Minolta Dimage Dual Scan IV -- Initial Impressions

[harry_akiyoshi]

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.

[hyunyu]

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.

[harry_akiyoshi]

No, I haven't noticed any banding like that.

[wildwoodgallery]

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

[steven_clark]

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.

[babette_ross]

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.

[johan berg]

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.