This is a great little scanner.
It is not fast, especially when using ICE and the Grain Dissolver.
It also does not *always* pick the best point at which to auto-focus.
There are also times where the scanning software tends to darken the image, even on what seem to my eyes to be perfectly exposed slides.
The beauty of it though is that manual focusing is a breeze.
The scan software also allows for quite easy adjustments to the scanner, to ensure that the images coming out of the scanner are very close to what you will want, minimizing post-production work in PhotoShop. The Histogram and Curve tools are especially handy, as is the Exposure adjustment tool.
The downside? All slide films are the same, meaning that there is only one profile for slide film. Scans of slides with different films all react slightly differently, and the Minolta software does not automatically make these adjustments. I understand that Silverfast will be introducing scan software for this scanner, which has these profiles built in. Because of the number of slides I have, I would consider upgrading to this package just for the profiles.
In the meantime, for a sub-850 street price, this is a good little scanner for those of us who still do shoot slide film.
Regards.
Mike Kirda
It is not fast, especially when using ICE and the Grain Dissolver.
It also does not *always* pick the best point at which to auto-focus.
There are also times where the scanning software tends to darken the image, even on what seem to my eyes to be perfectly exposed slides.
The beauty of it though is that manual focusing is a breeze.
The scan software also allows for quite easy adjustments to the scanner, to ensure that the images coming out of the scanner are very close to what you will want, minimizing post-production work in PhotoShop. The Histogram and Curve tools are especially handy, as is the Exposure adjustment tool.
The downside? All slide films are the same, meaning that there is only one profile for slide film. Scans of slides with different films all react slightly differently, and the Minolta software does not automatically make these adjustments. I understand that Silverfast will be introducing scan software for this scanner, which has these profiles built in. Because of the number of slides I have, I would consider upgrading to this package just for the profiles.
In the meantime, for a sub-850 street price, this is a good little scanner for those of us who still do shoot slide film.
Regards.
Mike Kirda
