Not for Mac OSX users
Written: Nov 29 '02 (Updated Dec 01 '02)
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Pros: Overall good image quality and relatively fast in OS 9.
Cons: Poor software support and customer support. No Mac OSX support to date.
The Bottom Line: If you run OSX, don't bother. No driver & poor support. OS9 or a PC? A decent scanner, but watch out for support.
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| joeldm's Full Review: Konica Minolta Dimage Scan Elite II Film Scanner (... |
Although the Minolta Dimage Scan Elite II is advertised as being "Mac compatible," that label is misleading. It's last year's Mac-compatible, or more to the point, last century's.
When I was looking at digital film scanners in the sub-$1000 range, the Minolta stood out because it had a fast Firewire connection and a good suite of software add-ons to the scanner driver from Applied Science Fiction, Digital ICE, GEM and ROC. Since one of the uses I was going to put it to was scanning old slides and negative film, and the reviews I had read on these were very positive, the ASP software "suite" seemed to be the icing on the cake.
The scanner itself is very simple to use, it's lightweight, but appears to be well-made. The basic software package, Dimage Scan, is straightforward, but also has a more fully-featured "expert" version with lots of options and both do provide decent scans with good color fidelity and detail and the software packages have several useful features, such as batch-scan and the ability to do corrections before scanning. The software package is generally good.
If I stopped here, I would have to say that this is a good scanner for the money, although it's the only film scanner I've every used. The problem is, that while they seem to support Windows software well, (although I can't say as I don't use a PC to scan) in my experience, they have very poor Macintosh support. And I'm a very experienced Mac user and routinely advise others on their Macs.
Mac OS 10 was released to the public in March of 2001. That's 20 months ago. OS 10.1.3, for many the first truly usable OSX, was released in February of 2002, about 9 months ago. You can also run OS 9 within OSX in what is called "Classic" mode. Classic is the version of the "old" Mac OS that runs in emulation within Mac OSX which allows Mac users to continue to use their old pre-OSX software and devices. The last version of OS9, Apple's previous Macintosh OS, version 9.2.2, was released a little over a year ago and Apple has publicly stated that OS9 is dead (they even held a funeral!) and that by next year it won't even run on new Apple computers. The current version is 10.2.2 and OSX is for most users, stable and compatible. And yet in all this time, there has been no update released by Minolta of their Dimage Scan driver software that is compatible with any of these Mac OS releases.
Despite the fact that their website says that OS 9.2.1 is the last Mac OS that Dimage Scan is compatible with, OS 9.2.2 does work with Dimage Scan, but OSX does not -- at all. And when I wrote Minolta about this, they told me that it does work in Classic mode. Well, that's partly true, but only if you use the USB connection and only if you're running an OSX version earlier than OS 10.2. I forget exactly where the cutoff was between OS 10.1 and 10.2 or when it actually quit working in Classic mode. Of course, there went the biggest reason for choosing this scanner over the Nikon: Firewire. Although it's moot since now it doesn't work in Classic at all.
I wrote them back about this and their answer was a rehash that it worked in Classic, completely ignoring my report that it didn't work as they said it did. Subsequent emails to them elicited a suggestion that I try downloading the OSX driver from the Minolta Europe site, but they couldn't guarantee anything. That's good, because it wouldn't even install or run stably and when later Mac OS releases allowed it to install, the Dimage Scan software wouldn't setup or recognize the scanner until Mac OS 10.2 (Jaguar) was released and although it installs and runs now, in OS 10.2.2, every scan from a color negative or slide has a distinct blue cast to it that can't be corrected for. The manual's suggestion was to reset the machine, which I did, which also didn't work. So, although I use OS 10.2.2 for everything else, I'm back to booting into OS9 just to use my newest peripheral device: the Minolta Firewire scanner. Modern, eh?
My last email to Minolta went unanswered and they still have no release date for any software on this side of the pond that is Mac OSX.x.x compatible. So far there has been one release on the Minolta Europe site only and no upgrades. Just to be thorough, I checked support for several of Minolta's other digital film scanners and none of them have software released for Mac OSX.
There is a very good second-party scanner driver product called Vuescan that appears to be a decent driver that does work with OSX and the Minolta scanners, but it lacks the features I need at present, although the company that produces it seems to release updates weekly which have addressed many issues of compatibility and usability, so there's hope still -- just apparently not from Minolta. And since Minolta has already declined my suggestion that they take this scanner back so I can buy a Nikon, I'm stuck booting back-and-forth from one OS to another to use a scanner I bought because I thought it might be a _bit_ faster than the Nikon! Nikon's film scanners are OSX compatible and for a while now, I think.
And Digital ICE, GEM and ROC? Never used 'em, so I can't say how well they work. I still have several boxes of new film that doesn't require such manipulation. Once I start using them, I'll amend this report appropriately.
So for now, there goes my other reason . . . .
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 750
Interface: USB
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joeldm
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Reviews written: 1
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