Is there anyone who has had the opportunity to compare the Scan Dual with either the Scan Speed or Multi?

I own and happily use the Scan Dual, and I would like to know how much I am missing by not using the more expensive Scan Speed. I have not need for the Scan Multi, but it probably gives the same performance with 35mm as the Scan Speed.

To put my question another way: if I bought the Scan Speed, would I notice that my scans are definately better - meaning more detail in the shadows and highlights. I do not do professional work, do not sell images, do not print images, only look at them on the monitor, and send them around to friends and family.

I know Phil says use Kodak Photo CD, but I find it expensive, particularly since most of my images are not very good (I am trying to fix that).

-- Joseph Allen Worrall Jr. MD RDMS (jworrall@alaska.net), April 09, 1999

Answers

More on the above topic: I have not purchased the Minolta dimage Scan Speed, and have not heard from anyone who has used both.

I have purchased a Kodak Q60E3A color input target. Also I have found on the Web a scan of this target done with the Minolta Scan Speed.

I have the Scan Dual and have of course scanned my Q60 slide.

I have also been able to download a scan of the Q60 done with a Howtek commercial scanner, which I have used as the gold standard.

My conclusion (based only on the gray scale - I am hopelessly colorblind. Also based only on computer display. I do have not yet tried to print my images): As expected, the Howtek does a much better job than the other two. The Scan Speed allows you to see a slight different in the density of the last three or four bars at the dark end of the gray scale. With the Scan Dual, the last three or four really have no noticeable difference.

So, I am going to put off purchasing the Scan Speed for the time being. Perhaps if and when I start printing images, I will take another look. I am very pleased with the Scan Dual, and for the vast majority of my images, I do not think I would notice any difference between images scanned on the Speed, and images scanned on the Dual.

I would still like to hear from anyone who has had the opportunity to use both, side by side.

-- Joseph Allen Worralll Jr MD (jworrall@alaska.net), May 30, 1999.

I am carrying on this thread by myself. Oh well, perhaps some have looked at it. I know the world has been breathlessly waiting for this announcement: I have purchased the Minolta Dimage Scan Elite, and can now compare the Scan Dual side by side with the Scan Elite.

I presume the Scan Elite has the about the same capability as the Scan Speed, although the Elite has the ICE technology and I believe the Scan Speed does not.

My initial impressions - It is very hard to see a difference in the images, but the Elite software is much better, I think the ICE technology really works, and overall I am very happy with the Elite.

With the Elite it is much easier and faster to obtain a good scan. The Dual required much more work in trying to obtain the correct settings. The prescans from the Elite are much much better than from the Dual, so perhaps the prescan images need less adjustment.

Since I do not humidify my house in the winter (because I have a small hole in my vapor barrier), dust on the negative is a major problem in the winter. The ICE helps a great deal.

-- Joseph Allen Worrall Jr. MD (jworrall@alaska.net), January 30, 2000.

Joseph.

I and I suspect many others have found your contributions interesting. However, I have one question. How does the Elite handler troublesome Kodachromes ?

-- Leif Goodwin (lgoodwin@racalinst.co.uk), December 12, 2000.

Leif - I am not sure what you mean by a troublesome Kodachrome. I suppose you mean one that has not been exposed properly?

I think the Elite does a very good job with deep shadows. I find very littl noise, and I have not found it necessary to do multiscans to remove noise.

I am presently scanning hundreds of old Kodachomes from the 40s, 50s and 60s, and I think they look very good. To see these images, go to www.photopoint.com. Where it says something like "visit a friends album" type in my email address: jworrall@alaska.net That will bring you to a list of my albums. These old slides are in albums called "Old Slides" # 1 through 4.

Keep in mind the following: I am red-green colorblind, and I am an amateur.

Thanks for your interest.

-- Joseph Allen Worrall Jr. MD (jworrall@alaska.net), December 12, 2000.

Joseph

Thankyou for taking the trouble to answer.

I certainly agree that your scanner does a good job of Kodachromes. The reason I ask is that I have a Nikon LS30. While superb for E6 films, it has trouble with Kodachrome. Basically the midtones level must be raised so much that noise becomes significant. Vuescan helps but is primitive and scans still require adjustment in Photoshop.

Thanks again, Leif.

-- Leif Goodwin (lgoodwin@racalinst.co.uk), December 13, 2000.