Dimage Elite 5400 Scanner

[sk_arts]

<<Dan, your scan times seem really slow. I'm interested in buying this

scanner for stock photography use, so speed is important due to the volume

of work to be scanned. >>

 

If I may butt in, 65 Minutes for 208mb file of full resolution doesn't seem slow

to me for a high quality scan, would you require this laarge an image for

stock??

[pili]

Anno,

 

You're right, most photo uses would require only 25mb scans, but I plan to scan always at highest resolution to make digital masters of my slides, just in case any future use needs a bigger file.

[aa2000]

I received my unit last Friday, and since outside it was raining all week-end long, I had some of time ti play with my new scanner. Here are few quick notes, written in hury (lots of things to do at office today):

 

- The dynamic range (the real one) seems to be very good; the scans looks perfect to me, regardless they were made from bw negs, color negs, or slides. No noise, and lot of details in the shadows.

 

- I had no chance to play with Nikon 4000 ED, but I have lots of slides scaned by a local lab. The scans made on Minolta 5400 looks at least the same, if not better. Considering that the lab let the Nikon on its default settings, I can get actually better scans from my new Minolta, since I carefully dealing with each frame to scan.

 

- Previously I had an HP-S20 film scanner (2400dpi). Compared to this, Minolta takes way much time to scan one frame, even without ICE.

 

- 60 seconds for color negatives/slides, 5400 dpi, 8b, no ICE, no Grain Dissolver

 

- Approx 30 seconds for BW negatives, 5400 dpi, 8b, no ICE, no Grain Dissolver.

 

- ~15 minutes (!) for color negatives, 5400 dpi, 8b, ICE on, Grain Dissolver on. Not yet tested ICE and Grain Dessolver on slides.

 

- You'll need USB 2.0 or FireWire adapter. An USB 1.1 adapter will backpressure the unit while scanning color films, doubling time.

 

- More will come; you can ask me about the scanner and I'll try to test/investigate and respose.

- Sorry for my english.

[igsman]

Hey, Alexandru,

 

So how's your experience with the 5400 now after a few months of using it? How does it do different print films such as Reala, 400UC, Gold 100, Supra 400, etc.? Any experience with those films?

 

Thanks.

[aa2000]

Hello "Strange Man",<br><br>

 

Overall, Minolta 5400 is a great scanner and I'm happy with it. Too bad it's kinda slow... With ICE enabled, it is even MUCH slower. Beside this, it scans excellent any kind of negatives, nothing to complain. No matter your nagative is +/-2EV off, the scan will be still perfect.

<br><br>

Since I found the color redition to be a little cool, I set the Exposure_Control to R=+0.2, G=0, and B=-0.3.

<br><br>

On dark slides the noise somewhat noticeable, but nothing to worry about. A correct exposed slide will come out great.