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Stylistically, I'd call the Minolta boring rather than
ugly but it's made out of metal whereas the Polaroid is at least partially
plastic. The Minolta is also A LOT smaller and quieter than the
Polaroid. Neither effect scan quality but they do make living with the
scanner easier.
Also,
the Minolta's non-glass carrier does a better job with curled film than the
Polaroid's due to the way it holds the film. The downside to the carrier
is that you can only scan one shot on a strip at a time.
Anyway, I'm really happy with the
Minolta.
Paul Wilson
Roger, thank you for your
reflexions,
you say that the Pola 120 "it is one of the best
medium format film scanners the average photographer can currently afford" -
indeed there are basically no more than 3 affordable MF scanners at all: The
Nikon, the SS120 and the Minolta Multi Pro. I agree that the Nikon is
uninteresting because of the banding problem, but I just don´t like the idea
that you get reflexions on the scans of a 3000$scanner - this is a
problem not because it is so difficult to avoid, but simply because it is
poorly thought out or constructed. And that would make a 53mm scanner out of a
56mm one - maybe I am considering it more dramatical than it actually is, but
I don´t like basic problems due to a poor design in expensive machines...
Now you say that you never noticed that - which
is at least a good sign! I wait for Barbaras feedback.
My reflexion is simple: So far I have only
heard and read excellent reviews and opinions about the Minolta (unlike the
LS-8000): It is a little bit cheaper than the Polaroid in Germany, has
ICE for Color negs, a higher resolution for 35mm, glass carriers for badly
curled film and is also supported by VueScan. In one respect the
Polaroid wins very clearly: its much more stylish and nice to look at - the
minolta is an horribly ugly plastic box! In other words: My feeling says
Polaroid, my mind says "Minolta" :-)
But I won´t buy before January anyway - warranty
regulations will change in Germany and lead to a much longer warranty from
01/01/2002 on.
greetings Bernhard
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2001 9:51
AM
Subject: Re: filmscanners: SS120:
Reflections on edge of neg
From everything I've read about the
Polaroid SprintScan 120, and from my own experience, it is one of the best
medium format film scanners the average photographer can currently afford.
It would be a shame for you to pass up such a fine scanner based
solely on this argument. I've never noticed any reflections while
scanning, but then I would never have a reason to try to crop that close to
the edge of the film for the type of work that I do (fashion and glamour of
people). You have to remember that few medium format shooters frame as
tightly as they would if shooting 35 mm. Don't bite off your nose to
spite your face. If a scanner does a nearly perfect job of scanning 95
percent of the film frame (which is probably about the area of coverage you
saw in the viewfinder when you took the photograph, anyway), why would you
want a different scanner that might cause banding, has poor software, causes
60 p! ercent of the image to be out of focus, has noise in the shadow areas,
has less resolution, or has some other major shortcoming. I don't know
anything about the Minolta Pro; it might be a fine scanner. But the
SS120 has a solid reputation and I wouldn't eliminate it from contention
unless you had a more significant reason.
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