Grain Dissolver in 5400 (hardware from Minolta, not GANE)

[munchello]

In Silverfast Ai6, can the diffusion lens technology (the Grain Dissolver), built into the DiMAGE 5400 be used with or without Digital ICE? Conversely, can Digital ICE be active without the diffusion lens automatically sliding into position between the light source and the film?

This question was asked in December of 2003 (topic: "ICE and Grain Disolver (sic)," and misunderstood by M. Rossee at Silverfast. The question was never adaquately addressed by someone at SF.

We know that both GD and ICE are hardware/firmware implemented, and that the Minolta Driver will not let one use ICE (infrared dust and scratch detection/software correction) without GD diffusion. Apparently, SF will allow independent implementation of either one. The contol buttons let one select each independently, but it is difficult to judge by the results on a monitor, or in a print, if one or the other is actually working as selected.

It would be nice if someone at SF would definitively answer this question clearly and concisely.

Thanks in advance for the answer.

[LSI_Rossee]

Dear Munchello.

As you stated ICE and Grain disssolver are a firmware issue. We can not look into the firmware of a scanner but we have contacted Minolta in order to solve this issue and either me or one of my colleagues will state advice here.
Kind regards.

[munchello]

It's been a month and still no answer from Minolta? Also, SF programmers wrote the controls for these features, yet they are unable to tell me whether the software instructions activated by the buttons actually do anything? I find this difficult to believe.

If the buttons are there in Ai for Grain Dissolver and Digital ICE, someone at Lasersoft must know whether they actually do anything, and whether they can operate the features independently of each other. Lasersoft had to get the firmware from Minolta in order to write instructions that work through the Silverfast GUI.

Please! Don't just pass the responsibility to Minolta. It's your software.