The Pixel Polish options can be enabled in Automatic mode or you can manually select one preset from each of the three Custom categories: Color, Image brightness/contrast or Object/scene. As with all of these adjustments, you can see the effects in real time in the preview window.

Clicking on the Image adjustment tab gives you access to any of the following tools: Tones curves/histogram

Brightness, contrast and color balance.

The Variations adjustment, very similar to Photoshop's

Hue, saturation and lightness correction or Selective color correction.

And the ever important Unsharp mask options. This might be the most misunderstood filter of any photo editing or scanning program. The Unsharp mask is used to sharpen your image and it's very important that it be set properly.

The Preferences settings:

Exposure control for negatives, auto compensates for the density of the negative, manual is good for showing the difference in a bracketed series of images.

Auto expose for slides is usually enabled as the density range of slides is very uniform but it can be manually adjusted if dealing with under or overexposed slides.

Autofocus at scan activates the AF function during prescan and final scan

Color depth: 8-bit for each RGB channel, 16-bit and 16-bit linear can also be made. 16-bit and 16-bit linear can only be saved as TIFF format and the Auto Dust Brush can not be used.

Multi-sample: Reduces random noise by analyzing the data of each sample scan; 2, 4, or 8 samples can be made.

Retouching level adjusts the amount of Dust Removal Brush processing that will occur.

Index scan priority allows selection of high-speed index scans or quality index scans with prescans.

Color matching function matches the scanned color with the specified color space. You can use the monitor's ICC profile to display the image as accurately as possible.

Rotate all frames 180° is for rotating APS index frames in the index scan window.

The Custom Wizard is used for automated scanning. Job settings can be saved and recalled whenever you need them. You insert a film, slide or APS holder into the scanner, load previous settings or input new ones, select the frames (or all) you want to scan and then hit the Start button. When scanning is completed the holder is ejected.

Steve's Conclusion

I've looked at a number of the "inexpensive" film scanners, those selling for less than $500, and none of them have warranted a review. I had always maintained that you get what you pay for in film scanners. The DiMAGE Scan Dual III has definitely lowered the amount that you need to pay to get the job done. For the semi-pro, pro or very demanding user this is not your scanner -- but for everyone else it's a godsend.   If you have a good number of slides or negatives to convert it will pay for itself in short order.

And it's fast!   On my computer (P4/2000MHz with 1GB RAM) with an add-in USB 2.0 card and an Adaptec 7-port 2.0 hub, I was able to do a 2820dpi scan of a color slide using maximum Auto Dust Brush processing in just one minute and nine seconds. The index scans take only a few seconds and Prescans are accomplished in about ten seconds. It is really amazing how fast scanning is now that we have a robust interface like USB 2.0 to handle the massive amounts of data that's created.

The effect of the Auto Dust Brush, on the left is none and on the right it's full strength. In its defense let me just say that this was a really nasty slide. The instructions are quite clear that you should pre-clean your negatives and slides as best you can before scanning. The Auto Dust Brush tool works to some extent but it isn't magic and can't be expected to remove all the spots and specks. It has no effect on scratches or surface defects. The higher end DiMAGE Scan Elite II and the Nikon Coolscan 4000 do a much better job at removing spots, specks and surface defects with Digital ICE ³ technology but they cost 2 to 4 times what the DiMAGE Scan Dual III costs.

The Pixel Polish correction is also less than perfect. It's kind of like the Auto Levels command in Photoshop, unless there are well defined white and black points in the image the "automatic" corrections are less than accurate. That's not to say that it doesn't work because it does but sometimes it doesn't so you should be ready to take the good with the bad. The manual color correction tools work very well and you can see the effects of all of them except for the Auto Dust Brush in the prescan windows. This saves a lot of time, most other scanners require you to prescan to see the changes.

The bottom line: It's a very fast scanner that is reasonably priced and does a very good job of rendering both negatives and slides into high resolution digital images. There currently is no other film scanner on the market that can compete against the DiMAGE Scan Dual III at this price point. If you've been waiting for a truly affordable film scanner -- your wait is over!

Here's a 35mm slide scan with no editing other than using the color correction controls in the Easy Scan interface. This was a PR slide sent to me from SanDisk Corp. of one of their newly appointed honchos.