Plustek 7400 vs Minolta Scan Dual IV

[Roscoe]

If you have used or own both, but could only keep one, which would it be and why? I recently aquired the Minolta and have been using the Plustek since February. I really dont need both, but they each have their pros and cons. I really like the batch function of the Minolta, but if it breaks, it goes in the trash. Also it's supposed to have better dmax, at least on paper. Including scan quality as well as function, which would you prefer?

[brainwood]

The Minolta is a good scanner as you have found and the batch scanning is a real time saver There are a few company's still able to repair them should anything happen to it .I'm not sure where you are in the world you are but just over year ago I sent my Minolta 5400 to a company in Germany called Runtime Contract GmbH for repair after which it has been functioning perfectly again .
I would say keep using the Minolta and if it does eventually develop a fault have a look for a repair service before you chuck it

Chris

[BobYIL]

I'm using 5400 and 5400-II, very pleased with the scan quality. The former one is quite slow though..

[buzzardkid]

Well, the Scan-Dual IV ain't no 5400...

My IV is developing issues: can only run on Mac Mini with Snow Leopard with a specific driver-rebuild that I once got from a now-vanished website, it cannot run with VueScan or it freezes up and the software crashes, it is developing strange artefacts in scans lately.

Plustek still is in business and the 7600 is more recent, I'd suspect these troubles will not appear for some years to come with that scanner.

The batch scan and higher Dmax all is nice but when the scanner or software fails, it's a bogus argument.

[mdruziak]

Hi Mark from Plustek here. I used to own a Scan-Dual IV. Before I sold the Minolta, I did a side by side with a OpticFilm 7600i. The Minolta isn't a bad scanner, but the images I got from the 7600i were much sharper. The other issue that I had was that the Minolta would not run on 64 bit Win 7 reliably using the software that came with the scanner. It seemed to be more stable on 32 bit Windows 7.

For me the Minolta worked fine with VueScan and SilverFast but buzzardkid points out a very real problem with the Minolta: It isn't supported any more and as newer OS are released, the probability of problems increases with each new OS release.

If you are in the US, the prices on 7400 and 7600i's are pretty good right now and you get a free upgrade to SilverFast 8. If I remember correctly, I sold my Scan-Dual IV on eBay about 6 months ago for about the same price as a new 7400.

[gavinlg]

I had a dual scan IV and now use a plustek 8100.

The minolta was more gentle with tones - probably a slightly higher dmax, but the plustek is significantly quieter in operation, doesn't jam like the minolta did, higher resolution, and much quicker.