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

[michael.francis at gs.com (Francis, Michael)]

I too have this scanner - for me on XP the batch scanning works fine (you do
have to start their app manually the first time of each session). The
quality is not as great as I'd hoped. It is somewhat demoralizing to compare
20D photos with scanned negatives. FWIW most of my best (read sharpest,
noise less) scans were done with my old Canon 2710 - I'm not convinced the
extra resolution buys much. I'd also second Philippe somewhere close to 7
mins for a 16bit 5400DPI scan - this is on a fast 3.6GHz 2GB ram XP box -
with the CPU pegged. I keep on intending to do more experiments, but it is
such a long time for each scan I don't bother much. Perhaps I could get
better scans, but it takes a long time and I certainly don't want to
optimize for each picture - that's what Photoshop is for. I have
investigated using the 20D and a macro lens as a scanner - so far the
results look promising and much quicker ...

-----Original Message-----
From: lug-bounces+michael.francis=gs.com@leica-users.org
[mailto:lug-bounces+michael.francis=gs.com@leica-users.org] On Behalf Of
Philippe Orlent
Sent: Wednesday, August 03, 2005 7:48 AM
To: Leica Users Group
Subject: Re: [Leica] OT: Anyone has a Minolta Elite 5400 scanner?

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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> 



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