harry_akiyoshi Posted February 20, 2004 Share Posted February 20, 2004 There have been a few questions about this scanner on the forum, so I thought I'd post my initial reactions: Optically, it's not bad. 3200 ppi on film isn't enough to lay down 300 ppi on a 13x19" print, but no one looks at 13x19s from five inches away. Color fidelity is good, and it does a good job of digging the shadows out of Velvia. The actual DMAX, although not the 4.8 Minolta claims, is surprising for a scanner so inexpensive ($280). There are, however, a few problems. First, the thing is as noisy as a modern washing machine (acoustically). It's also pretty noisy in the shadows (electronically). You can reduce shadow noise with multisampling up to 16x, which is a good idea but impractical as a general solution because of the vast amount of time it would take to scan a whole roll that way. It's surprisingly slow even without multisampling. The dust brush option doesn't seem to be worth messing with. It's not ICE by any stretch of the imagination. I keep my slides/negs scrupulously clean, so it hasn't mattered that much to me thus far. "Digital Grain Dissolver" is actually semi-effective in some cases, surprisingly, and doesn't seem to cause much loss in sharpness if not over-applied. I haven't messed with "Easy Scan" at all, but the TWAIN driver is good. Autofocus is reliable, and the manual focus system is the best I've seen. Installation was very straightforward, and it worked the fist time (Win XP). This scanner is a great value, offering unprecedented quality at this price point. It does actually resolve detail (if it's there in the original) to a full 3200 dpi, which is pretty damn good for something that costs less than $300. If you're so inclined, you can pair it with a good inkjet printer and make 13x19 prints that rival traditional wet-prints for sharpness and tonal scale. The disadvantages are that it's slow, made mostly of plastic, noisy, and lacks hardware dust-removal. Basically, this is the scanner to get for the very demanding user with more time than money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hyunyu Posted February 20, 2004 Share Posted February 20, 2004 Andrew, Thanks for the mini-review. I myself got the Scan Dual III for pretty cheap right before Christmas, and have been pretty happy with it. From comparing specs, there doesn't appear to be something on the Scan Dual IV that is a "must-have" over the III (3200ppi vs. 2820, 16x multisampling vs. 8x, Grain Dissolver). Like you noted, the big jump seems to be from those without ICE and those with. Have you noticed any one-pixel wide streaks along the axis of film holder movement? This is an intermittent problem I'm having with my Scan Dual III that no amount of warming up or re-initialization of the scanner (cntl-shift-I) solves. It's not really noticeable at 100% magnification, and when printed out it's not noticeable this side of a magnifying glass, but can be annoying. Thanks again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harry_akiyoshi Posted February 20, 2004 Author Share Posted February 20, 2004 No, I haven't noticed any banding like that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wildwoodgallery Posted February 20, 2004 Share Posted February 20, 2004 Good to hear some good news on this scanner. I ordered one but it is back ordered for 2-3 weeks. I wonder if Minolta is making some changes to correct any problems causing the delays. Rick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steven_clark Posted February 21, 2004 Share Posted February 21, 2004 I get banding on my SDIII fairly frequently, especially in Vuescan. It's less of a problem the shorter your exposure is, so slides work out a bit better than negs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
babette_ross Posted February 23, 2004 Share Posted February 23, 2004 I just got mine hooked up last night and so far im pretty happy with it although i miss vuescan. hopefully it will be compatable soon. I also want to add that the folks at Minolta Warrenty customer service were terriffic. I actually dropped it upon receipt and they fixed it up and sent it back to my great relief. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johan berg Posted February 25, 2004 Share Posted February 25, 2004 Andrew, How good is the multi sampling, does it remove most of the noise? I have seen some samples from this scanner that I found too noisy but if it is possible to get a good scan with the multisampling it migt still be worth considdering the scanner as it is a lot cheaper than the Nikon Coolscan V. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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