How to turn off "Grain Dissolver" in DiMage Scan Util?

[wildestseas]

<p>I recently got a Minolta Scan Elite 5400. I run Windows Server 2008 x64, and was able to make the scanner operational by installing the drivers included with Vuescan. When using Vuescan in demo mode, I am able to do a single pass 5400 dpi scan in about 90 seconds using Digital ICE. It works beautifully to remove the dust and scratches. When I enable both Digital ICE and "Grain Dissolver," (which diffuses the light source) it bumps up the scan time to around five minutes, with no worthwhile improvement in grain visibility.<br>

I'm trying to use Minolta's DiMage Scan Utility. It seems to work fine except for one annoying feature: it automatically turns on "Grain Dissolver" whenever ICE is enabled, thus making the whole process extremely slow. Is anyone aware of a workaround way to turn off Grain Dissolver while keeping ICE enabled?<br>

I would purchase Vuescan but it nearly always crashes when I have autofocus enabled on the scanner. I have tried multiple versions of Vuescan, re-installs, disabling antivirus software, etc, and I can't fix this hiccup. It crashes as the scanner tries to focus. <br>

So here I am, stuck between Minolta's DiMage software and their annoyingly slow and ineffective "Grain Dissolver," and Silverfast at its enormous price, hoping that there is a cheap workaround. </p>

<p>Any advice would be much appreciated. Thank you. </p>

[roger_smith4]

<p>I don't believe you can separate the grain dissolver from ICE when using the Minolta software as they were developed to work together. The grain dissolver is a hardware diffuser, by the way. Did you email Ed Hamrick about the Vuescan focus bug? If he can fix it your problem is solved.</p>

[lotuseaters]

<p>Jonathan, the Dimage Scan Utility has a preference pane for batch processing accessed via one of the buttons above the scan preview window. There you can set, among a bunch of other things, the preferred resolution and the amount of dust removal (ICE) as well as turn off the grain resolving feature.</p>

[mendel_leisk]

<p>Within the Dimage Scan Utility you can have Grain Dissolver, or Grain Dissolver plus ICE. You cannot have ICE alone. Minolta made a decision to only allow ICE with Grain Dissolver, and there is no work-around.</p>

<p>With Vuescan you can use that program's cleaning (note: it is not ICE), with Grain Dissolver on or off, your choice.</p>

<p>The grain dissolver does make a difference. I would suggest you try some with/without Grain Dissolver scans, and review. It is quite effective <em>and</em> lightens the load for ICE. It does impose a time penalty, but imho it is worth it. The Grain Dissolver is more-or-less indespensable for scanning Kocachrome with ICE: without it you <em>will</em> get artifacts.</p>

<p>Don't sell Grain Dissolver short: it's not flashy, but it is doing something very fundemental, and it's a net plus imho. As Roger noted: it's hardware, a frosted glass pane that swings in between the light source and the film. Very interesting concept.</p>

<p>I'd also suggest to do some comparison of Vuescan cleaning vs ICE. I sometimes use Vuescan with it's cleaning, but for fairly dirty film it was just not good enough for me. I do use Vuescan almost exclusively for silver emulsion b/w where ICE cannot be used anyway, I prefer it's interface.</p>

<p>I've posted a few samples in this thread, showing Scan Elite 5400 scans with: nothing, GD and GD+ICE, near the bottom of the thread:<br /><a href="006Uxf">http://www.photo.net/digital-darkroom-forum/006Uxf</a></p>

[lotuseaters]

<p>Hold on a minute, Mendel.. are you saying when the ICE button in Scan Utility's Custom Wizard is active, the Grain Dissolve button stays active too? When I pick ICE the GD button goes grey. I would have thought this means you're using ICE only? What's your average scanning time for a slide at 5400 dpi with ICE (lowest setting) turned on? I'm batch scanning four in roughly 18 minutes on an Intel Macbook - doesn't the use of GD take a lot more time?</p>

[mendel_leisk]

<p>The GD button goes grey when you're using ICE in Minotal Scan Utility because it's no longer an option: you are forced to use it. I believe it's doc'd. in the manual, but not sure. At any rate, you <em>are</em> using GD whenever you use ICE in MSU. But I'd use it even if it was optional, for what it's worth.</p>

<p>You can approximate ICE without GD in Vuescan, but it's not ICE, it's Vuescan's own cleaning software, using the same infrared data. With seriously dirty film it's not very good though.</p>

<p>The time per scan for color slides (using firewire) is around 5~6 minutes for me. That's with ICE/GD. Using Vuescan cleaning only, without GD, I think the times were around 4 minutes. But I would still use GD.</p>

[randall_pukalo]

<p>Grain Dissolver is actually a very useful and effective feature. It greatly reduces grain in color negatives. Slides scan well with l;ittle grain, so you may not see an effect there, but with negs there definitely is.<br>

Grain dissolver uses a light diffusion panel to reduce the grain and also minimize scratches and other defects. Only the Coolscan 9000 can come close in this respect, as it uses an LED based Light Pipe for diffusion.</p>

[wildestseas]

<p>Thank you all for the information. I suppose I will have to just settle with the slow speeds of the Minolta software. I suppose it's better than having to manually touch-up dust and scratches on each image. Only three hundred scans to go! Woot!<br>

Mendel: you've provided a fantastic illustration of GD. Thank you - it looks like it works fairly well. I've seen that third-party diffusion plates are becoming popular for the flatbeds too, so obviously people are seeing results. </p>