>From: ALEXSCIFI@xxxxxxx
>
>Has anyone personally conducted a shoot out between the Nikon 2000 slide
>scanner and the Minolta Multiscan scanner...
Almost, but not quite. I owned a Scan Dual, and spent about three hours in
Camera World comparing the Nikon and the Scan Speed. I went in there
expecting to buy the Scan Speed (they had an open-box special for under a
grand), but walked out with the Nikon.
What sold me on the Nikon after using the Scan Dual for a few months was
the motorized film strip transport, and the availability of a slide bulk
loader. With the filmstrip loader, you can pre-scan up to six frames, give
each of them individual adjustments, then bulk-scan them into files.
The Scan Speed uses the same negative and slide carriers that the Scan Dual
has. It's a pain loading them, especially because I'm scanning negs that
have been rolled for 20 years! (In fact, I'm scanning right this moment.)
I don't know if the Multi Scan has motorized filmstrip loading, or bulk
scanning of any kind. If so, that may sway things for you, but if not, and
you plan to do LOTS of scanning, anything to speed the process is useful.
I actually found the Scan Speed to be FASTER than the LS-2000, with actual
stopwatch measurements, but in my mind, that was more than offset by having
to babysit it.
The Nikon uses a colimated light source, which is good and bad. It creates
sharper scans than a diffused light source, but brings up every scratch and
dust spec. For that reason, Nikon added a patented technology for removing
scratches and dust, but it also softens things -- no net gain.
The Nikon software also has some serious problems for serious users. The
default color space is sRGB, which is a Bill Gates insipid Least Common
Denominator color space, purposely designed small so it will display on ANY
monitor, including $99 Indonesian junk that they bundle with sub-$1000
computer systems. I have a Color Match monitor; I see no reason why I
should be penalized, espectially with a supposedly "pro level" scanner.
So I scan everything in 48 bits and tweak in in photoshop, since the Nikon
software is useless if you want accurate, wide-gamut color. This means I
use up disk space twice as fast as I'd like to, reducing the appeal of
batch scanning -- a roll of film consumes about 2GB! (But it sure is
satisfying to Photoshop them down to a ~15MB compressed TIFF... :-)
Nikon Scan also supports color-matched CMYK and HSL color models. But you
don't want to scan in CMYK unless the image is destined STRICTLY for a
press, and HSL will ONLY save 48 bit TIFFs, even though neither the 8-bit
option, nor other file formats are disabled.
My impression is that they spent too much time on the GUI, and not enough
time thinking about workflow and how it will actually be used. The GUI has
nice, rounded edges, pretty buttons, and pop-out tabs, and is a PAIN to
use! You can't save crops independent of color settings, independent of
resolution -- these three things are orthogonal, thank you!
The scanner itself does a beautiful job, if you have the patience to coax
the best out of it. If Nikon is serious about serious users, they need to
AT LEAST support a wide-gamut, 24-bit color model.
>Objective--generate 11 by 14 prints on the Epson EX printer, with Photoshop.
What I use is Genuine Fractals to up-sample in order to get 300dpi at
11"x14". It does a nice job. Of course, it can't do the stereotypical TV
trick of zooming in on some total fuzz from a store security camera,
revealing the serial number on a dollar bill, but the artifacts it creates
in up-sampling are more natural and pleasing than the simple bi-cubic or
bi-linear up-sampling found in Photoshop.
Note that neither of the scanners you're considering will give you 300dpi
at 11"x14" without some up-sampling. If your prime directive is printing
big, you might consider the Minolta Scan Speed, which will give you 7.5%
more pixels (2800spi vs. 2700spi).
: Jan Steinman <mailto:jans@xxxxxxxxxxx>
: 19280 Rydman Court, West Linn, OR 97068-1331 USA
: +1.503.635.3229
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