Rating: 
Summary: 2nd one, still junk
Review: (...) After receiving my second unit. I loaded the software and plugged it in. Now, it seems you *really* need to follow close, close attention to directions on the inital setup and install of this product. Load software first, plug it in, attach usb, turn it on, let the drivers install, launch the software - make sure the door is closed until it initializes. Then all should be well. If you don't follow these steps, things go out of whack and haywire and you have to start over.After doing a few scans, it was very obvious that the scans were being viewed very dark. Nowhere near the accuracy of the original scans. You have to quite a bit of tweaking to get them to look like the original. Some slies I still have not been able to scan properly. I also noticed the software and the scanner can be a bit quirky. As others have noted, sometimes things just get fubared (for no real apparent reason) and you must restart the software and scanner. In regard to tech support from Minolta. There is NONE (zip, nadda, none) support for this product. Minolta/Konica won't support it. No tech support numbers, nothing. Which is really pathetic for such a large company. They want you to contact the vendor that sold it to you, as if they can help you with tech support! So make sure you buy it from a place with a good return policy in case things go south. I am not very happy with this product, despite the rave reviews I have seen for it.
Rating: 
Summary: Good but Quirky
Review: 1) The lack of any product support is infuriating as stated by the others.
2) The resulting images and flexibility of features provided are amazing... and I did not say "at this price." I don't consider a $270 gizmo for a $1300 computer cheap. It's over 1/5 the price of a high end host machine.
3) The scanner works well, has user friendly film strip and slide holders, does everything I expected it to do. A lot of flexibility in resolution and a lot of features for fixing freckles.
4) The main complaint is the overly sensitive startup procedure. Do it just right or it doesn't work, won't say why and just sits there. On the other hand, Do It Just Right and it may do the very same thing.
5) The documentation is helpful but poorly organized and vague. NOWHERE does it state a simple 5 step procedure for starting the device, bringing up the software and getting on with the scanning. That is THE MOST FUNDAMENTAL basic any manual should obviously provide. The booklet rambles from topic to topic throwing in a dire warning every few paragraphs and never offers a simple "Here's how you use it" sequence.
6) One of the problems with film scanners is LOW VOLUME AND POOR SHOPPING ACCESS. For most buyers, there is no place you can go and see the physical units nor see them demonstrated. Neither Circuit City nor Best Buy stores in MD stock them or demo them.
7) Overall impression: A great product that can do all you expect of it within specifications BUT an immature product that was not debugged and idiot-proofed before being thrown on the market. That is especially strange since there was a II and a III prior to this IV model.
Rating:
Summary: Good but Quirky
Review: 1) The lack of any product support is infuriating as stated by the others.
2) The resulting images and flexibility of features provided are amazing... and I did not say "at this price." I don't consider a $270 gizmo for a $1300 computer cheap. It's over 1/5 the price of a high end host machine.
3) The scanner works well, has user friendly film strip and slide holders, does everything I expected it to do. A lot of flexibility in resolution and a lot of features for fixing freckles.
4) The main complaint is the overly sensitive startup procedure. Do it just right or it doesn't work, won't say why and just sits there. On the other hand, Do It Just Right and it may do the very same thing.
5) The documentation is helpful but poorly organized and vague. NOWHERE does it state a simple 5 step procedure for starting the device, bringing up the software and getting on with the scanning. That is THE MOST FUNDAMENTAL basic any manual should obviously provide. The booklet rambles from topic to topic throwing in a dire warning every few paragraphs and never offers a simple "Here's how you use it" sequence.
6) One of the problems with film scanners is LOW VOLUME AND POOR SHOPPING ACCESS. For most buyers, there is no place you can go and see the physical units nor see them demonstrated. Neither Circuit City nor Best Buy stores in MD stock them or demo them.
7) Overall impression: A great product that can do all you expect of it within specifications BUT an immature product that was not debugged and idiot-proofed before being thrown on the market. That is especially strange since there was a II and a III prior to this IV model.
Rating:
Summary: problems with windows XP
Review: After reading all the reviews, I figured I would give this scanner a shot. After all, I am capable of reading and following instructions, and have enough technical know how to do some basic troubleshooting.
It worked great for the first hour, then froze, never to work again. My computer refused to recognize the hardware (which it had recognized moments earlier) and claimed that there were no drivers installed (and would not recognize the drivers when I tried to install them again). After doing some google research (as everyone else has mentioned, support from the manufacturer is nill) I discovered that there seems to be a problem with the way the drivers work with Windows XP. They load up fine, but after restarting the computer, the scanner will no longer be recognized.
Tried reinstalling and every imaginable type of troble shooting before realizing that even if I could get it to work this time, the fact that my computer can't consistantly recognize the installed drivers makes this not worth the time.
Perhaps this works for other operating systems, but it failed to work with mine. I am returning this and going with a more consistant, and better supported, scanner.
Rating: 
Summary: Superb precision instrument - but NOT a Plug & Play device
Review: 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!
Rating: 
Summary: You (Minolta) tell me!
Review: As a scanner, it works fine, albeit a little slow for the hi-res scans, but what do you expect for < $300? On that score, I'm satisfied. HOWEVER... Here's the rub. Every time I turn off the machine, I have to reload the software to get it to work the next time. Otherwise, all I get is a flashing green pilot light and a bunch of error messages from the software. The troubleshooting guide offers no help nor solace, and there is NO 800 NUMBER SO I CAN CALL MINOLTA (ARRGH!!!) They say I'm supposed to call my dealer (AMAZON!!?? Are you kidding) or distributor (which they DON'T list) GIVE ME A BREAK! If anyone out there can help me, please send me an email. I'M DESPERATE!! (YOU HEAR THAT, MINOLTA?)
Rating:
Summary: Finally got it to work!
Review: Before I bought one I did a lot of research and read all the reviews I could find. I just received mine today. I too had trouble installing the scanner. Couldn't get the driver to install. Finally I switched USB ports and it worked perfectly. I switched from the back of my computer to the front and it worked. Good luck!
Rating:
Summary: Yikes, the software and support really *are* that bad!
Review: For the money, I suppose this is a good scanner, but...
I read several reviews that complained about the software. I figured "These people are just too lazy to read the manual." Then I bought one and found out for myself. Trouble. Besides frequent freezing on a Macintosh which required restarts to get it to recognize the scanner again, it also refused to remember settings for batch scans. I'd set up the contrast parameters, save it as a "job" description, and try a batch scan. It would ignore the saved settings use the (too contrasty) default settings, producing very harsh scans from B&W negatives.
As others have noted, there is no tech support. There is a web page where you can submit a question, and then you will never receive an answer. All in all, the troubles made it a useless doorstop for me and it went back.
Rating: 
Summary: Great scanner but setup isn't smooth
Review: Got my new scanner today, and it's been running constantly for about 8 hours. The setup took longer than it should have (about 30 minutes), but now it's pumping out slides like crazy. No problems with my system, it's just not very forgiving if you aren't patient. The batch scan ability is a must. I wouldn't get a film scanner without it. Resolution is plenty, unless you're a professional or plan to enlarge beyond 8x10". It might even work beyond that, I just didn't try. I'd highly recommend.
Rating:
Summary: Great value, though a little finicky sometimes
Review: I acquired this scanner a few months ago in order to digitize several thousand slides taken by my grandfather between 1958 (at least) and 1973. So far, I've scanned about 950 slides and have at least that many to go.
Setup was not quite plug and play. I have a number of USB devices on my system (P4, @Ghz, 256MB, WinXP Home) and it didn't respond to the first USB plug I chose (which has worked for other connections in the past). The instructions for getting that done and for initializing the scanner itself weren't very helpful. The sequence for initializing it before any use seems to be power (doesn't seem to matter if it's turned on before the computer or after Windows is running), then start up any of the provided software items before opening the door. The instructions tell you to wait for the light to stop flashing before opening it, but I didn't see anything about needing to run any software. Starting the launcher doesn't do it. In my case, since the only way to get through this many is batch mode, I click on Batch Scan Settings (to the right of the button to start Batch Scan Utility) first, even if I'm not changing anything.
The slide holder processes 4 slides at a time, which takes about 4 minutes for slides with normal exposure, not counting the time to remove the previous 4 and insert the next set. If the slides are particularly dark or the software determines it isn't getting something on them, it slows down dramatically for that slide. Once you start, it's generally hands-free between sets (up to 1:30/slide in my experience), although lately I have a number of occasions where the gears that move the next frame into place seem to slip and the slide holder requires a (very slight) tap to get them to engage. If you're not there to catch it, the scanner times out (and probably wears a little while it clicks away) and the software has to be restarted, including turning the scanner off and on again.
I have no complaints at all about the quality of the pictures. I have it set to get the highest resolution possible, and am saving most of the pictures in a jpg format with a relatively low compression rate using the supplied Adobe Photoshop Elements software. When I find particularly good pictures, I go back and rescan them using TIFF format. The jpg files are about 8MB in size and the TIFF files came in a little more than 30MB each, explaing why I'm not doing all of them in jpg! All slides need to go in the same way, so pictures taking at a right angle need to be rotated back using the software, which involves resaving at low compression, so there's probably a little more loss there on the jpg photos.
One thing that surprised me is that the color depth only has 8b or 16b as options. The 16b has fewer options available for editing, so I've set it at 8b for the batches I'm doing. On the other hand, the color seems fine to my untrained eye, so I'm happy with it.
Overall, I'm quite pleased with the results. I've been putting in slides as I type this, so just interrupt whatever I'm doing to reload the trays and move on. The images are great, and are letting me bring back some family photos, taken by a man who's been dead for over 30 years and of people who also may have been gone for at least that long, that would otherwise have been lost.
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