Minolta USA will release its DiMAGE Scan Dual III film scanner next month at a retail price of approximately US$300.
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The scanner — which boasts 16-bit A/D conversion and a 4.8 dynamic range — scans 35 mm and APS (Advanced Photo System) films. With the 16-bit A/D conversion, it can distinguish 65,536 tonal gradations for each color channel, according to Jon Sienkiewicz, vice president of marketing, Minolta Corp.’s Consumer Products Group.
The Minolta DiMAGE Scan Dual III can reproduce all the fine tones in slide film from the dark shadows to the bright highlights, Sienkiewicz said.
The DiMAGE Scan Dual III color matching function can specify the color space of the scanned image as well as employ the monitor’s ICC profile. The point-AF function allows the scanner to be focused by clicking on the area of the image to be used to determine focus. Specific image-processing settings can be saved as a Job and reapplied to any image.
Image-processing controls include a variation palette that’s designed to simplify the adjustment of color, brightness, contrast and saturation. For advanced image processing, color and contrast can be adjusted using tone curves and histograms or calibrated by defining the white, gray and black points within the image. When it comes to creative effects, the hue, saturation and lightness palette permits the colors in an image to be rotated and shifted within the color space.
The Minolta DiMAGE Scan Dual III supports Mac OS 9.x and Mac OS X (10.1.3 through 10.1.5.) It has a USB 2.0 interface that’s backward compatible with USB 1.1.