Re: filmscanners: Thoughts on Minolta Dimage Scan Dual II?

[Michael Schwager <mike@schwager.com>]

> I'm probably getting a film scanner next month.  I've tentatively settled
> on the Minolta Dimage Scan Dual II.  I just thought I'd check in with this
> list on this particular scanner, to see how well it's been received.

> My application is scanning 35mm negatives, mostly color.  What I like
> about the Dimage is:

I've got the original Minolta Dimage Scan Dual.  I like it.  It's not all 
that easy to work with- I gave to tweak Photoshop quite a bit to get good 
scans from slides- but compared to a regular scanner I think you will be 
amazed.  You get one big fat huge detailed picture!  Then you can trim it 
down or what have you... there's so much resolution to work with, that if 
you have used flatbed scanners I think you'd be really delighted.  My 
intention was to get this scanner, scan a bunch of film, then get rid of 
it.  But now I think I want to keep it just because the scans are so good. 
I no longer need to get double prints of photos!  Anything I need a print 
of, I'll just get it from the Minolta and print it on my color printer.

I don't know how much mine compares to the Scan Dual II, but I have not 
noticed any dark streaks.  If you'd like, I can put up one of my scans for 
you to look at... it's a big file, though.  Even at 65k colors it might be 
a few meg.  Let me know.

>  1) its price -- I really don't want to go much over $500.  I'm an
> amateur, and can't justify a whole lot more than this.  As a benchmark,
> the B&H price on this scanner is $460;
>
>  2) the USB connection.  I've had good luck with USB, and will probably be
> replacing my PC sometime within the next year, and I expect to have a
> shortage of slots for a SCSI adapter -- so I'm trying to move away from
> SCSI.
>
> An alternative scanner I'd identified was the Canon FS2710.  The price is
> the same neighborhood ($480 at B&H), but it's SCSI.

Sounds like some excellent reasoning.  The ICE on the Nikon may be nice,
but I dare say the scans from my dad's old (1955) Navy slides look pretty 
good... for the amatuer, the Minolta is really good- maybe even more than 
you need.  But then, the price is so great!  I would like to go with USB 
rather than SCSI, if only for convenience sake.  I think that's a good 
choice too (mine is SCSI).

> I note that a review of the Minolta on Epinions[1] complains about a dark
> streak showing up on scans, and I think I've seen some other comments to
> that effect.  Is that a common problem?

See above.  I haven't noticed it.
--
-Mike                                Mike@Schwager.com