Konica Minolta Dimage Scan Dual II

The darn thing works Great when it feels like working, however I am falling back to my Nikon scanners because this one has issues

The price was right however I lost money trying to make this darn thing to work

Lame error codes Error = 5 Win2k or Error = 1 on XP
It works great when it works Sh*ty when it doesn't 95% of the time

The Colors are not true, it seems to produce Green tint on Fuji 100asa film

I felt compelled to write this review after reading some of the other reviews on this scanner. I was offered the Minolta Scan Duel 2 second hand at what I considered a good price £100. I read the reviews written here and spent a couple of sleepless nights worrying. I bought on the condition I could return it if not fully satisfied. Well I am delighted. Within one hour I was getting scans of great quality. The software is a delight to use. Just go into the curves dialog box to adjust gamma, colour balance, contrast. Scans at the max 2820dpi take three minutes and are perfect. Grain is seen to be pin sharp. Dust and scratches are no problem to anybody who looks after their negs and certainly less of a problem than sending them to the lab. Photoshop Filter Dust and scratches also takes care of the problem if you know how to adjust it. I print at 240dpi on a Epson 1200 and the Scan Duel 2 gives me a file of 11 inches by 16. Prints are fantastic and better than any digital camera I have seen. The Minolta Scan Duel 2 is a fine product that I would recommend 100%. However if you don’t know how to adjust curves and generally know your Photoshop, forget it. It will not work straight from the box. It is a precision tool made for photographers.

Ease of use. Quality scans

None as yet

Nikon Coolscan2 Epson 200

I was convinced by a sale person at Cal's Camera & Video that this scanner is an excellent product. After using it for more than a year, I came to the following conclusions: 1. This product should never be put in market. 2. Watch out when you buy equipments at Cal'sVCamera & Video. Some sale persons there are very dishonest.

None

Lousy colour output. You will have to spend a lot of time to adjust the colour.

Overall, I had horrible experience with this machine. This was my first scanner, I didn't had much experience at the beginning so I did not send it back. - All slides (no exceptions) require LOTS of manual color correction. Green color is its weakness, it is really pathetic. - It is impossible to scan normally exposed Velvia with this scanner. It comes out 50% black. - All negatives have strong cyan-green cast. Even with manual Photoshop correction, the results are far from pleasing. Fuji NPH scans are OK, but I don't shoot Reala while I have this scanner simply because it is impossible to scan Reala. After a year of use I thought the machine is broken, so I send it for repair. It came back, the colors improved just a little bit. Lots of manual correction (especially with greens) are still required. I want to get rid of it as soon as possible. So, I wasted $500 on this unit, and didn't have a single scan without problems. I WILL NEVER, NEVER BUY MINOLTA AGAIN.

none

- horrible colors - very noisy - when it moves the holder in and out, it is vibrating like hell

none yet, shopping Nikon

$150 repair improved colors just a little bit.

HORROR! thats what comes to my mind using thid thing.... the time it takes...makes me crazy.. at 8 bit quality setting it will take about 10 minutes too index/prescan and final scan a 35mm print-colour negative than the cleaning up of your pic starts in PS... I bought it too avoid bringen my pics too the consumer labs 'cause it costs too much for me... but using this scanner probably frustrates me more.... scanning an entire rol of 36 negatives at a good setting takes (in my case ) several days... makes me mad. But , maybe i'v got a bad scanner and this is not the usual... plaese let me know.... but for now my experiences are terrible with this imaging divice..

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the time it takes!the weak results in the end...the cleaning up of the scans.