[filmscanners] Re: Is Minolta's Scan dual II a good buy?

["Berry Ives" <yvesberia@earthlink.net>]

on 3/2/02 4:52 AM, Arthur Entlich at artistic-1@shaw.ca wrote:

> I suggest you might wish to read the archives on this and the
> scanner@leben.com list.
>
> The streaking problems are an unfortunate quality control defect that
> has appeared in numerous of these scanners, both the Elite II line and
> the Dual II line.
>
> If you get a good one, and I have no idea what the percentages are, but
> I have two so far that have the streaking problem, it is a good value.
> It's main two problems beyond the ones mentioned are that it tends to
> emphasize grain, dust dirt and defects, and the blue channel is noisy in
> shadow areas, leading to a green speckling.  This can be eliminated by
> using Vuescan (a $40 US program which his sold via the web) with its
> long pass option.
>
> The other problems I find with it are:
>
> The slide carrier is badly designed and makes it easy to put finger
> prints on them
>
> It is somewhat slow (and slower still with the Vuescan long scan option)
>
> It is very noisy (acoustically speaking) when it moves the carrier in
> and out.
>
> Otherwise, it is a good value scanner.  It is less noisy than the Canon
> FS2710, and appears to be sharper, it is slightly higher res (in terms
> of the CCD, 2820 dpi versus 2700).  It also has autofocusing and
> motorized manual focus which the Canon does not, as I recall. (I don't
> know offhand if the motorized manual focus is supported in Vuescan  or not).
>
> If the Minolta Dual II was offered with Vuescan, and had better quality
> control, I would call it one of the better "value" scanner on the market.
>
> The main differences between it and the Elite II (other than price
> difference, which is substantial, and I question if it is worth it
> unless you have badly damaged film) are:
>
> Elite has a IR channel and dICE (for dust and scratch defect reduction)
>
> Elite has an increased bit A/D conversion  (12 bit on the Dual and 14 on
> the Elite)
>
> Art
>
>
>
>
>
> ZhouRong Deng wrote:
>
>> I am planning to buy it base on the praise on its picture quality, but have
>> a bit concern about its build quality. I saw someone posting information
>> about streak and banding problems about it. I would like to see whether
>> anyone here sees any of these kind of problem on the Scan Dual II purchased
>> after June, 2001?
>>
>> How does it compare to Canon's FS2710?
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>> Eric
>>
If your film is curled, it is difficult to place correctly in the film
holder.  Flat film is easy.

The cancel button does not work (on the Mac software at least) if you want
to stop scanning.  It will continue through the entire strip on the
thumbnail scanning, and it can't be stopped in the middle of an individual
scan.  Not a big deal for me, but it's a bit frustrating when you are
looking at a cancel button that does not work.

Mine had to be sent back, but it was purchased prior to June, 2001.  No
problems since then, but dust has been a hassle even though I try to clean
the negs carefully.  Dust is probably worse than most places here in an arid
part of NM.  Makes me wonder if the ICE wouldn't be worthwhile here.

I can't say I've noticed any problem on my prints with blue channel noise.
For information, I am almost exclusively scanning negatives.  I get good
results printing to 240 dpi, (10.5 x 16") on an 1160 with Gen4 CIS.  Haven't
tried going to the largest possible:  12.75 x 18.75".

It's my first scanner, and since getting it back from Minolta I've been
pretty happy with it.  Good value.  I figure if I stick it out I may
eventually move on to something better with ICE.

Berry

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