Minolta Dimage Scan Elite 5400 II Impressions

I have been using my 5400 II for a few months now. I got it a week after it was announced at PMA.

 

In anycase, has anyone else seem to notice that the scanner gives a magenta tint on Slides? Plus a problem of underexposing?

 

I have scanned E100G, Velvia 50, Provia 100F and 400F, and all of them have a magenta tint. Seems "ok" with negative.... but I have only scanned a few NPS 160, Kodak HD400, and Agfa Ultra 100.

 

Than there is the underexposed problem. Under my light table, a Cabin light panel, my shots are well exposed. But when scanned it can be sometime 1 stop under. Shots I have bracketed with a +/- 1, the +1 scan very well.

 

IS this something I should be acustom to?

I've had a 5400II for a week or so and have been trying to familiarise myself with it. It seems like a nice unit with surprisingly good resolution (I would guess about 3600).

 

I too find the scans to be underexposed and to have poor colour accuracy. Reds have a magenta tint, dark greys/near black a blue tint.

 

The most accurate results with my 5400II seem to be had by scanning without colour correction and then adjusting levels in PS, as well as bumping up the midtone RGB values with the curves tool. Alternatively if the Minolta Posilinear profile is (wrongly) assigned to a (nonlinear) scan in PS the results are acceptable, or just about.

 

Johnny, you might notice that if you allow the Minolta software to do the colour space conversion you get a vastly different result (look at the RGB histograms separately in PS) than if you don't and then use PS to do the conversion. On some of my scans the Minolta software drops the green channel completely (RGB G value of 0) for a whole range of dark reddish colours - hence an obvious magenta cast.

 

I was of the opinion that something was wrong, probably software, and contacted Minolta. They have had me send the unit back to them for repair/calibration.

<p>Any of you have one of the 35mm Minolta 5400s you'd like to sell me? :) I can't find them anywhere on the interweb!</p>

<p>Hello,<br>

I just bought a new 5400 II that I'll be selling on after I scan about 60 slides. I did pay just over £700 for it though, so may be more than you want to spend.</p>