[Leica] Scanners - Mark's travails

[mark at whitedogs.co.uk (Mark Pope)]

This thread has been very well timed as far as I am concerned.

I recently our main desktop machine.  It now runs 64-bit Windows 7 
Professional.  Unfortunately, this means that my Minolta Scan Dual III 
won't work :-(

I spent most of a frustrating day trying a number of options.  Firstly, 
I tried installing the original Minolta software in Windows XP mode and 
found that I got an 'unknown error' message.

Then, I tried VueScan in native 64-bit Windows 7.  I found that it was 
rather hit and miss and the scanner would just stop.  I think after 
about two hours of switching the scanner on and off, uninstalling and 
reinstalling the software, I got one scan that worked.  A subsequent 
scan failed, with the application becoming unresponsive.  The only way 
to stop the application was to do so via the task manager.

I then tried the original Minolta software under Windows 7 after having 
found a way of getting the driver to work.  All seemed to be going well: 
prescans worked but  full scans would just stop for no reason and there 
was no way of ejecting the film holder.

The new machine has USB3 ports and I'm wondering whether there is some 
sort of compatibility issue between the scanner (USB2) and the new 
hardware.  I probably have a USB2 PC card somewhere, but whether it's 
compatible with either the new motherboard or Windows 7 is anybody's guess.

So I have now given up on the Minolta working under Windows 7.  I may 
keep my XP machine 'just' for scans and a couple of odd apps, but it's 
not really practical as it now lives in the garage and I access it when 
needs be using RDP.

I also have an Epson V700 flat bed scanner, which I've used successfully 
for 5x4 and medium format scans.  I decided to give it a go for scanning 
35mm film.  Colour slides were decidedly soft, so further 
experimentation is needed, adjusting the height of the slide film holder 
to see if I can improve the focus.
35mm B&W negatives however, were pretty good:  I made a scan at 3200DPI 
and was able to get a very acceptable A4 print once I had tweaked the 
settings a touch.  An A3 print is probably going to be OK too.

I did find that scanning using the Digital ICE facility within the Epson 
software gave some strange artifacts.  Keeping the settings simple gave 
the best results.  3200 DPI, no USM, some slight level adjustments and 
that was about it.


Mark Pope,
Swindon, Wilts
UK

Homepage               http://www.monomagic.co.uk
Blog                   http://www.monomagic.co.uk/blog
Picture a week (2010)  http://www.monomagic.co.uk/index.php?gallery=paw/2010
Picture a week (2009)  http://www.monomagic.co.uk/index.php?gallery=paw/2009
                (2008) 
http://www.monomagic.co.uk/index.php?gallery=paw/2008

On 09/01/2012 00:09, H&ECummer wrote:
> If you can't find a LS5000 at an acceptable price the LS4000 might be an 
> acceptable and cheaper alternative.
> I have that model which I control with Silverfast to my Mac and the 
> results are very good. Here is a sample scan
> of an extachrome slide taken in North China in 1976.
>
> <http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Howard+Cummer/China70s/_HeavyIndustw.jpg.html>
>
> Black and white scans equally well.
> Howard (in cold Hong Kong)
>
>
>> Date: Sun, 8 Jan 2012 15:14:29 -0500
>> From: Tina Manley<images at comporium.net>
>> Subject: Re: [Leica] Scanners
>> To: Leica Users Group<lug at leica-users.org>
>>
>> I don't think there's anything better for B&W film than the Nikon 
>> LS5000for
>> 35mm or 9000 for medium format unless it's one of the very expensive Leaf
>> scanners.  A dedicated film scanner is going to be much better than a
>> flatbed.  The software makes a big difference, too, and Silverfast is the
>> best I've found.
>>
>> Tina
>
>
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