Nikon Coolccan III or Minolta Dimage Scan Dual II?

Hi Folks,

I have decided I can't afford a new 35mm scanner, and have been looking
around for a second hand one thats around £100 (UKP). I have noticed
that the Nikon Coolscan III and the Minolta Dimage Scan Dual II sell for
about the amount I want to spend.

Which one would people choose here?

I would have chosen the Monolta because of its slightly higher
resolution, but its only USB. I would be scanning on a Power Macintosh
G3 and that has SCSI on it, and I *really* notice the difference in
speed between my SCSI Epson Perfection 1200S and my girlfriends USB
Epson Perfection 1260. This is making me think maybe I would prefer the
Nikon....

Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Andrew McCall

 

If the difference in resolution is that small, then go with the system
that will best fit your needs otherwise.

 

The Scan Dual III has just been discontinued and replaced with the SD IV -
you may just get lucky and pick up a bargain if you look around. USB II is
much faster too.

That said, if you have SCSI facility there are some good deals around on
eBay at times if you have the patience to wait for the right one.

Roger

 

Yes; the LS-30 (Coolscan III) is NOT a fast scanner, certainly not with ICE
enabled, and even more certainly not on a G3. Our Uni has two- one hooked up
to a G3 Powermac, another to an ageing Celeron-based system, and the Celeron
system is noticably faster under every test I put it through. However, the
Scan Dual II is probably slower still (tentative observation; when I tried
one I was using a rather inefficient AMD Duron system) and sounds like a
tractor, and misses ICE terribly. Personally, I quite like the LS-30 and
would value a slightly longer scan time far more than spending an hour with
PS7 and the Heal brush.

BTW, where on earth can you find an LS-30 for £100? Cheapest i've seen is in
the Park Cameras sale at £130, and that's between £20 and £120 cheaper than
i've seen it elsewhere.

 

dynamic range can have more of an impact on scanning quality than
resolution, especially for transparancy film. Some older scanners have much
poorer dynamic range than modern units

I have a scan dual I whch I hope to upgrade soon, also be careful that older
scanners may not work with windows XP or latest Mac OS (Scan Dual II should
be
ok)