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Which film scanner?


Mike Rawcs

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I've just been scanning a few slides with my Minolta DiMAGE Scan Elite 5400. I only had one slide in the film holder so when the machine attempted to make initial scans of the empty spaces in the film holder I just pressed eject. Big mistake!

 

When I try to launch the software I get

 

"Unknown error.

Confirm all other DiMAGE Scan software is closed".

I'm running on a Mac (Snow Leopard) and I've re-installed the Minolta software but to no avail. Has anyone had this problem?

 

If you had to buy another scanner (I'm not a pessimist; I just KNOW it's kaput) which would you buy and why. I want quality scans.

 

Any help most welcome!

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Thanks for the help everyone. I shoot 35mm. The Vuescan software sounds interesting.

 

Apparently, with the Minolta software, if you interupt the scanning process a file that is created at the start of the scan is not deleted as it would normally be. Next time you attempt to use the software it finds the file and assumes that a scan process is already taking place and so gives the error message. All I have to do now is find the file and delete it!

 

When I get it fixed I may still buy another scanner and keep the Minolta as a spare so the question "which scanner do you recommend?" still stands. I want quality over speed - speed and quality will do just fine.

 

Thanks again for the help.

 

Mike.

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O.k. - the scanner is working - sort of. Yesterday I got a "hardware error" and it has just stopped a couple of times so I'm still after advice on a replacement. The latest scanners seem to be flatbed: does anyone use these? They seem attractive as they can batch scan about twelve negs at a time but, for me, quality comes first; I'd rather put up with individual scans and get quality results. What do you use?

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O.k. - the scanner is working - sort of. Yesterday I got a "hardware error" and it has just stopped a couple of times so I'm still after advice on a replacement. The latest scanners seem to be flatbed: does anyone use these? They seem attractive as they can batch scan about twelve negs at a time but, for me, quality comes first; I'd rather put up with individual scans and get quality results. What do you use?

 

Mike,

 

I use a Minolta Dimage Dual Scan III, but I'm investigating upgrades. The Epson V700 and V750 currently seem to be the best flatbeds that do film. Most of the reviews say they are not quite as good as a dedicated film scanner, but they are pretty impressive. You can also create contact sheets on a flatbed by scanning the sleeve pages. Google for some of the reviews/comparisons.

 

John

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I've been using a Nikon coolscan 4000 and am very impressed with the results. Its small and does a great job with 35mm, plus they are both available and reasonable on the used market. I cut my negatives into strips of 6 and use the Nikon's automatic feed. Figure about 2 hours to run through a complete roll of 36 and make the scans you want - not at all unreasonable compared to wet processing.

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John,

After reading the Plustek review, I'm going to give it a miss!

 

Thanks

John

 

Agreed. If you read German, look at the summary/recommendations page. With my admittedly iffy 30+ year old high school German, it looks like they are saying nothing compares to Nikon scanners. Conventional wisdom agrees.

 

When you think about it, all that work you will put into scanning over the coming years probably makes spending a little more on a top-tier brand seem wise.

 

John

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The scanner stops because you overload the software and it requires time to process.

 

My best results with my Elite 1 5400 have been to just scan for correct density and color bal. You will need to scan in the profesional mode and not quick scan. The program can save the settings so you do not need to set up each neg.

 

Everthing else is done in Photoshop.

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  • 1 year later...

I have Minolta Elite 5400 and have no problems under MacOSX 10.6.x

 

what software do you use? and which version.

 

changing from this scaner towards Epson V700 is downgrade. I had V700, bought Minolta 5400 Elite, it takes me about one week of scaning to make decission and sell Epson. I miss it only due to possibility of scanning 120 film.

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I am currently testing the Epson V700/750 especially for black and white I think it's as good as the Coolscan and even better with the possibility of go up to 16 bits and beyond to 4800 dpi, if you want to print !

see here:

http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/film-forum/160651-epson-v700-750-very-good-our.html

Regards

Henry

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5fourths, as I posted earlier, the MSFLIBINIT file needs to be deleted to cure the prolem. The fix can be found here. I'm using the latest Mac software release. At the beginning of each scan the above file is created and is deleted at the end of the scan sequence. The problem is caused when a scan doesn't complete properly for any reason.

 

"Unknown Error" in OS X 10.2.8 with Minolta Dimage 5400 - Photo.net Digital Darkroom Forum

 

I've since moved to Vuescan and like it very much. It is quicker to scan than the Minolta software and produces much smaller Tiff files. Colour negs with the Minolta software were producing 250mb Tiffs!

I'm shooting b&w now but Viewscan gives 70 - 80mb files at the "A3" setting. Much more manageable.

 

 

Mike.

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