Minolta Scan Dual owners- help please, poor focus!

[David N Williams]

Hi,

I've just purchased a Minolta Scan Dual IV with the intention of digitizing
a large slide archive. I'm not at all satisfied with the results of my first
few scans. Specifically, the images are very soft compared to the excellent
sharp origonals, like a rubbish mail order developer.

I've tried scanning at all resolutions.
I've tried autofocus, spot autofocus and manual focus.
I've tried turning off all the digital 'enhancements' to just get raw scans.

Results are always the same- unacceptable (to me) lack of sharpness.

I'm happy to offer an example: http://195.224.48.67/example.jpg

In the origonal of this image the womans face, the snow & stones in the
foreground and even the bus and the bikers in the background are as sharp as
a razor.

So, do I have a lemon unit or were my expectations too high? I really can't
believe so.

Input from other Scan Dual owners much appreciated!

regards,

David

 

[David N Williams]

Sorry, please try: http://www.lanhousesouthwest.net/example.jpg

 

[David N Williams]

Sorry, posted a correction.

The jpg was saved with minimal compression and you'll have to take my work
that this is what the origonal scan looks like!

thanks in advance

David

 

[Roger S.]

Link doesn't work, so it's hard to tell what's wrong.

Be sure you're sharpening after you downsize for the web or it will
definitely look like mush.

 

[Pasi Savolainen]

Hi,

I've just purchased a Minolta Scan Dual IV with the intention of digitizing
a large slide archive. I'm not at all satisfied with the results of my first
few scans. Specifically, the images are very soft compared to the excellent
sharp origonals, like a rubbish mail order developer.

I'm happy to offer an example: http://www.lanhousesouthwest.net/example.jpg

Input from other Scan Dual owners much appreciated!

I own a Scan Dual II, it's a bit older and a bit different beast.
I use Vuescan software with it (from hamrick.com) and I'm generally
happier with it than with minolta's offering.
On DS2 Vuescan offers not only automatic focus but manual preset with
clear maximum/minimum. Compare scans from different settings, you may
have a blown targeting motor or something like that if these scans are
identical.

Downsized sample doesn't tell much else than that you've serious
sharpness problem. Try scanning full-resolution (2540dpi or how much
does DS4 does..) and just crop some detail so that nature of sharpness
can be easily seen.

This is just a guess, I hope you're not trying to scan glass-mounted
slides? Though they wouldn't have that much softness, but moireé instead.

I can tell you from my experience that eye will blatantly lie sharpness
of a slide or negative when viewed without magnification. I've
enountered enough of these myself when I'm happily thinking of how I got
these beautifully sharp images and then they're revealed as a no-good
soft crap. I swear I get this same sh*t with digital too, the LCD
previews tells you nothing but how good their builtin USM filters are

 

[Bill]

Sorry, please try: http://www.lanhousesouthwest.net/example.jpg

AAAAAHHHHHHH!!

I didn't know it was possible to screw up so bad.

 

[Laurent]

AAAAAHHHHHHH!!

I didn't know it was possible to screw up so bad.

Not so bad... For a cameraphone... ;-)

Laurent --> I have one, only my son uses it. For fun... ;-)

 

[David N Williams]

Thanks for both of your constructive comments....

 

[David N Williams]

Hi Pasi,

Thanks for the feedback. I've tried scanning with Vuescan and although it
appears to autofocus to a greater extent than the minolta software (the
buzzing before the scan is longer at least!) I get identical results.

I've rescanned at 3200dpi, which is the maximum on the IV, and just cropped
some of the rocks and the snow- www.lanhousesouthwest.net/example2.TIF ,
www.lanhousesouthwest.net/example3.TIF , these are the orgional raw scans -
hope that shows the problem better.

With regards manual / spot-auto focusing, I've tried a range of scans with
these options and can get no better results. With regards to a blown
targeting motor, I don't think so as I can make the focus a bit worse with
the manual option, I just can't make it an better!

I'm going to contact Minolta on Monday and get their diagnosis then return
it to the supplier for a replacement.

thanks

David

 

[Pasi Savolainen]

Hi Pasi,

Thanks for the feedback. I've tried scanning with Vuescan and although it
appears to autofocus to a greater extent than the minolta software (the
buzzing before the scan is longer at least!) I get identical results.

I've rescanned at 3200dpi, which is the maximum on the IV, and just cropped
some of the rocks and the snow- www.lanhousesouthwest.net/example2.TIF ,
www.lanhousesouthwest.net/example3.TIF , these are the orgional raw scans -
hope that shows the problem better.

With regards manual / spot-auto focusing, I've tried a range of scans with
these options and can get no better results. With regards to a blown
targeting motor, I don't think so as I can make the focus a bit worse with
the manual option, I just can't make it an better!

I'm going to contact Minolta on Monday and get their diagnosis then return
it to the supplier for a replacement.

Sorry but that looks like the original isn't sharp, it has motion blur
to north-east. On the other hand dust on original looks plenty sharp (in
example2.tif, upper-righthand corner, black spot), so scanner autofocus
appears to work correctly.

Do try and scan from some source that you're 100% sure that is sharp.
Something from which you have a very large (A4+) sharpish printout or
something that you've seen projected on the wall. You can even sandwich
something like razorblade in filmholder, hair could do too

(The dust blob may seem a bit 'blurred', but it's pretty much as sharp
as you can get _raw_ from scanner, it always needs more sharpening from
software)

 

[Alex]

Hi,

I've just purchased a Minolta Scan Dual IV with the intention of
digitizing
a large slide archive. I'm not at all satisfied with the results of my
first
few scans. Specifically, the images are very soft compared to the
excellent
sharp origonals, like a rubbish mail order developer.

I've tried scanning at all resolutions.
I've tried autofocus, spot autofocus and manual focus.
I've tried turning off all the digital 'enhancements' to just get raw
scans.

Results are always the same- unacceptable (to me) lack of sharpness.

I'm happy to offer an example: http://195.224.48.67/example.jpg

In the origonal of this image the womans face, the snow & stones in
the
foreground and even the bus and the bikers in the background are as
sharp as
a razor.

So, do I have a lemon unit or were my expectations too high? I really
can't
believe so.

Input from other Scan Dual owners much appreciated!

regards,

Hello David,
As someone else already said: are you sure your slides are perfectly
sharp?
I suggest you look for scratches or other small imperfections that
nearly always should be present on the slides. I never used slides, my
experience is nil with these.
Perhaps you could lay hands on a strip of negatives that very often are
somewhat scratched and see if you get these scratches sharp in your
scans. Many are so narrow that at 3200 dpi only a few pixels cover
their width.

With my Dual IV I used to focus on such scratches just to check the
performance. In the end I never was disappointed with the way the Dual
IV focused in the auto setting.

As far as I can judge: your Dual IV is a lemon.

Greetings, Alex

 

[Andreas]

You don't do multipass-scanning, don't you? (I don't think so, but just
in case: that could be the reason, because of alignment problems.)

 

[CSM1]

Sorry, please try: http://www.lanhousesouthwest.net/example.jpg

It looks to me that the focus is in the background, The mountains and the
bus look to be in focus as if the focus of the camera was set at infinity.

The woman may not be in focus because of possible camera shake. The blur
looks to be motion blur.

Did you try manual focus, with the cursor on the woman's face?

 

[griff]

I know this sounds daft but have you removed all the packing? my dual 4 had
a sheet of polythene over the diffuser glass with a pull tab sticking throu
the door. griff

 

[David N Williams]

Thanks for all the replies. At the suggestion of many posters, I continued
to scan my archive and ignored what I was told about sharpness - the
results, well I'm embarassed to admit that they vary from acceptable to
unbelievably good! It seems that the first batch I scanned were poorly
taken/developed/quality.... sorry.

...but now I have another problem. After only 3 days of heavy usage the damn
slide tray jams between 3rd and 4th frames, making a horrid noise and need a
knock to get it going again. Googling, I find that this seems to be a very
common design flaw that has never been fixed... I can make it work for a few
scans by blowing compressed air down the side of the tray, where the cogs
grab it, but it lasts maybe 4 scans before recurring.

Looks like it might have to be returned after all, it is not acceptable to
have it grinding itself every scan

 

[Alex]

Thanks for all the replies. At the suggestion of many posters, I
continued
to scan my archive and ignored what I was told about sharpness -
the
results, well I'm embarassed to admit that they vary from acceptable
to
unbelievably good! It seems that the first batch I scanned were poorly
taken/developed/quality.... sorry.

..but now I have another problem. After only 3 days of heavy usage the
damn
slide tray jams between 3rd and 4th frames, making a horrid noise and
need a
knock to get it going again. Googling, I find that this seems to be a
very
common design flaw that has never been fixed... I can make it work for
a few
scans by blowing compressed air down the side of the tray, where the
cogs
grab it, but it lasts maybe 4 scans before recurring.

Looks like it might have to be returned after all, it is not
acceptable to
have it grinding itself every scan

Again: I have no experience with slides, but using the film holder in
the beginning I was annoyed sometimes by much the same horrible noise
you describe, all the while the holder refused to advance anymore.
It seemed that the trouble was caused by the not perfectly closed
holder: as a result it was sllightly thicker than normal and obviously
got stuck during transport.

My suggestion is that you have slides that are slightly too thick
perhaps? I realize that the two holders are way different in their
layout, however.
Greetings, Alex

 

[Roger]

Thanks for all the replies. At the suggestion of many posters, I continued
to scan my archive and ignored what I was told about sharpness - the
results, well I'm embarassed to admit that they vary from acceptable to
unbelievably good! It seems that the first batch I scanned were poorly
taken/developed/quality.... sorry.

..but now I have another problem. After only 3 days of heavy usage the damn
slide tray jams between 3rd and 4th frames, making a horrid noise and need a

What kind of scanner and feeder?

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com