Digital BW, The Print

Hi Martin and Adam,

Martin was a big help to me when I ordered my polaroid several 
weeks ago.  I ordered on the day they went Chapter 11.  The next 
morning I called and cancelled.  I wanted to wait until someone 
got a rebate check before I would chance it.  Chapter 11 exempts 
them from many of their financial obligations.

I have since bought the Minolta Pro and find it excellent for color 
negs and slides.  I'm getting great b&w also, but it seems to take 
a bit of wrestling with the software to do panoramics and 120 
film (lengthy scan times, multi sampling, selective exposure).  
Maybe everybody has to do a major minuet with their scanning 
software.  If anyone has figured out a faster, easier workflow for 
scanning B&W on the Minolta Pro, I'd like to hear about it.

Also, the Minolta Pro PR material is misleading.  It actually scans 
120  at a non interpolated 4800dpi.  It does this in two passes 
and then stitches the two together.  3200 dpi is done in one 
pass.  This may be one reason for the long scan times.

Frank

http://www.culturalvisions.com




--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "Martin Wesley" 
<mwesley250@e...> wrote:
> Adam,
> 
> I got the Polaroid 120 in May to scan my 6X7 negs and it is 
doing an 
> excellent job. There was some trouble with Silverfast and 
Windows 
> 2000 initially but that has been corrected by Silverfast. It also 
> gives me slightly better 35mm scans than the Polaroid 4000 it 
> replaced (14-bit vs. 12-bit).
> 
> My only complaint is that the medium format film carrier is not 
full 
> frame on the edges. At this time there is no glass carrier, 
which was 
> not a drawback in my mind but is an issue for a lot of people. 
> 
> I am not too concerned about support Polaroid vanishing over 
night. 
> They are much too big and famous not to continue on in some 
form, 
> probably under new ownership and perhaps in pieces.
> 
> Sounds like the Minolta has the better film carriers and the 
edge in 
> 35mm resolution at 4800 dpi. I don't know if the 3200 dpi for 
medium 
> format would be significant or not in comparison to the Nikon 
and 
> Polaroid at 4000 dpi. Probably not.
> 
> It's a tough call.
> 
> Martin Wesley
> 
> 
> --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "Mahesi 
Caplan-Faust" 
> <caplan@n...> wrote:
> > I have just stalled my order on the Minolta scanner and am 
> considering the
> > Polariod 120 which comes bundeled with the silverfast 
software.
> > 
> > It is a hard decision to make! Anyone out there using the 
Polaroid 
> that has
> > any user feed back.
> > 
> > Adam
> >   -----Original Message-----
> >   From: James Lerager [mailto:JLerager@y...]
> >   Sent: 14 November 2001 21:13
> >   To: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y...
> >   Subject: [Digital BW] Minolta Multi Pro Preliminary Report
> > 
> > 
> >   (Cross-Posted w/ Piezo 3000 group)
> > 
> >   I recently purchased a Minolta Multi Pro, and have been 
running
> >   tests with it. The scan times seem excessively long, even 
though
> >   I've assigned a full gig of ram to Minolta's scan software and 
am
> >   using Firewire (on a G4 OS 9.1): 5 minutes for a 35mm 
B&W neg
> >   at 4800, 10 minutes for a 35mm color neg at 4800, 20 
minutes
> >   for a color neg at 4800 with ICE3. These are without
> >   multi-sampling, which dramatically increases scan times 
using
> >   Minolta's scan software. (Digital Resources's review of the 
Multi
> >   Pro seems to indicate the Multi-Pro actually scans about 
10%
> >   faster using a SCSI connection on a G3 compared with 
Firewire
> >   on a G4 - figure that if you can!).
> > 
> >   I've used a Minolta Scan Elite for the past 15 months with
> >   excellent results - but only by using Vuescan software. My
> >   positive experience with the Scan Elite - coupled with 
Vuescan -
> >   is why I purchased the Multi-Pro. The Minolta software on 
the
> >   Elite was slow, and gave mediocre scans, but Vuescan 
made
> >   the unit shine - much better than a Nikon 2000 or Polaroid 
4000
> >   for B&W and for color neg (I tested both of them with their
> >   respective manufacturer's software, although not with 
Vuescan).
> >   Vuescan cut the scanning times approximately in half, with 
much
> >   better quality and wider dynamic range, when compared to 
the
> >   Minolta software. Even Ed's incorporated defect-removal
> >   software seems to work better than the much vaunted ICE - 
and
> >   without increasing scan times by very much - in my opinion.
> > 
> >   Ed Hamrick has said that he plans to create a version of
> >   Vuescan for the Multi-Pro, so I have my fingers crossed that 
he is
> >   successful, and releases it soon, and that it scans rapidly 
and
> >   efficiently, as Vuescan does on the Scan Elite. (Ed has also 
said
> >   he plans to incorporate a histogram in Vuescan in the future 
-
> >   which could really make it a dynamite program to use).
> > 
> >   Minolta has created a beautiful and intuitive user interface 
for
> >   their software, but the underlying scanning program is awful
> >   (again in my opinion), and doesn't allow the user access to 
the
> >   full quality - and potential speed - of the hardware (at least 
> that
> >   has been my experience using the Scan Elite).
> > 
> >   Too bad for Minolta; they are definitely going to lose 
> professional
> >   enthusiasm and sales for what may be a beautiful piece of
> >   hardware, which includes excellent film holders (they have 
even
> >   included glass inserts for the 6x6 to 6x9 film holder along 
with
> >   the scanner) - that is, unless they radically revise and 
improve
> >   the quality and speed of their scanning software, and soon.
> > 
> >   I plan to forward these exchanges to Minolta, and to Ed 
Hamrick.
> > 
> >   My 2 cents,
> >   James Lerager
> > 
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