Since I got the replacement scanner on Friday, I’ve been scanning a few frames a day. For kicks, here’s an example of what the Minolta DiMAGE Scan Dual IV can do:

This is a 100% crop from the above image (the red highlighted portion viewed at full resolution):

Not bad! This negative was a pretty good one – scratched or really dirty negatives yield pretty spotty images that take a bunch of time to remove (in Photoshop or the GIMP).

The big feature you get if you spend about twice as much money on a scanner is Digital ICE, and it eliminates the need to remove dust and scratches in Photoshop. In addition to scanning the red, green, and blue channels of an image, it uses infrared light to detect defects on the film (like dust or scratches). It’s my understanding that the scanner shines this beam through the film at different angles and determines which features are part of the photo and which are really defects. Very cool, but a bit too expensive for me.

In other photography-related news, Dan and I went out yesterday morning to the Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary to take some pictures. We saw lots of birds & critters, and had a good time. My photos are due back from the camera store Monday (Dan’s got a nice digital SLR, so he gets more or less instant gratification) – I’ll let you know how they come out.