I'm a "serious amateur" nature photographer pretty good w/photoshop, outputting to EPSON printer for 8x10's,(eventually 11x14' when I upgrade printer) currently using PHOTO CD scans. I tried the old HP P.S. scanner last year - returned it due to strange matte-like patterns in sky and faded appearance.

Want to "invest" in scanner, Choices are "new" HP S-20 at 500.00, Canoscan 2710(can't find much on it - its just out) or Minolta Scan Speed($1200) I did read the excellent reviews on this website and others of some of these products(was concerned that review mentioned"softness" to Minolta images) ..... Getting the Minolta would be a stretch on my budget, but of course there's the old "VISA-Platinum"!

would appreciate opinion: would results/final print quality w/Minolta be appreciably better than Photosmart? Canon? I know it's just a matter of opinion, but any assistance/experiences would be apprceciated!

Thank you.

Sam

-- sam katz (samkatz@ibm.net), April 18, 1999

Answers

General Advice - don't over-spend with the Visa. Next - find out all you can about all the models. I have the S20 and really love it. I too found the mottled blacks on my old pre-s20 scanner. I most cases I could eliminate it by jumping to higher resulution, but not always. With the S20 I do not see the problem. I would bet the Minolta is a fine scanner, but for the money I think you would find the S20 as good. I would recommend doing your homework on the Canon - I didn't know they did a slide/negative scanner. I'm always impressed by their gear - so I would also bet it's good. Just FYI here are some notable differences between the old SCSI model HP Photosmart and the new USB S20.

New one has USB Only (watch out if you plan to use Windows NT) New one is 36 bit Color Depth More capable software on the new unit (But I think it is less convenient to use). Less noise in the dark areas. (HP's only advice on the old scanner was to crush the noise out of the dark areas - not really an acceptible solution).

Indeed the S20 is better so I would recommend you consider it. I have heard that some stores have them set up for you to do test scans - a great idea. Good luck. If you would like you can send me a representative slide and I will scan it for you and email the result (without any retouching) to you for examination. Provide a SASE if you want the slide back. It could be a 24 meg bitmap, but a 4 to 5 meg JPG would sufficiently show you what you want to see.

Des

-- Dan Desjardins (dan.desjardins@avstarnews.com), April 20, 1999.