ME=marketing trick?

[maretzo]

I have just upgraded to AI-ME for my Epson V700.
First, the number of passes is limited to 2, not 4.
Second, I scanned the same negative, which has a good range of greys from dark shadow to white, 120 HP5, 16bit HDR, 2 passes at 3200 dpi. I could not see ANY difference with one pass.
So, is ME a marketing tool or did someone notice a sensible difference?
To make it worse, the 2 passes shows some artifacts along white edges (kind of white shadows).

[degrub]

try at 2400, then 4800 ppi. The scanner head is listed at 4800 ppi and you may be seeing some hardware interpolation caused issues.

Mis-registration of the pixels on the two passes usually causes the shadows that are particularly noticeable at high contrast edges. This can be from mechanical issues as well as software pixel alignment.

Yes is does work - it varies with the image though.