I'm trying to find a reasonable film scanner, and am hesitating between the Nikon LS 30 and Minlota's Quickscan plus. The quickscan can be found for a hunderd dollars less; No digital ice but 2800 dpi. Any idea of how they compare in terms of actual image quality ?

-- Daniel Kohn (kohnworkshop@asan.com), March 04, 1999

Answers

DOn't know the QuickScan - we tested the Dimage Scan Speed, and liked the software interface a lot, image quality seemed pretty good also, albeit a little less saturated color than the Nikon LS-2000 or LS-30. We have image samples of the Dimage Scan Speed and LS-30 both on this site, and should have some from the less-expensive Dimage Scan Dual within the month. As to Digital ICE, I see it as a real benefit, as it works quite well, and would be particularly useful if you have a lot of old slides with dust on them.

-- Dave Etchells (web@imaging-resource.com), March 09, 1999.

I'm also in the market for a 35mm scanner and have been considering the Minolta Speed Scan. After reading the reviews, however, I'm tempted to go with the Nikon LS-III.

My problem is that it's difficult to tell from the reivews if the LS-III loses any out in overall image quality to the Speed Scan do to the lower bit depth and dynamic range (3.0 for the Nikon vs. a rated 3.6 for the Minolta, and the ability to pull a high bit scan into Photoshop from the Minolta vs. 8-bit only from the Nikon...

Any thoughts about the benefits fo one over the other? I'm interested in the best overall image quality, but the Digital-Ice feature of the Nikon seems well worth consideration as well. (The LS-2000 seems to have the best features of both, but it's significantly more than either of the other scanners...)

Tha

-- Shawn Henry (shenry@shore.net), July 09, 1999.