If anyone knows how to get quality scans of your PSA cards using a Epson Perfection V39 please let me know. My scans are of low quality and really blurry.
Example front:
Example back:
Settings:
I don’t see any difference between the different modes (full automatic, office, home, professional) and the amount of resolution being used. Should’ve listened to Hypernova and just bought a 550 but I needed to be a cheapass lol
Short answer: you can’t
Long answer: there are 2 common types of flatbed scanning technologies, CIS and CCD scanners. One major difference is that CIS scanners are going to produce a blurry image unless the object is basically contacting the glass whereas CCD scanners have a much better field of depth. www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/artjan13/dw-scanner-type.html this page does a fantastic job showing the difference.
Basically every “3-in-1” style scanner/printer uses CIS, but this is rarely an issue since these are mostly used for scanning documents. For quality scans of graded cards, a CCD scanner is a necessity. Unfortunately it seems that the v39 is a CIS scanner which explains the issue
I was still working on the images to show up but already got the answer I needed lol, love it! Thanks for the info, any CCD scanner you would recommend?
Refer to this. If you want cheap, V33 & V37 should work just fine, but do note the light glares.
I would recommend against a scanner. I am definitely biased as I dabble in semi-professional photography, but as long as you have decent lighting, even a modern phone camera will be better than a scanner. <My biased opinion
FWIW I got a refurb V37 from ebay since you can’t get them new anymore and it had screwed up scan lines no matter what I did. Changing the settings only made them worse. I even copied the exact settings that working scanners had to no avail. I’ve seen at least 2 or 3 others on this forum with the same problems and best anyone can tell it’s a hardware issue. I never found a fix
www.elitefourum.com/t/im-about-to-lose-my-mind-help-on-v37-settings/28112/1
Plenty of people have had 100% success with the V37, but there’s also several of us who haven’t had them work out
Trial and error, my setting are in that link above but it still wont match exactly, tweak them until your happy with the outcome.
I would argue it depends on the goal. If you just want instagram photos, a phone camera is more than fine. If you’re looking for consistency and high-detail images, a scanner is the way to go.
Here is a scan from my v600 on default settings with no editing applied other than a rotate/crop. There’s no way I could achieve this with just my phone camera
The v600 looks good! It’s a little expensive but it would definitely be a good long-term investment. Personally, I’d be happy with the scans a v37 provides (at least the Blastoise one I saw of @prochaos) but I don’t like the fact you need to buy it refurbished with chances of it not working properly like @nish and apparently a couple others on here experienced.
I think I’ll buy a v37 if I can find one for a good price and if I can’t, or if the quality isn’t good enough I’ll just buy a v600 instead.
I was on the side of using a phone vs. a scanner for a long time, but recently got a V600 and am LOVING it. Mainly for, like you said, consistency + high level of detail. I think the biggest benefit is actually the amount of time saved compared to setting up for pictures.
That being said, I think you can get quite close with a phone. This is a picture I took on my phone (iPhone XS Max) with nothing more than window lighting and a piece of black foam:
It’s not quite the same as a scan, but I was always super happy with the results.
My V550 might be my favorite hobby investment of all time. No more phone camera, light box, black table, imgur. I’m sure you can find a clean CCD scanner for cheap.
That is definitely a very good scanned image. And a fair point that it depends on the goal.
Hello,
I’m interested in buying but I think I see a scratch on the holofoil in your scan. Can you please take a couple dozen more photos at different angles so that I can see the scratch clearly?
Thanks,
Typical eBayer
I’d push you towards the v550 or v600, the lower tier scanners have cheaper LED strips with exposed green sections that can cause some nasty reflections on certain cards.
That’s the one, yep
Awesome, thanks! Not too pricey and looks like great results!
So the Epson V550 is good for graded cards then? My parents for some reason have one of these stashed away in their basement.
Yes, the V550 is fantastic.
