Preliminary review posted for Dimage Scan Dual III film scanner!
By
Dave Etchells
(Tuesday, October 29, 2002 - 23:58 EST)
Minolta has developed an impressive line of desktop film scanners, offering solid performance at competitive prices, ranging from "prosumer" models to units suitable for professionals scanning medium-format film.
Now though, they've figuratively blown open the low end of the market, with their new Dimage Scan Dual III model. This new unit boasts a 16-bit A/D, 2820 dpi resolution, fast scanning, and surprisingly good dynamic range. What makes it *really* stand out though, is a MSRP of $449, and an expected street price of well under $400. That puts its very-good-to-excellent performance into the "amazing" category.
In my preliminary testing the Dimage Scan Dual III produced results that let it compete strongly with units costing twice as much or more. The icing on the cake for novice users is a new "Easy" scanning utility that makes the scanning process "click the button" simple. (The full version of Minolta's excellent Dimage Scan utility is also included, for users wanting full control over the scanning process.)
Bottom line, this looks like the best deal in the entire scanner market right now, delivering exceptional capability to home users at a phenomenal price. At this point, I've posted a pretty complete review of the unit, but haven't completed all of my test scans, nor the detailed analysis of the images.
Stay tuned, I'll have full results with sample scans up in a week or two. In the meantime, check out the review for performance measurements and a detailed operating report.
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