Dear Prodiggers, In trying to overcome the Nikon 8000 film flatness problem, I have recently been testing the scanner against a Minolta Dimage Scan Multi-Pro. The Minolta does offer improvements in this regard, I have got full edge sharpness on 35mm film, mounted and unmounted and no newton rings so far with the glass holder (unlike with the Nikon). But..... (there has to be one doesn't there?) The scans don't look so good, appearing less smooth tonally than the Nikon, with a rather more 'grainy' appearance. When I zoom in to pixel level, it appears that the entire scan is covered in what I can only describe as 'random pixels' all over, a bit like those rather crude grain screens you could buy for conventional print enlarging. This is seen as a grainy look over most of the image, but on plain white areas of no detail, which the Nikon renders as pure white, the Minolta adds a grey pixel 'grain'. I have been phoning and e-mailing Minolta tech. support every day for a week now with no response by either e-mail or phone, (at least Nikon actually spoke to you!) so I'm sending the scanner back, but before I do, does anyone have any help to offer?
My e-mail to them included the following description of the problem: The images appear slightly 'grainy' compared to other scans. Upon close examination they are covered with 'random pixels' of a different colour. Even on areas of highlight, which should appear completely clean, these specks appear all over, whether glass or glassless carriers are used makes no difference. This is compared to the same films scanned on the Nikon 8000. All scans are at maximum resolution, 16x multipass, with digital ICE on. I have also tested without multipass and ICE but the same problem appears. All other settings at normal/zero. Absolutely no sharpening added. I now need to know urgently what the problem could be. The scanner is warmed up first, signal cables kept well away from sources of interference, it's not dust, looks more like a sandstorm, I'm stumped. Can anyone suggest a cause for this? The wonderful world of digital imaging, once it used to be so simple ;-) Mark. =============================================================== GO TO http://www.prodig.org for ~ GUIDELINES ~ un/SUBSCRIBING ~ ITEMS for SALE
