Scion Reviews

Please, check out postings on serious digital photography forums before even considering this scanner. I would suggest the Digital Darkroom forum at www.photo.net (you can search for DSE 5400 related threads) and especially the Film Scanners forum at www.photo-i.co.uk.

Regarding my personal experience with this scanner, my unit was faulty right out of the box (the "green lines" problem, see forums for more). As of now my (less than one month "old") scanner has been at Minolta repairs service once where it was cleaned. NOTHING was actually done to repair the problem despite the truckload of info (including my original slides and their scans) that I'd assembled for the repairs service. In the next few days the scanner will be shipped out for repairs again but I have a big suspicion that my problem will be ignored just as the first time.

This is what I think about this. Yes, if you are lucky to get a perfectly operational unit, it would produce excellent scans for you. However, my feeling is that Minolta is pushing a poorly designed and tested product that is inherently faulty and susceptible to various quality problems. Currently the risk of getting such faulty unit is fairly high, and if you read this post then you know how you will be treated by Minolta repairs. Minolta appears not to be an honorable company. There is a big chance that if your unit is not operating as it should it will not be repaired but you will not get a refund for it either.

After about one month using this scanner, I am very happy with what I got for the money. In fact, I liked it so much I bought two!
It is simple to use and gives almost professional results for a much less than professional price. The HW based cleanup features work great, even on Kodachrome slides, though it slows the scanning process considerably. But hey, good things are worth waiting for. I use the scanner basically for two things: output for the internet and output for making prints. I can scan 4 slides at 72 dpi with no image cleanup in about 4 minutes, including loading and unloading the slides. The same 4 slides will take about 40 minutes with image correction turned on, at high enough resolution for 8x10 prints. The results are outstanding!
If you are serious about finally doing something with all those old family photos (slides or negatives), this is the scanner for you.

I like this scanner. It is very simple to operate for basic scanning, and it includes a great scanning software to help you with more complicated tasks. The value is incredible. I have printed my scans from this scanner in 13x19 size and larger with success. Digital ICE and Pixel Polish are two welcome features that you'll be thankful for. Compare this unit to similar from Nikon or Cannon and you'll see the value Minolta had thrown at you.
The software allows basic image manipulation, such as crop, rotate, chose resolution, size, etc. Additionally, it offers you to correct color gamma, exposure and focus. There are Photoshop like controls, if you'd like to apply changes to the image.
4 slides or 6 negative shots at a time. Not very noisy - just a high pitch sound with a little humming.
Don't base your opinion on one review from a guy with a faulty unit - what product doesn't have at least one not working unit?

After studying professional reviews (including CR), I decided on the Dual4. Forewarned by other users' comments about troublesome startup, I followed the manual's detailed installation instructions step-by-step. No problem whatever! Realize well that this is NOT a Plug-and-Play unit you just plug into a USB2 slot; if you do, Windows will use its own lame-duck generic WIA scanner driver, and gone are all the wonderful enhancements that Minolta's marvelously sophisticated scanning software offers. THE big secret is patience; precisely follow the instructions (same goes for my HP flatbed scanner) -- install the software from the CD first, and *only then* connect the USB cable when you are instructed to do so. If you don't: well just read what dissatisfied reviewers have to say. Also, when the manual tells you to initialize the scanner "with the door closed", it doesn't explicitly tell you to remove the film holder [it's the only way you can close the scanner door, after all]. Although better written and organized than an Asian DVD-player manual, there are some dense spots that you will need to explore on your own. Still, you can't unlock all the treasures of the software until you read (painstakingly, I might add) the software capabilities. I've only had the scanner for a few weeks but, once I learned how just a hair on the negative will magnify to a tree trunk on the print, it does an astonishing job of converting analog film slides to digital images that you can enhance in the accompanying complete PhotoShop Elements 2 software. A magnificent tool indeed but, like any precision tool, it needs careful adherence to instructions and some experimentation to realize its full potential. An unbeatable harware product, with software fine-tuned to provide the ultimate in quality images. Even so, lack of online tech support, such as simple driver updates, is disconcerting. Ask Amazon for tech support? You must be kidding!

I am totally impresed with this scanner. I was scanning 35mm film with an Epson 2450. What a difference! More latitude in the tonal range. Very sharp, Scanner has auto and manual focus. Professional driver software. Images consistant in color from scan to scan.
Have not used the dust remove feature yet. So far all my negs and trans are flawless. Even thou it is only 3200 dpi, if you know photoshop, the quality of the scans are so good I have no problems enlarging to 36x24 poster. I did a test and enalrged in the computer to 100 inches and just checking it out on the monitor it still held together NO PROBLEMS!
Have had the scanner for about a month and use it everyday and have had no start up problems or any other sort of problems, yet. But then again I use a MAC. Read the instruction manual before you do anything!
Anyway, well worth the $270 I spent !

For the price this is the best film scanner I have ever used. I have scanned close to 9000 slides and negatives since I purchased it in February. It is easy to use and I have been quite pleased with the color balance and exposures it returns. Images are all sharp and crisp. I just wish it would scan 120 and 220 film.

I bought this scanner to scan some of my old slides and b/w negatives. From the beginning this scanner was just great.

Setup was a snap, nice plug-n-play USB 2.0 interface. Software was easy to use. I set it up to do batch scanning and no problems. The dust removal and color correction are really useful features.

But the real proof was in the prints that I made. I'd been shooting with a Canon D30 and making 8x10 and 11x14 prints for some time. But the prints from the Scan Dual III at even 11x14 were just incredible. I haven't tried larger prints, but I'm sure they will be great at least to 16x20.

Trust me you won't be disappointed with this scanner. My old slides and negatives have been brought back to life!

I have scanned over 2,000 negatives so far with this scanner. Initially I thought the quality was not all that good, but it turns out that the resolution of the scanner is better than that of the film and I was seeing the film grain at the higher resolutions. The enclosed software is pretty good for clearing up minor problems with the scans, but I prefer using other image processing software to clean up the pictures. I batched my scanning so everything was scanned at the same generic settings, however on a couple of pictures I really like I manually played with the settings in the enclosed software and was able to do a lot of color correction and cleanup. I have not tried slides yet, but I am confident they will scan just as well. If you want to archive your old slides or negatives, this is the way to go.

Installation was a breeze with my pentium 4 and windows XP pro.

I bought this scanner to scan over 200 old slides for my parents' 65th birthdays, and I was very pleased with the total package. The scanner itself is nice and small; the software package is sufficiently powerful. It was easy to set up, and we were busily scanning pictures within a few minutes of unpacking it. The quality of the scans is unbelievable, too. Of course, if the slides are truly damaged (mold, scratches, etc.), the software can't improve the picture too much, but for most slides the digital image is just stunning. The quality options are wide and impressive, too--I've been using the 1200x1600 setting, but you can go up to around 2820 dpi, which is much more than most people will need. I really like being able to scan all four slides at once (they are saved as separate files).

I only have two complaints. 1) The scanner doesn't scan 100% of the slide--no matter how you put the slide in the holder, it always crops one or two sides by a few centimeters. Bummer, but no big deal overall. 2) It'd be nice to be able to scan more than 4 slides. But again, for the money, it's not a major concern.

Otherwise, I've been very pleased with this scanner and would recommend it to anyone wishing to digitize old slides and/or film. Considering that you can pay up to $2 per slide to have it done professionally, this little unit is quite a savings if you plan on doing a lot of scanning.

I bought this scanner and while pleased with the some of the scans, the software always seems to be locking up and is quite a nuisance. It is currently in the shop being repaired. If the Nikon IV wasn't so much money, I would have dumped it and went with it.

I had some difficulty obtaining quality scans with this scanner, and the software wasn't very efficient. Focusing was often inaccurate. However, I tried Viewscan software and the results became very acceptable and fast. 4 slides at 2800 dpi in about 10 minutes. Accurate colors and 8x10 prints are very sharp. I have scanned about 600 slides without a malfunction.

Scanner gives Great Color and Contrast but the setup seems to take forever, under Win2000 scans terminated if IE/NS Browsers are used. ...,

The Microtek Scanmaker X6 is a pretty sharp looking unit and the installation of the unit and its software were straightforward. It will scan in documents and pictures up to 8.5 x 11 inches quickly and with extremely high resolution. Once the picture is taken, the included software will allow you to manipulate the colors, add effects etc. just like a computer graphics expert (well, kinda). The only real problem I had with it stemmed from it being my first scanner. The unit comes with very few instructions. A simple pamphlet on how to scan in nice photos would have been extremely useful. I was able to quickly discern how to adjust the resolution and scaling so that the pictures I was scanning didn't turn out to be several hundred MB large, but I am not sure everyone will realize how to do that. Even now, I am not sure whether it is better to scan in a picture with high resolution and then scale it down with the software or scan it in with a lower resololution and scale it down less. . .see the kind of confusion I am talking about? On the upside, I have been able to augment my website with tons of pictures and scan in some important documents. The software will even allow you to use your scanner as either a fax machine or a photocopier (provided you have a modem and printer, respectively). Generally speaking, I recommend the unit to people who at least have some clue about how to use computers well. The real amateurs will probably never figure it out.

I recently purchased this scanner despite being aware of the bad reviews at Amazon because so many other independent comparative reviews gave it top recommendations.

I found both the hardware and software very easy to install on my Dell laptop using Windows 98, and overall the scanner is well built with a tough aluminium case.

I could not fault the scanning quality, which produced a very clear, sharp image. However, I was a little disappointed in the fax software which, as far as I can tell, can only fax one scan in one call and seems to have to take two passes of each page. Also the word recognition omnipage bundle made too many mistakes (although it has to be said that if you are going to do a lot of OCR then you are probably advised to buy a specialist package such as Omnipage Pro V.9 rather than rely on bundled software that comes with any scanner).

Apart from these software limitations, the actual scanner is second to none. I think that Microtek have recently updated the installation software so that many of the problems encountered by other reviewers are now ironed out.

One annoying thing that I did notice was a faint ticking sound coming from the transformer when the scanner is switched off but still plugged in at the mains. Although this is, according to Microtek, perfectly normal, it can be annoying if you have sensitive hearing and work in a very quiet environment. Most people would never notice it.

In summary: the scanner output quality and build deserves 5 stars, whereas the bundled software, although easy to use, deserves 4 stars. Overall I will give it 4 stars because of the ticking sound which forces me to switch it on and off at the wall socket.

I got my scanner from Dell along with my computer. Itinstalled easily and has worked fine. I have had absolutely noexperience with scanners. Mine makes great scans in all modes but I normally use it in the scan to file mode. I have had no reason to try to reach the help lines or any thing like that. I like it.

I concur with the prior reviews. The Scanmaker X-6 was a nice functional product for it's time, but I really had trouble getting it to install and run in Windows 98. After a couple of frustrating sessions, I got it to work (the included software Dynacion Swiss Army Knife did the trick) and it has worked well for several years. The already mentioned quirk of not recognizing the scanner unless it is turned on at computer system boot up was the biggest annoyance.

I just upgraded to Windows XP and the scanner was obviously not compatible. Went to Microtek's site and downloaded the updated software drivers. First install attempt ... the install program crashed. Waited a couple of days. Second attempt... install program ran, but then on reboot got a can't find some kind of .dll file message. Uninstalled the scanner and reinstalled. Third time.. ran install (setup.exe program in Disk 1 of download) again and it worked perfectly. Set up and ran on reboot.

Scan quality is still good... not as good as new scanner and is relatively slow (Extended parallel port EPP Interface), but also $100-$200 cheaper than buying a new scanner.

Good product, finicky "not so hot" to "crummy" install software. Nonexistent support from company other than downloads. I'm not an expert software, computer guy, just persistent and did get it to work. I'm using it with XP ... also works well with XP control panel scanner icon and software... but will probably upgrade to better scanner in next few months (Apr 2004 post)

This is an amazing scanner, the quality is incredible, and it is faster than most parallel scanners. It is great how you can fit big objects because of the lifting top. It is a really high quality scanner but the software is horrible. The ScanSuite software that it comes with has 16-bit components which make it slow and ugly, but it works. A major problem I found was when I installed Ahead Nero Burning ROM CD-RW software, this application installs the latest ASPI drivers, the scanner also uses the ASPI layer, but the problem is that the scanner drivers use an old 1996 ASPI.DLL to interface with the ASPI installed on your system. After installing Nero my registry corrupted because the scanner driver caused ASPI to fail which caused data to get written wrong on my hard drive. So just be careful with ASPI if you buy this scanner, if it wasn't for that problem I would have rated it a 5!

I've had this scanner for about 3 years now. It has worked perfectly in Windows 98/ME/2000/XP. I mainly use this scanner for photographs. The scan quality is excellent, as evidenced by correct tonal reproduction. You can even scan 3D objects by placing them on the scan bed, effectively getting a digital camera quality image. The only downside is speed. This scanner features a parallel port connection, which severely cripples its performance potential. Basically, if you need an all-around quality scanner to be used for occasional scans, look into it.

I purchased my Microtek ScanMaker X6 and just recieved it. After taking about twenty minutes to install the USB version on my PowerBook, I installed the drivers, and it worked wonderfully. To get the best scans out of this machine, it requires that you use higher DPI. I found that using ScanWizard through Photoshop much more accurate than using the ScanMaker program. Overall, this product produces EXCELLENT images (And I'm a picky photographer). Great deal!

I've recently upgrated from ME to XP Prp and found that this scanner is not working (not recognized) under Windows XP. Microtek doesn't seem to have specific drivers fron WIN XP, only for WIN 2000, 98, and 95. Although I did purchase this scanner about 2 years ago, I never had problems with it under Win ME.

This is my 2nd Microtek Scanner and I am relatively pleased with it this far. After I downloaded the updated driver supporting Windows ME, I could quickly install the scanner, although the "Scan Detector" does not always recognize the scanner. Since this model has no OFF/ON switch you could be wasting energy. Reflective art and negative 35mm filmstrips scan well (especially the "Descreen" and "Pre-Scan" functions sold me). The included LiquidLight 35 functions as a transparency adaptor, but it only works well with 35mm filmstrips, slides are difficult to scan due to a missing mechanism that hold them into place (Microtek suggests the use of clear tape!!!). Using the USB port, I find the scanner to be reasonably fast but noisy. For just $130.00, I think it's a good deal.

Even though some people did not like this scanner, I compared it directly with The Hewlett Packard 5300. I scanned a photograph on each scanner. The scan on the Microtek was MUCH sharper! Plus, the V6 UPL will scan legal size documents as well as 4 full size photos. This feature does come in handy from time to time. This is a reliable scanner that produces sharp results. The only thing I don't like about it is that it is alittle noisy during the scanning process. It makes a "scraping" noise that bothered me at first because it sounded like the scan was causing friction. But, once you get used to this scraping sound, the results are quite good. Plus, the price is very reasonable. I recommend this scanner very highly. I have had mine for over 6 month now with no problems.