[filmscanners] Re: Having a hard time - requirements

["Arthur Entlich" <artistic-1@shaw.ca>]

Hi Alex,

I am responding to both your posting quoted below and the more recent
one regarding buying new technologies versus older tech plus dICE.

dICE is an ingenious concept and process, but it has limitations, and it
  normally (on newer scanners) comes at a fairly steep price.

The one question you didn't fully answer in my original query to you is
the last few words of the question below:

 >What size film are you scanning?  What types (slide, neg, black and
 >white?) clean, new, old and dirty?

There was a reason for my question, because it comes to the heart of
that issue.  dICE works on color films other than Kodachrome.  It does
not work on true black and white film.  You indicate you use mainly Fuji
slide films, which it would work on.  If your films are clean, (no
scratches, no dirt little dust or fingerprints) then in general all dICE
does is slow down the scanning time.  If , however, you have a bad
processor, or older film which has seen better days, dICE can be very
useful.

BUT, the only scanner in your price range that had dICE is the original
Elite, and it has a 12 bit A/D converter, and older technology overall.

For example, the new Minolta Dual III has a 16 bit A/D converter.  On a
clean, new, slide, all other things being equal, the 16 bit scanner will
give you a better results.  The one area where the older scanner tend to
be weak is noisy shadow areas.  NOt only have newer scanner improved
upon this (even without higher A/D converters, just due to better CCDS
and electronic designs (and maybe even software which makes better use
of calibration and setting white and black point) but, many newer ones
have higher bit depth as well.

This is particularly important with slides which have much deeper
density in the shadows, especially if you use Velvia, as an example, or
in Kodachrome.

NOw, I have not yet seen the results from the Minolta Dual III, but
hopefully they have resolved some of the lighting issues which make the
DUal II tend to pick up all the surface defects. They also include a
software dust and scratch program, and you can still use Polaroid's dust
and scratch stand alone or PS program which is still free on their
website, and works with any scan.  That's what I do when I use the Dual II.

There is also talk about adding a diffuser to limit those problems
(which maybe Minolta did for the Dual III).

Again, I suggest against buying used.  Since prices on new scanner have
dropped, it just isn't worth the headaches and risks.  I also agree that
for 35mm you do NOT want a flatbed scanner, a dedicated one will do you
much better.  I also do not recommend the HP S-20.  It is a contraption
which is weirdly engineered and has a lot of failures.  It's ability to
scan both reflective prints up to 5x7" (at 300 dpi) and slides and negs
makes it much more complex than necessary, and for $50 or less you can
get a decent full letter page 600 dpi flatbed these days, so who needs
it?  The only advantage to the HP is that it can scan long panoramic
negs.  It is 2400 dpi at the best, and many suffer from banding,
fringing and other problems.

The Minolta Dual III is probably your best best, assuming it has a good
CCD with no lazy sensors.  It will provide you with a fairly high res
scan, has good optics, autofocus, OK software and a 16 bit A/D.  With
either the Polaroid scratch and dust filter or maybe Minolta's own, you
won't find you really miss dICE unless you have fungus or fingerprint
damage, but you will be happy that your shadows are fairly noise-free in
those darker slides.

Art



alex wrote:

> Art,
> Here are the specifics:
>
> Film:      35mm Fuji color slides, new
> Target:    8 x 10 inkjet prints
>
> Computer:  400 Mhz with 512 MB memory
> OS:        Windows 2000 and NT 4.
> Interface: USB, can add SCSI.
>
> Software:  Photoshop 5, thinking of ViewScan
>
> Budget:           under $350 USD.
>
> Used scanners:
>       Acer ScanWit 2720s
>       Canon FS 2710
>       Nikon LS 1000 Coolscan
>       Nikon LS20 Coolscan
>       SprintScan 35 Plus
>
> New scanners:
>       Epson Perfection 2400
>       HP PhotoSmart S20
>       Minolta Dimage Scan Dual III
>       Minolta Dimage Scan Elite
>
> Thanks for helping,
> Alex
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: filmscanners_owner@halftone.co.uk
> [mailto:filmscanners_owner@halftone.co.uk]On Behalf Of Arthur Entlich
> Sent: Thursday, October 31, 2002 2:56 AM
> To: am15us@earthlink.net
> Subject: [filmscanners] Re: Having a hard time deciding on a scanner
>
>
> Your question is incomplete, unfortunately.
>
> What size film are you scanning?  What types (slide, neg, black and
> white?) clean, new, old and dirty?
>
> What are you doing with the scans (email, looking them on a monitor,
> printings them out (what size), etc).
>
>
> Some of the scanners you mention are out of production, and therefore
> are budget because they are used.  Personally, I'd be very cautious of
> buying a used scanner because there is a lot that can go wrong (they are
> optical, electronic, electric and mechanical devices) and they are
> costly to repair.
>
> What computer type and OS will you be using?
>
> What type of interfaces do you have available to you?
>
> How much do you want to spend, there is some variability in the price
> range below?
>
> Is Canon FS 2710 not in the running for you?
>
> Art
>
>
>


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