>Date: Thu, 25 Jan 2001 17:41:14 -0800
>From: Nick Taylor <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: ?
>
>If you have experience with either of these two scanners I'd really
>appreciate your comments: Minolta Dimage Scan Dual II and Dimage
>Scan Elite.
I have used Elite some months (scanned some hundreds of slides
but not negatives yet).
There is an Elite review if you didn't know already, at:
http://www.imaging-resource.com/SCAN1.HTM
I haven't compared it to other scanners but I feel it is a good
scanner. Nikon LS-2000 was 30% more expensive when I was shopping.
I think the SW is very good, it is easy to use but also has lots
of functionality at the same time. Especially I like the histogram/curve
view where you can see all four histograms (RGB, R, G and B) at the
same time. And curves as well.
One nice thing is the automatic exposure for slides which can be
enabled in the options dialog. It may be a bit tricky to learn to
use for the first time (*maybe* the writer of the review at
www.imaging-resource.com didn't know how to use it). You have to
define the area by keeping the shift (or was it ctrl) key in PC
down and then change the size of the AE (auto exposure) area. But
that's not enough, you need to activate the AE-area-lock function
as well by pushing one SW button down.
It may be that the AE can only add exposure which is fine for
slides. If there is an area with bright lights on the slide then
the AE may have no effect. In that case you need to change the AE
area such that it does not contain any light areas.
I'd like to have manual exposure.
The simple Adaptec SCSI card that came with the scanner has been
working fine.
The only problems which I have found are:
-- If you increase the exposure of dark areas a lot (e.g. try to dig
all tones from very dark slides) you may see R, G and/or B stripes
in the scan result. You don't notice them in preview, only at the
final scan so you may need to retry couple times. But this mostly
happens only with difficult slides (e.g. 2 stops underexposure).
See the train scan at (look at the wheels, search for horizontal
stripes):
http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/DSE/DSETR1616PS.HTM
It may also be that this happens with all other scanners which
are as good in digging the dark tones as well.
-- I have problems scanning with full resolution (2820) with
multisampling activated. It seems that when scanning from
Photoshop I can do 2x but with more multisampling the sampling
dies when the progression bar stops the first time (I think the
scanner starts sending data to the PC at that moment).
I have doubts that it is my PC environment (I have tried with
Win95osr2 and Win98SE wit the same results). There is a new driver
version which I have not tried yet.
After all I'd say I like my Elite, a lot.
Please ask more if you like (I'm back next week, though).
>I've been told that Ed Hamrick's VueScan is the best scanner software
>presently available ... any comments?
>
>Thanks in advance,
> -Nick
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