Good resolution, excellent software package that is easy to use and features curves that allow me to correct tonality and color balance very close to the way I want. The plastic film holders seem fairly durable. The footprint of this scanner isn't too large. I love the USB connection. After a lot of research, I'm convinced I got the best scanner for the money.

The humming is a bit loud. Some complain about it being slow, but this isn't a problem for me as I spend the few minutes during scans to prepare my next negative/slide. Scratches and dust show up horrifically and there is no software included to eliminate this.

For those looking for a simple 35mm slide and negative scanner at an excellent price, consider this scanner. It will be superceded in the near future, but the 50-meg scans you get should print at 8x10 or 11x14 nicely now and in the future.

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None

Inexpensive, USB, Very high resolution, Good Software Package

SLOW! Lots of late night scanning

Great for the price, definitely much better than using the slide egative adapter on a flatbed scanner.

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AGFA flatbed scanner

Great scan for Slides film, sharp pictures and fun to play with

quite slow because of USB, makes some noise that I thought was malfuctioned.

I got this scanner from www.buy.com... it was a great price. At the frist time i was dispointed with it because I didn't know how to use it. After scanning two rolls of color print film and two rolls of slide film, I have to say I LOVE THIS SCANNER!

I didn't bother to use the software that came with it, but using Vuescan. It provides a faster and efficient scan method.

Scanning print film is a bit pain. But scanning slides is much fun. I don't have to deal with the problem of dust much at all while I scan the slides.

http://gallery.consumerreview.com/photography/photo_critique/pictures/23.jpg

Above is a much shrink version of one of my slide. I did use digital dark room at all, but simply resize the picture. Came out nice!

Customer Service

Never had problem so far

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None

I never found any because it would not install. I hired a technitian to come and try
to install it with no success.

Software sucks

My short answer to this is that it should have been on one of the Japanese carriers at
Midway. To the credit of Buy.com, they were gracious and helpful in my returning it to them.

Customer Service

I have never experienced worst. Failed to answer two e-mails. A tech was finally reached and he knew nothing of value promising to call back, which he never did.
Never consider Minolta for any support what so ever.

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Hewlett-Packard PhotoSmart Scanner

Great scans for the price I paid.

Load, Slow

This takes great scans of 35 year old slide. Boy, it's going to take a while to go through my grandfather's 1000's of slides.

Customer Service

Website is slow. Other than that haven't had to use it.

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Flatbed type scanners

Great multi-purpose scanner. I like the APS adapter for it, well worth the extra $120 if you have APS film.

Software is lousy, using Vuescan and getting much better results.

If you have the money, get the LS30 or LS2000, if not this is a great scanner at an excellent price range

Customer Service

I e-mailed about a couple problems and got canned messages back and when I responded I get them returned with an invalid address. The website is useless as well, can't get any good information or support from it. It would be nice to be able to update the firmware & such. The scanning problems were solved with the purchase of VueScan software (www.hamrick.com).

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Kodak FD300, Canon 2710, LS200

Produces great scans for the money. However, you need to be ready to clean your negs and slide. This thing picks up dust!

The first one shipped to me produced two blue line across the image. Cameraworld replaced the unit for me and the new one is fine. Never gat any answer from Minolta when I Emailed them.

Great machine but check it out from end to end before any shipping materal is tossed out.

Customer Service

Minolta is not at the top of my list.

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None

Fast (compared to SCSI Epson 200) Sharp and consistent quality scans
Easy to use software- seems bug-free.

Slightly higher res would be nice

After using the Epson Filmscan 200 this scanner is pretty much all I'd ever need in terms of 35mm scanned results- the Epson had lovely colour quality but this Minolta beats it hands down with similar colour characteristics, higher resolution and sharpness (with the benefit of an autofocus mechanism which the Epson lacks) better software and faster scans. Overall I'd recommend this scanner to anyone serious about 35mm scanning- it would be nice if it emplyed ICE to de-spot the images but for the price it is already quite a performer and really puts that old Epson of mine in the shade.

Customer Service

Not needed

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Epson Filmscan 200 SCSI

Affordable
USB connection
Small size
Reasonably powerful scanning software
Low dark noise

Auto-color correction is useless on anything but "average" scenes
No digital ICE
Only generic slide and negative film profiles available in the scanning software

I have owned this unit for about a week, and have produced everything from 4x6 to 8x10 prints using an Epson 870 color printer.

Hooking up the unit with the USB port is as simple as it gets. No SCSI card to install and futz with. The scanner is small enough that it could be disconnected and moved to another computer with a USB port. Sure, a SCSI is faster, but we're talking about maybe 15 seconds per scan at high resolution. I am running my scanner off a 4-port bus-powered USB hub which also hosts a flatbed scanner and the Epson inkjet printer: no problems.

The scanning software is surprisingly powerful and feature laden, and is TWAIN compliant, so you can import images directly into your favorite image processing software. It can export data as either 8- or 16- bit color, while it collects data at 12-bit color. The scanning resolution, 2820 dpi maximum, is more than sufficient for printing 8x10 enlargements at 300 dpi on an inkjet printer. The blacks are really black in the scans (many CCD-scanners have significant noise in the dark portions of the image), and for typical scenes, the auto-exposure gives very nice color. However, for strange lighting on negative film, eliminating color casts can be a pain. The scanning software give you pretty much full control over exposure, focus (including a nifty defocus control to minimize grain with high-speed flim), cropping, and color correction. It even allows for you to save color correction jobs (once you figure out how to get rid of any peculiar color cast on your favorite film), and to automate scan jobs for up to 6 negatives or 4 slides. You can also create various standard scan jobs with particular aspect ratios or resolution. There is no digital ICE, so scratches, dust, and other imperfections--there seem to be all sorts of random, very tiny specks on old negatives--have to be removed with the deft application of the clone brush in your favorite image editor. My particular unit scans the slides about 0.5-1.0 degrees off the horizontal. Not a big deal, but something to compensate for when loading the film holder, especially if making enlargments of objects with strong verticals or horizontals. I wonder if there is a factory adjustment for the drive mechanism?

Overall, a very satisfactory unit that is capable of producing up to 11x16 photos at 240 dpi resolution, and 9x13.5 at 300 dpi resolution. This model must be considered as one of several very attractive, high-quality entry-level film scanner units.

Customer Service

Not used

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An older Polaroid slide scanner at work

Batch Scanning, Good Res, Good on dark areas, USB, V easy setup

Sounds noisey on film take up like a gogs loose, software crap, Slow at high DPI with minolta software

Generally good value with excellent scans good accurate colours with very little noise, ICE would have been nice but can't have everything at this price. Ditch the software and use Vuescan more versitile quicker and seems to give better scans, allows multipass for difficult subjects. Buy it or save up for the next 10 years for a Nikon scanner

Customer Service

Not needed yet ???

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Original Scan Dual