[Leica] OT: Anyone has a Minolta Elite 5400 scanner?

[philippe.orlent at pandora.be (Philippe Orlent)]

Richard,
I have one and am pretty pleased with it.
However, no batch scan possibiltiy, it has a quirky startup, meaning that,
even if you follow their suggested startup sequence, it tends to "freeze"
and you have to restart the computer (a Mac in my case).
Finally, scanning at 16 bits at the full resolution and with some gizmo's
activated takes a looooooooooooong time.


> From: Richard <richard-lists@imagecraft.com>
> Reply-To: Leica Users Group <lug@leica-users.org>
> Date: Tue, 02 Aug 2005 03:30:11 -0700
> To: <lug@leica-users.org>
> Subject: [Leica] OT: Anyone has a Minolta Elite 5400 scanner?
> 
> I have been very happy with the Nikon LS-4000, especially with the bulk
> film adapter, I can scan a whole roll w/o any effort. However, I understand
> that due to the LED light source, the Nikon scanner is more similar to a
> condenser enlarger and scanning B&W negatives tend to produce more contrast
> and "blocky" image and the light source also amplifies the dust and
> scratches. I have read that the Elite 5400, especially with its "grain
> dissolver" (see http://www.scanhancer.com/) is more similar to a diffuser
> enlarger and thus does not have the problems than the Nikon scanners have.
> Notably the new Elite 5400 II does not have the grain dissolver, so either
> Minolta solves the problems some other ways or that they think it's not a
> problem for a majority of their users, which probably use color film.
> 
> Anyway, does anyone have an Elite 5400? If you are local to the Silicon
> Valley, may I perhaps borrow it for an afternoon? Barring that or if you
> are not local, may be I can send you some negatives to scan so I can
> compare the results? I can pick up an Elite 5400 for ~$500, so I would like
> to know there are tangible benefits before commiting to the cost.
> 
> Thank you very much if you can help out.
> 
> // richard (This email is for mailing lists. To reach me directly, please
> use richard at imagecraft.com)
> 
> 
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