On 21 Dec 2001 at 20:03, aimcompute wrote: > I'm wondering if there's a possibility that there is dust, dirt, film, etc. on > the lens in the scanner (assuming one exists). The unit is about 3 years old. > > Any thoughts on whether I should take the cover off and have a look?
Hi Tom, If you are handy that way and if the gear is well out of warranty I would take a look inside. I haven't looked inside a Minolta Dimage Scan Dual however I have had experience wit a few other scanners. It should certainly have a lens and it might be suffering from the effect of a deposited film (often emitted from the flame retardant and other additives in the plastics that make up the unit) on the lens and/or mirror surfaces. This problem can be seen on many flat bed scanners, even an Agfa Duoscan that I had needed to be cleaned straight out of the box. The lens might be quite hard to reach unfortunately but in any case if you can actually reach it without causing too much grief then clean it as you would any other lens. Just remember that the electronic components can be static discharge sensitive, particularly so unplugged modules. > Or is this an optical illusion? Just thinking... I find when I scan a neg > and compare it to the print, it doesn't look bad. But when I scan a slide > and see it large, it doesn't look as good. Is it possible that with negs > I'm comparing basically 1-to-1's whereas with slides I'm comparing a small > image with an enlarged one, and noticing a difference? I don't know if this relates to the sharpness scanner performance issue that you mentioned or if it is a just a general feeling that you have but generally you must consider the following: Prints are obviously a reflective media therefore the best white and black in the print is relative to the quality of the paper, the exposure and the light under which it is viewed (considering a perfect source neg). The contrast of most monitors and absolute white light level emitted is pretty low but comparable to viewing a print on paper in a well lit office (for a good computer set-up). Of course any scan is second generation (as is a print) whereas the slide viewed through a loupe is first generation. So to be fair to compare the quality of an image on a light box you really have to control the white light output of the light box to match the max white on your monitor and consider that you don't have the benefit of being able to view your negs on a light box with inverted colour corrected vision :-) It's hard to beat a good slide on a good light box under a good loupe. Cheers, Rob Studdert HURSTVILLE AUSTRALIA Tel +61-2-9554-4110 UTC(GMT) +10 Hours [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://members.ozemail.com.au/~distudio/publications.html - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
