Minolta Dimage Dual IV

[edgar_njari]

Can someone tell me, how does this scanner perform optically at 3200dpi?

 

Till now, I was using a Canon flatbed, which was really useless at

3200dpi, even at 2400dpi.

 

Is this Minolta any good? Can it be used for serious scanning at

3200dpi or at least 2400dpi?

How does it compare at 3200dpi to Canon film scanner (forgot its name)

or Minolta 5400 in terms of sharpness and noise?

[sheldonnalos]

I got one a few weeks and have been happy with it. I think it's more than adequate for critical work. I would suspect that you might get better performance with the Minolta 5400, but for the price I think the Scan Dual IV is the best value.

 

Here's a full res scan and crop from a 35mm Tri-X negative, shot handheld with a Leica M3 and 50mm summicron at f/5.6.

 

Hope this helps!

 

Sheldon<div></div>

[steven_clark]

You have to keep in mind that optically there's a world of difference between a flatbed and something like the SDIV.

[frank_a._bridges]

I have the MSCDIV and an Epson 3200 flatbed. There really is a world of difference in optical quality.

[edgar_njari]

Well judging by that crop, I think one can say that it really does resolve close to 3200dpi as oposed to flatbeds who hardly resolve half of their claimed optical resolution.

 

Can you make sharp (really sharp) 10x15 with this scanner without using too much USM?

 

And how does it scan slides? How's the dynamic range?

[mark_ryan2]

I use mine in color positive mode for B&W Tmax film. It seems to give better dynamic range,in that if I use the B&W neg mode, the histogram extends beyond the high and low. With Color Positive, it will usually capture most of the dynamic range, ie it won't run out the high and low limits. You can desaturate it in the Minolta software, or send it to the PS and invert it and desat it and correct it. I like it b/c to me it gets me closer to the negative as it should be viewed. After a while you see highlights and shadows in the negative.

 

How much are they now? Where else can you get a 12MB camera for a couple hundred bucks?

 

Mark