Hiya folks, I just got a Minolta Scan Dual II film scanner, as this is a fairly common device on the 2nd hand market and well supported under sane according to the supported devices list. It took a little work to set up (I forgot Debian doesn't do a lot of auto-configuring), but it works right now.
I have however a minor problem with it using Xsane: I get a nice preview image, I can adjust colour and gamma values until I have a good representation of my original photo, and when I hit 'Scan', XSane proceeds to scan using only 1 bit per channel! I have tried every setting imaginable in XSane itself, but no matter what, I get 3-bit colour only. Weird thing is, doing a straight scan using scanimage gives me a negative image, which I can edit using the Gimp, during which it turns out to be full colour. Unfortunately, this is a labour-intensive process. I would love to have XSane just work(TM), as it is a lot easier to adjust colour in its preview mode. Anyone have any idea why it stubbornly remains in 3-bit mode? Software info (all version numbers from the Debian package database): xsane 0.96-1 libsane 1.0.15-4 libusb-0.1-4 0.1.8-17 kernel 2.6.9 Mart -- "We will need a longer wall when the revolution comes." --- AJS, quoting an uncertain source.
