Minolta Dualscan IV - how does it compare......

  • Thread starter Thread starter Linus
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Linus

........how does it compare to other scanners like the Minoltra 5400 or Nikon
Coolscan 5000 or Nikon LS 50 ED ?

I could find many, good, reviews of its predecessor, the Minolta dualscan
III, but not proper, in-deep, reviews of the IV; just some reviews
resembling first impression or pre-view rather than proper reviews. Its
price is quite attractive, as weel its "on.paper" specifications... but how
does it behave in the real world?

Thank you for your help,
Linus
 
Linus said:
.......how does it compare to other scanners like the Minoltra 5400
or Nikon
Coolscan 5000 or Nikon LS 50 ED ?

I could find many, good, reviews of its predecessor, the Minolta
dualscan
III, but not proper, in-deep, reviews of the IV; just some reviews
resembling first impression or pre-view rather than proper reviews.
Its
price is quite attractive, as weel its "on.paper" specifications...
but how
does it behave in the real world?

Thank you for your help,
Linus
Click to expand...
Well, it lacks digital ICE, and if you consider doing a lot of color
you're going to miss this feature!

Also, it does not work well together with Vuescan, but then no
Minolta scanner seems to :((

As a 3200 dpi 35 mm color and B/W negative scanner, using the Minolta
software, it is just fine. Fast, stable, easy to use. If you have
Photoshop you can easily correct the color if needed, though its
color correction possibilities are good enough. It has an easy way to
produce 'RAW' scans for archiving which you can edit at a later time.
Batch processing is possible, but personally I prefer to do the scans
one by one, steering the focussing and the cropping, as well as the
color/contrast/etc as needed. You can save correction set-ups and
scan set-ups .

I have had no experience with slides.

I'm happy with it, though I would have preferred a 5400 :))))))

My two cents.

Regards, Alex
alexUNDERSCOREstolsATxs4allDOTnl
 
Linus said:
.......how does it compare to other scanners like the Minoltra 5400 or
Nikon
Coolscan 5000 or Nikon LS 50 ED ?

I could find many, good, reviews of its predecessor, the Minolta dualscan
III, but not proper, in-deep, reviews of the IV; just some reviews
resembling first impression or pre-view rather than proper reviews. Its
price is quite attractive, as weel its "on.paper" specifications... but
how
does it behave in the real world?

Thank you for your help,
Linus
Click to expand...
The Minolta Scandual IV is a good Film Scanner for the Price.
Scandual 4 does not have Digital ICE. Which means that you have to be
careful about cleaning your film before scanning.

For me it does a good job, in spite of its quirks.

The Scandual 4 has some strange quirks, Sometimes it just quits scanning in
the middle of scanning film. When it does that the only way to recover is to
unplug the power plug in the rear of the scanner. Close all software and
restart.

Some people have had problems installing the Software in Windows XP SP2. If
you download the latest software from the KonicaMinolta Web page, it is
better. Look for Version 1.0.1.

I do not think it really compares to Minolta 5400 or Nikon Coolscan 5000 or
Nikon LS 50 ED. All of those scanners are higher price and far more
features.

Wayne Fulton has some links to Scanner review sites.
http://www.scantips.com/scanlink.html#filmrev

Check out this review site.
http://www.imaging-resource.com/SCAN1.HTM
 
Linus said:
.......how does it compare to other scanners like the Minoltra 5400 or Nikon
Coolscan 5000 or Nikon LS 50 ED ?

I could find many, good, reviews of its predecessor, the Minolta dualscan
III, but not proper, in-deep, reviews of the IV; just some reviews
resembling first impression or pre-view rather than proper reviews. Its
price is quite attractive, as weel its "on.paper" specifications... but how
does it behave in the real world?

Thank you for your help,
Linus
Click to expand...
==========================================
Linus, I had the Dualscan IV for a few weeks and scanned a number of
rolls of color negatives and some slides. It scanned quickly, was
intuitive and easy to learn, and produced good results on CLEAN film.
OTOH, I ran into an insurmountable problem, dust and/or scratches on
some film. I thought I handled my film carefully and kept it in
archival preservers. More than 50% of my film turned out to be quite
dirty/dusty and the photoshop time required to clean it was quite
lengthy. I bought archival film cleaner, lint-free non-abrasive wipes,
and canned-air. After considerable time trying to clean the film before
scanning, the results were rarely good. Ergo, I returned it.

I bought the Minolta 5400 and have been using it for the last 3 or 4
months. I've scanned well over a 1000 color negatives, hundreds of
slides including some Kodachrome, and a few black and white negatives.
I am relatively happy with the results, although I wish it scanned
faster with ICE on. It blazes through scanning with ICE turned off in
about a minute, regardless of resolution. With ICE turned on, it might
take anywhere from 4 minutes to 8.5 minutes typically and could take 14
to 18 minutes if my software or USB connection or Firewire connection
are malfunctioning. Still, the Potoshop time savings due to ICE make it
well worth it and the extra resolution, multi-scan, and extra bit-depth
capabilities for important photos are very desireable.

Those are the only two scanners I'm familiar with. I never considered
the Coolscan 5000 for it's in another price league. The Coolscan V
(successor to the LS 50) is in the same price category.

Jerry C.
 
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