Alex,
One thing that seems to be an issue with all the recent Minolta 35mm scanners
is poor
black point calibration of the CCD array, which can create tracks in the deep
shadows.
Not so much of a problem with negatives but can be a problem with dense slides
if you are
trying to bring out as much detail as you possibly can.
The Scan Speed, Scan Elite, Scan Dual II and Scan Elite II all seemed prone to
this. (I
have had first hand experience of this with both the Elite and the Elite II.)
In his
recent post, Art suggested that the new Dual III may address some of the
shortcomings of
the earlier models but I note in the review at
resource.com/SCAN/DSEIII/DSEIIIA.HTM it states:
"As was also the case with the Dimage Scan Elite II, I found that the
multi-sample option
didn't remove a background pattern of streaks in the deepest shadow areas,
evidently the
result of imperfect calibration for the black level of the individual pixel
sensors in
its CCD array."
This might not be a problem at all for you, depending on the nature of your
images and
the density of your slides. However, personally, I find these sorts of lines
very
intrusive - much more so than random noise - where they fall across large areas
of
relatively uniform shadow.
Unlike random noise, though, these are normally in the same location each time.
This
means that, as long as you are scanning the entire frame, you can create a mask
in
Photoshop to minimise the tramlines. (If anyone is interested, I can set out
in more
detail the approach I have experimented with to do this.)
Al Bond
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