Minolta scan dual IV

Todd.Hanz · 12-16-2004

Any have this scanner, just got one for my birthday and am getting some really blown out BW scans (I even read the directions

). Any ideas or tips?

Todd

bmattock · 12-16-2004

Todd,

I have the IV, and I love it. I use it with Vuescan and Linux or Windows XP and it works fine on my B&W.

I tried all the B&W scanning suggestions and ended up discarding them. Mostly, I scan the B&W negs as if they were standard 'generic' color negs. Then I desaturate them in PS (actually I use The Gimp, but same-same) and convert them to Greyscale. Spot and resize, USM as normal and that's pretty much it.

I leave dust-brush, color-restoration, sharpening, and all the rest of it turned off. Just do a basic scan, period.

I hope that helps - it seems people are getting all kinds of weird results, but mine have been pretty good!

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

peter_n · 12-16-2004

Happy birthday Todd! Got one of these myself last week but unfortunately have been too busy to get it working (did open the box though

).

I've read mixed reviews of the bundled software. Some people say it sucks but others say it does a perfectly good job on regular B&W film with the defaults. I've seen results of B&W scans done with the Minolta software and they are stunning so it can be done. Unfortunately I'm not going to have the chance of getting to mine until after Christmas.

A few people use them here so you may get some useful help soon... In the meanwhile Bill's advice is good and I've seen similar posts on other forums: scan at the defaults for color, import into Photoshop, desaturate and convert to grayscale.

bmattock · 12-16-2004

I find that sometimes I fire up the Minolta software *if* I am having a problem getting satisfactory results using Vuescan. Otherwise, Vuescan makes me plenty happy. When I'm running straight Linux, it's my only choice anyway. Sometimes, I have found that I can salvage a borderline negative (under/overexposed by a lot) by experimenting with different scanning software and/or different software settings. But when I have the exposure pretty much correct, if I'm shooting C41 negatives or B&W, I just take the default color negative settings and scan away like mad. Tweaking nearly always gets me in trouble unless the neg is a loser to begin with.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

peter_n · 12-16-2004

A lot of people really like Vuescan. I think I'll wait and see how I do with the Minolta software and then take a look at Viewscan and Silverfast if the Minolta results are poor.

I'm like you I think, I don't want to spend hours mucking around post-processing in Photoshop. I'm much more interested in taking pictures than anything else!

g0tr00t · 12-16-2004

Does the forum mind if photos are posted in the gallery that are scanned then massaged in PS?

I know at APUG there was a H-U-G-E debate about doing that.

peter_n · 12-16-2004

I don't think so, no. I certainly wouldn't mind anyway...

michael · 12-16-2004

I've tried Vuescan with the Minolta Scan Dual IV and had one or two very peculiar and unacceptable results, mostly with reflections of one colour on another. So I use the bundled software now all the time.

But back to the question of B&W. I've done relatively little B&W scanning, but have had no problem. But I have read elsewhere, as well as here, that it is a good idea to scan as though they were colour negatives. I did that a couple of times, and it worked fine, and made it perhaps easier to get the dynamic balance right.

My 2 cents' worth.

Michael

g0tr00t · 12-16-2004

I have the Minolta IV and was told to scan my neg's as a print and do the inverse in PS. I read that it retains more shadow detail doing it this way.

I have not tried, but if someone has time....

bmattock · 12-16-2004

Quote:

Originally posted by michael
I've tried Vuescan with the Minolta Scan Dual IV and had one or two very peculiar and unacceptable results, mostly with reflections of one colour on another. So I use the bundled software now all the time.

The only time I've had problems like you report is when I try the Minolta software, and then exit and switch to Vuescan. I find that I really have to reboot the PC (even with Windows XP) to change back and forth between these two programs. I suspect that they don't exit cleanly and leave bits and pieces of themselves laying about. When I jumped from Minolta software to Vuescan without rebooting, I got weird purple streaks on the negs. Very strange. Rebooted and all was well.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

GeneW · 12-16-2004

I'm on my second Minolta scanner (5400 this time) and like the Minolta line quite a bit. I don't care much for their scanning software though. I'm another Vuescan user.

For the Minolta software and its well-known clipping problems, one tip I've read is to scan B&W film as col transparency then invert in PS. Haven't tried it myself.

Gene

Todd.Hanz · 12-16-2004

Thanks for all the advice, I will try tonight when I get home!

Todd

peter_n · 12-16-2004

Tell us how it goes Todd.

peter_n · 01-12-2005

Well, almost a month later and I finally get the scanner out of the box and plug it into the computer!

My first scan was with the "Easy Scan Utility" and that really sucked. So I opened the regular Minolta scanning software and scanned Fuji Neopan 400 as a color negative and voila - a nice scan!

OK here's my question (please remember I'm a scanning newbie) - do I crop in the scanner or afterward in Photoshop?

Kris · 01-12-2005

OMG, two people named Peter have SD IV scanner at almost exactly the same time. *Twilight Zone music*

BTW, try scanning as Colour Positive. You might get even better scans.

peter_n · 01-12-2005

Who's the other Peter who has one?

Todd.Hanz · 01-12-2005

Quote:

Originally posted by peter_n
OK here's my question (please remember I'm a scanning newbie) - do I crop in the scanner or afterward in Photoshop?

I have been cropping in the scanner software, I don't really like it but I don't know any other way to get around it. I too have to scan BW using color neg. selection, otherwise the scanner blows out my images.

Todd

peter_n · 01-12-2005

Thanks Todd. Did you install the Photoshop Elements application that you got with your scanner? Presumably you can crop in that (I have the full Photoshop on my machine).

Peter · 01-12-2005

Quote:

Originally posted by peter_n
Who's the other Peter who has one?

It is me! Just scanned a whole roll of XP2 yesterday night to have a feel of the scanner and I must say that I could not see the difference between scanning the XP2 as a color negative or slide. Thanks Kris for your advice! So far I am pleased with the SD IV's result.

Todd.Hanz · 01-12-2005

Quote:

Originally posted by peter_n
Thanks Todd. Did you install the Photoshop Elements application that you got with your scanner? Presumably you can crop in that (I have the full Photoshop on my machine).

I have CS so I loaded the plug in for the scanner, go to import and chose it.
Have you found a way to adjust the exposure values presets , I'd like to reduce the contrast prior to scanning so there isn't as much image tweaking going on.

Todd

Joe Brugger · 02-01-2005

My scanner is the SDIII, not the IV, but the differences aren't all that huge. The Minolta software has an OK cropping facility (adjust the dotted frame in the prescan) and there's no reason to scan parts of the frame you are certain you will never use.
Saving the highlights is trickier, because the Minolta software is fairly crude. The SDIII software has a series of tabs available in the 'prescan' mode that let you make some adjustments. The tabs are arranged so that the workflow goes from left to right. Very easy to make the corrections once you get the hang of it.
Lately I've been scanning BW neg films as BW neg with 1x sampling and getting acceptable results but it's very dependent on the quality of the original negs -- and most commercial processors doing conventional BW seem to overdevelop.
The clipping comment is intriguing. I see this with a couple older film types and some images, but not across the board.

PatrickT · 03-21-2005

Sorry to resurect this thread from the dead, but does anyone know if the IV will scan 120 roll? I'm on a budget here and am thinking about getting one. How does everyone like theirs?

Thanks!
Patrick

peter_n · 01-12-2005

Todd all I've done so far is scan 3 negs, 2 with Easy Scan and 1 with the regular software. The one with the regular software scanned perfectly, I didn't need to do anything with the image. Tomorrow when I fire up the scanner again I'll look for the exposure values presets in the software.

I have to say that the online help has been a joke so far and the manual isn't that well written either. Good job the scanner seems OK...

Scarpia · 01-12-2005

I have had this scanner for several months and have scanned some recent color negs and some color slides (Kodachrome) and tri-x negs about 40 years old. I have not yet printed any but the Kodachromes taken of my son when he was 1 year old (he is now 33) are excellent. I scanned at 3200 ppi with an output of 360 dpi.
I used the regular scanning utility and not Easy Scan. I will have to scale down in order to post and can do this tomorrow if anyone wants to see it. The Kodachromes required no correction as best as I can remember.
The odd thing is when I transfer a good color negative scan from the scan utility to Photoshop Elements 2 the colors seem to fade causing me to make additional corrections that probably would not have to be made if I left well enough alone.
Kurt M.

Todd.Hanz · 01-12-2005

My scans of slides do the same, I think you can specify the color output (SRGB, Adobe RGB, etc) and that may help out.

Todd