Can I optimize my scanning results with a Minolta 5400 by using a third party software?

[fp56gallery]

I`ve been using the Minolta original software for scanning my slides.

After quite some trial and error I`m now getting quite good results.

Decisive seems to be the right choice of focus (have settled on manual

focus and about 1/3 away from the center toward an edge. Which advice

would those of you who changed to a third party software for the

Minolta 5400 give to me, taking into account that I want to get the

best quality out of scanning.

Thanks in advance.

Franz

[rob_landry]

Silverfast AI 6. Make sure you have a hardware monitor calibrator and get the IT 8.7 reference targets for the films you shoot (if E6). For negs, Silverfast's NegaFix profiles do an amazing job. Vuescan is another choice which I've used extensively since the early days, but Silverfast is better with negs and its application of color management is better than Vuescan last time I checked. If all you scan is E6, Vuescan and Silverfast are very close.

 

Both Vuescan and Silverfast make adjustments in 16-bit before output to a photo editor, whereas the MSU (Minolta Scan Utility) performs adjustments in 8-bit and then outputs a 16-bit file. Strange, I know. This can lead to poor results if a lot of adjustments (levels and curves) are needed on the image.

[mendel_leisk]

I usually output 16 bit linear thru Minolta Scan Utility, and then scan-from-disk with this file, in Vuescan. Fairly good results, particularly since profiling the scanner with a slide target, thru Vuescan.

 

I've also started remounting my slides in Gepe 7012 mounts. When mounted per Gepe's instruction on the box flap, the slide doming is reduced significantly, as tested with Vuescan manual focus. Going one step further, using strips of 3m sticky notes as shims within the mount, I can bring the doming virtually to nil.

 

I might post a fresh thread on the slide mount subject subject.

[__jon__]

Tried Vuescan and settled on SilverFast. A very good application--miles beyond both

Vuescan and the Minolta software. It isn't cheap, but you get what you pay for...

[jtk]

The interesting thing about the Vuescan/Silverfast discussion is that the proponents of the more expensive software (hundreds more when you buy it, perhaps thousands more when you update and use multiple computers) NEVER go into significant detail explaining the nominal advantages.

 

So Jon, here's your chance to vindicate Silverfast. How is it better than Vuescan?

[constance_cook]

I bought Silverfast and didn't like it. I use KM's software and like it very much. I should sell the Silverfast but just haven't gotten around to it so it just sits in its box on my shelf. I should have waited to buy it until after I had gotten the scanner and worked with it.

 

Conni

[ray robertson]

I am using both Vuescan and SilverFast Ai6 Studio with my Minolta Elite 5400 ll. Essentially, I bought the SilverFast product because of the vast range of color controls that allows for adjustments not possible in Vuescan.

 

But I'm real puzzled by the way SilverFast handles negatives. Sure, there are lots of ways to change the hue and saturation to your heart's content. One could spend all day playing around with the hundreds of permutations for just one frame. But what seems to be missing is an initial, reasonably accurate preview to start off with.

 

I just don't get this with SilverFast. I have to work with the image a lot to get the hues and shades close to my memory of them. But sometimes one's memory is not infallible. One is not sure what the heck was the color of that background wall.

 

Vuescan almost always seems to give me a fair representation of the true color balance in the preview. There might be slight adjustments I would prefer to do if I could, rather than do them later in Photoshop, but the main thing is, I'm starting off with not only a credible color balance but (from experience) a reasonably accurate one.

 

I should add that my monitor is calibrated with ColorEyes software and an X-rite DTP94 colorimeter. My prints are what I see on my monitor and my scans are what I see in the preview. But not always with SilverFast. Vuescan allows one to scan into the ProPhoto color space. SilverFast does too, with slides. No problem. With negatives? Aargh! The results are all wrong. Negafix is not designed to work with ProPhoto. Adobe RGB is better, but better is not good enough. If you can't get a perfect match between preview and scan then you are wasting your time doing any more than broad adjustments in the scanner software.

 

There's something seriously wrong with SilverFast. It's very easy to blame oneself. You know; 'this is a complex program with a steep learning curve, blah, blah, blah', 'maybe I'm doing something wrong. This program was designed for professionals after all'.

 

Well, I don't buy it (although I have already bought it).