compared to professional scanners obviously, but I paid £130 which I think is just under $250 (and Amazon are selling it for £165).

I've found the solution... kinda. It scans photo prints without doing anything weird if I place them at least 1cm down from the top of the scanning plate; in other words I can align the photos up along the side but not along the top. It does actually say this at one point somewhere in the manual (but nowhere obvious; that would be too... obvious!). Still, what do you do if you want to scan an A4-size print (the size of the scanner plate)? Give up, presumably. Also, it seems odd given that the scanner's driver software offers the option to scan at for example 6"x4" or 5"x7" - it's impossible if you can't line up the print with the top of the scanning plate! Instead I have to scan full-page and then autocrop. Does this not sound a bit odd? :scratch: