Peter,

Very good news indeed. I purchased an original Minolta 5400 right after doing my review when the scanner first came out. It is by far the best 35mm film scanner I have used, and have done a lot of scans with it. What is really impresive to me is that I can get really large, high quality prints from the 5400 scans that improve on the original and any possibility of a dirct print from the film to a considerable degree. The new price and features make it an impossible to beat deal from my experience.

David: And the price is right!

Peter

I've been using the original Polaroid Sprint Scan 4000 scanner with Silverfast software (I think I am currently using version 6). Do you know by any chance if the new Minolta scanner works with Silverfast software? I've gotten very sharp files from slides scanned with at 4000 dpi. In your experience, is there a significant improvement by going to 5400 dpi or are you merely going to see more grain? (My guess is that 5400 is better otherwise why would they offer it but I'd like to get real life experience). The other thing I've noticed with my Sprintscan 4000 is that the scans suffer from flare when a very bright image is against a dark background (for instance white flowers against a black background will produce flare in the background area that isn't in the original slide). Is this also a problem with the Minolta scanner? Thanks

Jason

Jason,

The new Minolta Dimage Scan Elite 5400 II is not yet supported by Lasersoft SilverFast Ai6. It will probably be some weeks before Lasersoft will have a version of SilverFast for the scanner. You might check their web site at http://www.silverfast.com/ in coming weeks.

I have the original Minolta 5400 and am thoroughly pleased with its performance. In addition I have found that I get a very worthwhile advantage scanning at its maximum optical resolution of 5400ppi. A part of that advantage is that the reproduction of grain is much more "accurate" and usually results in an image with less apparent graininess than if scanned with a 4000ppi scanner. Before I got the Minolta 5400 I would have assumed what you do, that you might see more grain, but that is not the case as apparently there is less of the grain/pixel interference effect. The bottom line is that the 5400 has allowed me to scan 35mm resulting in a print size up to 16x21 inches, a degree of "enlargement" I rarely achieved either making analog or digital prints with nearly as much success in the past.

In other words the Minolta 5400 has allowed me to get more out of my 35mm film library in print image quality than ever before.

The flare problem you have experienced with the SprintScan was resolved in a later version, the essentially identical scanner, the Microtek ArtixScan 4000tf.

David,

Thanks for the information. Your comment about the perceived grain being lower when scanning at 5400 dpi than at 4000 dpi is interesting. It's the opposite of what I would have expected. Perhaps much of what I see that looks like grain is the so called grain aliasing effect that I've read about. It seems to be much less of an issue with slower slide films but I find it can be pretty pronounced with negative films, even some that are supposedly relatively low in grain. I get terrible results with Agfa's Vista 100 film for instance! I was wondering if you use some software settings to reduce grain when you scan with the Minolta 5400 (something like GEM or the software setting to reduce grain in Silverfast 6). I find I get pretty good results scanning with autosharpen on my Sprint Scan 4000 and then using Neat Image to reduce grain afterwards if necessary. It would be nice not to have to go through this extra step though.

I think I will look into upgrading to the 5400 or the newer 5400 version II you reported though if it will eliminate my flare problem and increased grain is not an issue.

Jason

Jason,

I agree grain is sometimes more of a problem in scans of 35mm color negatives even though not so much scanning at 5400dpi as it was in the past. But I do attribute that more to the interference effect when the pixel size/pattern and film image grain produces an exaggerated scanned image graininess.

I find apparent graininess can be reduced quite effectively scanning with the Minolta 5400 and using SilverFast Ai 6 to do the scanning. First, there is a hardware grain reduction facility in the scanner. What this seems to be is a very fine diffuser, much like the Harrison motion picture lens filters used to reduce contrast. It is a subtle effect, and does not eliminate grain, just makes it a bit less apparent perceptually. The SilverFast has its own grain reduction software facility in the driver, that is also subtly effective without appreciably effecting the image detail information.

I have used the Kodak/ASF GEM Pro Photoshop plugin quite a bit. But it is quite easy to go too far with that option and also loose some image detail. However, particularly with portraits, Kodak/ASF GEM Pro can be an effective retouching aid to effectively smooth complexion tones as well as graininess, while maintaining good sharpness of details like eyebrows and eyelashes. And if you apply GEM to selected areas like a sky where grain is more apparent, leaving the more detailed parts of an image not selected and unaffected, the result can substantially reduce grain in those areas where it is often most apparent.