Full review of Minolta Dimage Scan Multi Pro posted!
By
Mike Tomkins
(Wednesday, September 26, 2001 - 01:23 EDT)
Dave Etchells gets hands-on with Minolta's high-end 4800dpi film scanner...
No doubt about it, scanners continue to improve. The latest evidence of this is our recent test of Minolta's new Dimage Scan Multi Pro. We tested the original Dimage Scan Multi over a year ago, and the new model shows a number of improvements, not the least of which is its 4800 dpi resolution. (The highest of any scanner we've tested to date.)
As its name implies, this is a multi-format scanner, handling anything from short pieces of 16mm movie film (with an optional adapter kit) all the way up to 6 x 9 medium format film - and it keeps the same 4800 dpi maximum resolution all the way up to the full 6 x 9 frame size. (That's a 580 MB file, in case you were wondering.)
The surprisingly compact Dimage Scan Multi Pro delivered excellent images in our tests, easily the equal of any other scanner we've tested, and we really liked Minolta's scanning software: It's easy enough for a novice to use, but has enough control to handle the toughest pieces of film. The film carriers are also very well designed, with many nice ergonomic touches.
About the only complaint we could find to make against it was that maximum-resolution scans can take a *long* time to complete, and at least on our Macs, the scanning software wouldn't let us switch it to the background while scanning. Overall though, a truly excellent scanner. Check it out!
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