Thanks Geoff F.
I always use "Professional Mode", and usually tweak the histogram settings, which automatically exits you from "full auto exposure" mode.
Once I've done any initial tweak on the preview scan, I then do the full scan - I've settled on 48bit depth, 4800dpi, as these settings allow for significant post scan cropping whilst still maintaining viable print sizing. - (Easily allows for A3 printing).
The final scans usually end up at around 6500 x 3900 pixels, at an average of 3MB, before any post scan cropping or image resizing.
I'm quite comfortable with the various scanner softaware options available for tweaking of the actual scan, (I'm using latest Vista drivers downloaded from Epson), and am generally pretty happy about what I can do in Paintshop Pro or Elements to play around with the final image. It is just the "soft" focussing issue that I'm not properly satisfied with.
I've uploaded these two images to give you an idea of what I am getting directly off the scanner. These are straight scans, with no post scan tweaking (warts and all). The only thing that I've done is resize to 1275 pixels wide to satisfy requirements for WAB's image archive.
Am I being too optimistic on what I should be expecting from this type of scanner?
Once again, thanks for your feedback - much appreciated.
Regards
Mike.