On Dec 4, 2005, at 2:59 AM, William Robb wrote:
Well, the Epson scan certainly should be bested by the Minolta
film scanner: it's both lower resolution *and* a flatbed scanner
with a piece of glass in the way as well as a fixed focus optical
system.
If you look at the way a dedicated film scanner works, and compare
it to the way a flatbed such as the 2450 works, you will see a
remarkable similarity.
Both will have a piece of glass in the way, if for no other reason,
to keep dust off the imaging device.
I suspect the biggest difference will be film flatness, I would
hope the film scanner is better. I expect dedicated film scanners
have better bit depth, and perhaps focus as well.
There's no glass platen between the negative and the capture element
in the Minolta Scan Dual II. I don't know of any other film scanner
with a glass platen. There might be a thin cover on the sensor
itself, but that would be true in both cases.
What a dedicated film scanner really has over a flatbed is a focusing
lens, thus more precise positioning of the film. Improved film
flatness is possible, but usually requires a glass sandwich negative
carrier which is an option on some of them.
Godfrey
