Price, ease of use

Shipped w/o SCSI card, 2.9 DR

Very pleased with my first film scanner. I have hundreds of cromes and only the shadow areas suffered due to low DR (2.9). Currently considering the Nikon Coolscan 30 III.

Customer Service

Good. Minolta shipped SCSI card and worked with me on color problem when scanning into ADOBE delux.

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Flat Bed scanners

Good scan quality for the price (now approx. $380).

Limited drivers & support from Minolta. Somewhat awkward negative loading. Loading door is always open & can let in dust.

A good buy for low-end film scanners.

Customer Service

N/A

Similar Products Used:

None

Excellent quality scans for the money. Sofware easy to use, also by the (digital) novice. Works well with SCSI card on iMac and Mac G3.

Scan time is relatively slow. Pre-scan manipulation with the included software (too?) easily leads to a loss of highlight or shadow detail. I usually scan at low contrast and manipulate in Photoshop. The software also doesn't remove dust etc, so this costs extra "cloning" time.

A film scanner that is relatively slow, but capable of high quality scans. Completely new to digital photography, I am now using it exensively to scan slides and mono negatives and produced beautiful A4 prints. No real complaints so far; I have hardly spent any time in the chemical darkroom anymore since I bought this scanner.

Customer Service

My experience with Minolta service was pretty good. The software didn't work with my iMac and ProRaid SCSI-card at first, but modified software that works perfectly now could be downloaded with a few weeks.

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PrimeFilm 1800U

good quality scans, easy to operate, not too demanding to scsi cards (works with umax 1220s' card just fine)

I wish there was better film feed and more advanced driver software.

great value for the money. Built to last.
Can be used with 3rd party scanning utilities (VueScan) for 10bit color depth and more advanced controls, supports multiscanning and separate exposure per r, g, b channels.

Customer Service

haven't tried

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none

Inexpensive, Image quality for the money

slow, SCSI use with USB adapter problematic with multiple crashes.

good for the money. I hope they udate drivers and USB compatibility soon.

Customer Service

inadequate

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none

This is the best scanner that I have worked with. The resolution is sharper than my negatives (Royal Gold 100). My next step is to use a tripod and remote trigger to try and get sharper images. The color rendition is good. I have a few prints that I have not been able to match the color to perfectly but the color is better than any scanner I have worked with. Over all, I am VERY happy with this scanner. I suspect it is the best under $800 or $900. I use the software provided and Corel draw. I find the (Minolta) software fairly easy to use.

I had some negatives shot with a disposable camera and the negatives were so bad that I could not get a decent scan out of the scanner on several over exposed shots (where I have prints from those negatives that turned out acceptable). I have only done a couple slides but I was disappointed with the few slides I tried to scan.

Beats a digital camera hands down. I use a Nikon N90s and have a CD ROM burner. I doubt the digital cameras in the $20,000 range can compare with this setup. Shadow detail when scanning from negatives is incredible. B&W and color negatives give beautiful results that I am proud to publish electronicly. I shoot landscape and people mostly. For scanners in the $800 or less price range, I would recomend this scanner to my best friend. (And I found mine for about $279 without a SCSI card).

Customer Service

Minolta does not support modern Adaptec SCSI products. I bought Adaptec's top of the line home use SCSI card and the cable provided did not match the conection. I called tech support and they acted like they had never heard of Adaptec products produced after 1995. This made me nervous but I bought a cable that would conect them and it has worked like a charm. I have had to reboot about once a day when scanning photos all day. I am not sure what causes the lock up.

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UMAX flat bed scanners, Logitec Gray Scale hand held.

Excellent resolution and versatility. Easy to use.

Software manual very limited in explaination of advanced usage modes. Simple start-up and step by step instructions, but needs deeper informatiom for advanced use.

Good product capable of producing truly professional results, but needs improved company support for advanced usage and software.

Customer Service

Web site very limited, not interested in improving software/drivers.

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Canoscan

Very quiet and nice and clean high resolution scans with no noise patterns above 1200 dpi like my former HP Photosmart.

Second rate software with a very small preview scan window. Worst part is the software burns out the highlights in high contrast pictures whereas when using it with the VueScan software their is no burning out of highlight detail.

Great scanner at a good price but lousy software.Buy the scanner but use the Hamrick VueScan software for best results. The Minolta software is very disappointing.

Customer Service

No dedication from Minolta in improving the software.

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HP Photosmart (SCSI)

This scanner gives much better results than comparably priced flatbeds with transparency adapters. All else being equal, on the flatbed, you still get degradation from the glass. With this scanner and my 6-color Epson printer, I really can get photo quality 8x10 prints (sure the printer gives a little pixelation, visible if you are closer than 6" from the print, but you can manipulate the photos in ways that are impossible with an enlarger).

The slide mount is a little frustrating since two are scanned upside down. I found it necessary to flip two of the slides before scanning to avoid having to re-crop the pre scans. I think the scanner should be able to advance itself to the next image - it feels a little cheesy to have to click it into place manually. It is also nearly impossible to remove all of the dust from the slides, especially those in paper frames. So count on spending some time with the cloning tool. The software also makes it difficult to accurately set highlights and shadows - the previews are too small and too dark.

This scanner is worth every penny. I have recovered many times my investment by digitizing slides for friends and family. The SCSI interface can sometimes be a little tricky to set up, but it is the BEST way to connect. Parallel is a joke, USB is too slow and FireWire is way too crashy (I'm sure FireWire will be worked out soon). This scanner is not quite professional caliber, but you can definitely get professional results with it. It comes with Photoshop LE in the package, but do yourself a favor and upgrade it immediately. I guess LE is supposed to be adequate for the home user, but the learning curve is the same and you miss out on all of the features that makes Photoshop so great.

Customer Service

n/a

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My employers have given me the opportunity to work with Heidelberg's Tango drum scanner, Crossfield and Scitex drums, and a variety of flatbeds from Agfa, Umax and Heidelberg. I have worked with a Nikon slide scanner in my profession and was glad to find that my Minolta could match its quality. The Nikon is faster, and the acquisition software is better - but for a home uer, not worth the much higher price.

Size of picture it produces. Price. Easy to use. Speed (with SCSI it usually takes 26 seconds).

Low optical density (D Max), so it can't really be accurate when scanning pictures with dark shadows. I don't have ICE system of any kind. Only 8 bit A/D conversion. A lot of noise(in picture). Only 16bit colors.

Good to have if you take only color positive pictures. But it certanly won't be enough for
demanding scanning.

Customer Service

Good

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