Scanning
- Minolta 5400:
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The tool that I
use to scan my 35mm transparencies is the Minolta Dimage 5400
film scanner. If you shoot slides or film and want to go digital,
this is one of the best consumer scanners made for this purpose.
Prior to getting this unit I tried using a consumer flatbed
scanner. Results were very frustrating with this method and
I am very pleased to have stepped up to a better tool. There
are better scanning methods for transparency film, namely
drum scans, but this is the best consumer grade film scanner
that I could get my hands on for the cash I was willing to
spend. I think it is a great compromise to more expensive
units and well worth it.
The Minolta 5400
has a tray capable of scanning up to 4 mounted slides or 6
filmstrip images in a batch mode. The scanner comes with software
to control the device - I use it for the bare minimum requirements
to get the image in digital form with all adjustments made
in Photoshop.
Reviews and test
on other sites get into the nitty gritty of every detail of
the Minolta Dimage 5400. I will spare you most of the details
but will share some insight on the operation of the unit and
the settings that I have success with. The screenshots below
are from Dimage Scan Utility, the software that comes with
the unit.
All of the images
in my gallery pages have
been scanned with the Minolta 5400. It is a pleasure to use
and is more than adequate for capturing detail in transparencies
and negative film.
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Resolution - I
only want to scan once and I have never found the need
to lower the resolution from the max of 5400 DPI; I always
use this setting. Since scanning at a lower resolution
does not seem to decrease the scan time, it is just as
well to scan at full resolution and resize in Photoshop
later if the need arises.
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Digital ICE -
This technology removes dust and scratches from your final
scanned image. It works wonders! I use it all the time
when scanning transparencies and color negatives. Even
with film that is straight from the developer, there is
always dust on the film. The only downside to using ICE
is a slightly softer image. I have scanned both with and
without on the same image to see any difference. The only
noticeable difference is all the dust visible when ICE
is turned off! Digital ICE can not be used with traditional
black and white film. This is reason enough for me to
never shoot another roll of B&W film. I simply shoot
color and convert to B&W in Photoshop.
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Grain Dissolver
- This feature enables an optical device to be
placed between the film and the optical sensor to reduce
the appearance of grain in your scans. It is similar to
the Scanhancer product that was developed for the Minolta
Dimage Scan Multi Pro. The software forces you to use
grain dissolver when Digital ICE is turned on, so this
feature is always in use for my scans
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Auto Exposure
for Slides - Off - Allowing the scanner to auto
expose sometimes results in dark scans that seem to remove
some of the information in the shadows. I may be wrong
in this but I choose to leave it off and make all corrections
necessary in Photoshop.
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Manual Focus
Dial - On - The focusing process is a simple
game of turning the dial on the front of the scanner
until you make two lines match up on the screen.
It seems that the scanner could probably do this
just as well as I could in auto focus mode, and
it probably can. I have never had the scanner miss
focus while in auto mode. Still, if I have the time
and am working on one slide at a time I usually
choose manual focus. If I am using the batch scan
utility, the scanner uses auto focus. I have heard
alot of people complain that the focus does not
work on the 5400. This may be true for some but
I think this assessment comes from two things: First,
some people are scanning old transparencies that
have warped over time making the focus difficult.
Second, the scanner has such high detail and resolution
that many are seeing for the first time the effects
of poor technique. An unstable
tripod and head becomes very apparent with scans
from the Minolta Dimage 5400.
-
Color Depth -
16 Bit - The plus is that 16 bit color depth
will result in more accurate colors and a greater dynamic
range. In reality, the difference will probably be very
hard for mos people to see. Again, since I only want to
scan once, I try to squeeze all I can from the machine
and scan at 16 bit color depth. the downside to this is
the file size is doubled resulting in monster 230 Mb files!
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Multi-Sample Scan
- ? - The multi-sample feature basically scans
the same portion of the film multiple times and averages
the results. The reasoning is that a single sample of
data will have some errors, referred to as "noise".
By taking multiple scans and averaging you are essentially
reducing the effect of errors. The only downside to multi-sample
scanning is a possible loss of sharpness. I generally
notice greater contrast and detail when using multi-sample
scanning so I almost always turn this on. The question
then becomes how many times to sample - the scanner offers
2x, 4x, 8x, and 16x. If I am batch scanning I may splurge
and set the scanner on 16x knowing the machine has all
night to do its thing. If time is an issue I will settle
for 2x or 4x and reduce the scan time significantly. It
seems the law of diminishing returns is in effect as I
can see little difference between 4x and 16x multi-sample
scanning.
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Color Space -
Adobe RGB - Please don't ask me to explain
color space, but as I understand it, Adobe RGB
has a much wider range (gamut) of colors available
than other color spaces, such as sRGB. Again, in
the interest of getting all the information that
we can with the initial scan, I select Adobe RGB.
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