Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I shopped for a film/slide scanner at a reasonable price, comparing online and magazine reviews of several available. On balance, this scanner had the best features, specs, price and good performance history (prior versions II and III). I am advanced amateur photo enthusiast needing to convert slides to digital images. I have an Epson 3170 flatbed, which is great for old print photos but doesn't produce good images on slides despite some hyping in a couple of reviews that it does. The Minolta Dual Scan IV looks professional, feels substantial, is easy to set up, its software is easy to follow (more advanced components require spending some time learning the subtleties), and the slide and film holders are well made and engage in the travel mechanism very well. Images produced are outstanding - easily allowing you make 8.5 x 11 high quality prints (I use a Canon i960 printer). I am very impressed and totally satisfied. Some improvements were made in model IV, that take care of a few criticisms made about model III. USB 2 connect makes data transfer fast. This is great performance and value for the money.