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We loved Minolta's DiMAGE Scan Dual III when we reviewed it last year (May 2003 issue). Now Minolta has made it even better, upping the resolution from 2820 dpi to 3200 and adding 16X multi-sampling. Retained are simple operation, wide range of features, and terrific and speedy scans via USB 2.0 Hi-Speed interface (it's also compatible with USB 1.1) from 35mm slides and negatives (and APS films, with optional adapter). The brochure lists the computed dynamic range as 4.8 (same as for the DiMAGE Scan Dual III), while the instruction manual states it as 3.6. Either way, our test scans reproduced whatever shadow and highlight detail our test slides and negatives contained, as was the case with the Dual III. Maximum color depth is 16 bits per channel, as with the Dual III.
 In Use
Like its predecessor, the DiMAGE Scan Dual IV is very easy to use. There is an order that must be followed to set things up, but it's pretty simple. First, load the software onto your computer (insert the supplied CD into the computer's CD drive, double-click the installer icon, and follow the on-screen directions), then shut down the computer. Connect the USB cable to scanner and computer, connect the scanner's power cord to a power outlet, make sure the scanner door is closed, and switch the scanner on. Start the computer, launch the scanning utility (either as a stand-alone, or via the supplied Photoshop plug-in), open the scanner door and insert the film holder, and you're ready to start scanning. Of course, once you've done the initial installation, you need only start the computer and launch the scanning utility to scan.
If you are new to scanning (or just want to keep things simple), launch the Easy Scan utility (by pressing the Scan button on the scanner, or by double-clicking the Easy Scan icon). Then simply follow the on-screen guides, which will lead you through the entire process. If you're a power user and like to do it all yourself, launch the DiMAGE Scan Dual4 utility (by double-clicking its icon to use as a stand-alone, or via Photoshop's Import menu if using it as a plug-in). If you use the DiMAGE Scan Dual4 utility as a stand-alone, it will ask you to name the image and select a destination when you click the Scan button. If you use it as a Photoshop plug-in, it will open the scanned image on your desktop, from which you can process and save it via Photoshop.
 The DiMAGE Scan Dual4 scanning utility window is pretty straightforward. At the top are areas to select film size (35mm, or APS cassette if the optional Advanced Photo System adapter is installed) and type (Color negative, Color positive, B&W negative, or B&W positive), plus buttons to access Help and Custom Wizard windows. Below those are buttons for Index scan, Prescan, Scan, Eject, Auto Dust Brush, Pixel Polish, Grain Dissolver and access to Preferences. Below that are tabs for the Index scan, Prescan, Exposure control, Pixel Polish, Image Correction and Digital Grain Dissolver windows.
The Index window displays index scans of all the slides in the mounted-slide holder (up to four) or frames in the film holder (up to six), along with the input and output resolution (you can set these yourself, or use one of more than 100 Job files provided, which do it all for you based on specific job requirements such as a specific size inkjet print or Web-page use), magnification and file size (a 3200dpi full-frame scan from a 35mm image results in a file size of around 36 MB). The Prescan window displays the selected image in larger form, along with controls to rotate or flip the image (you can do that in the Index-scan window, too), magnify or reduce the image, and crop the image. It took about 20 seconds to do an Index scan of a holder-full of slides or film, and about the same to do a prescan.
The Exposure Control window provides sliders to adjust red, green and blue channels individually or together, along with the ability to save the settings and apply them to all frames. Serious users will spend most time with the Image Correction window, which provides a bunch of controls: curve/histogram, brightness/contrast/color balance, hue/saturation/lightness, variations (shows original image surrounded by variously adjusted ones for easy comparison), selective-color correction (lets you adjust cyan, magenta, yellow and black for each color: red, green, blue, cyan, magenta and yellow), and unsharp mask—and you can display pre-/post-correction comparisons.
 Pixel Polish (for color film only) automatically adjusts color, brightness and contrast, or lets you select custom settings for color (slight cast, strong cast, faded color), brightness/contrast (backlit, underexposed, overexposed, low contrast) and object/scene (person enhance, person fair complexion, person suntanned, night scene, trees/flowers, and sea/sky). Digital Grain Dissolver lets you select processing level (low to high) and grain level (ISO 25–3200), and apply it to a sample area or the entire image.
The Auto Dust Brush reduces dust and scratches in final scans, and is not as efficient as the Digital ICE feature in higher-end Minolta scanners, but quicker (and not having to license it helps keep the scanner price down).
The Unsharp Mask provides the usual Amount, Radius and Threshold level sliders, but adds a Shadow protection level slider that can be used to limit the mask effect in the shadow areas for a more natural effect. Other features include batch-scan capability, and color-space choices, which include the ubiquitous sRGB, the popular Adobe RGB 1998, and a host of others.
 That's a lot of capability for any scanner, much more amazing in such a low-priced one.
The scanner is pretty quick, too: Final scan times for 36MB 3200-dpi images ranged between 2 minutes 14 seconds and 3 minutes 12 seconds with the Auto Dust Brush at its default setting, with most in the 2:30 range. Pixel Polish increases scan time, but not by a whole lot. And slides and negatives took about the same amount of time. As a point of reference, going by the publishing-industry standard of 300 dpi at published size, we could run one of the DiMAGE Scan Dual IV's 14-megapixel 3200-dpi scans 15x10 inches in Photographic. Inkjet prints from the 3200-dpi scans looked great at 13x19 inches (as large as our inkjet printer goes).
Street price for the DiMAGE Scan Dual IV is around $300. The scanner is compatible with Macintosh computers (G3 or later, running OS 8.6–9.2.2, OS X v10.1.3–10.1.5, OS X v10.2.1–10.2.8, and OS X v10.3–10.3.1) and PCs (Pentium 166 MHz or later, running Windows 98, 98SE, 2000 Professional, Me, XP Professional and XP Home Edition) with at least 64MB of RAM available for the scanner and at least 300MB of available hard-drive space (at least 256MB of RAM and 2GB of hard-disk space recommended). Scanner dimensions are 5.7x3.9x12.8 inches and 3.3 pounds. For more info, visit www.ph.konicaminolta.us.
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