Konica Minolta DiMAGE Scan Elite 5400 Scanner

With 16-bit A/D conversion, the DiMAGE Scan Elite 5400 is able capture and reproduce the depth, subtleties, and rich variations in tone and color of the original film image. Choose from Grain Dissolver or Digital ICE functionality to select the desired level of visible grain, or remove the affects of surface contaminants such as dust, scratches, even fingerprints. Pixel Polish provides automatic corrections for color, exposure, and more, and can even provide restorative simulation for faded colors on aged film.

With clean, modern styling, the DiMAGE Scan Elite 5400 is housed in a sleek metal body, slim enough to fit into small spaces on your busy desktop. It offers automatic or manual focus, with a large manual focus dial that allows you to make fine adjustments quickly and easily.

Offering compatibility for both PC and Mac based systems, the DiMAGE Scan Elite 5400 is connected to your computer through an IEEE1394 (FireWire) or USB 2.0 interface, both of which offer fast data transfer rates well suited to the large image files associated with image scanning.

What's in the Box
Minolta DiMAGE Scan Elite 5400 Scanner, FH-M10 35mm film holder, SH-M10 slide mount holder, UC-2 USB cable, FC-2 IEEE 1394 cable, AC-U25 AC adapter, DiMAGE Scan, Photoshop Elements 2.0, ST-M10 stand, RT-M10 reset tool

Product Description
The popularity of digital imaging is continually on the rise. It is involved in numerous professional applications as well as home use for e-mail correspondence, Internet web sites, and cataloging on CD. Minolta's DiMAGE Scan Elite 5400 makes it easy for 35mm film camera enthusiasts to create professional-quality digital images from their film slides and negatives. With 5, 400 dpi resolution, advanced lens optics, simple scanning and image-processing procedures, plus USB or FireWire interfaces, creating beautiful digital scans is "quick as a click."

I'll start with the good: It does excellent slide scans
at 2700 dpi and these come through in about 4 minutes,
pretty consistently and beautifully sharp. The saturation seems only very slightly lacking and I've
been noticing some deficiency in the yellow end of the color balance, but I also have to admit they are very sharp and
perfectly acceptable for a scanner at this price. The Elite also does excellent scans of very dark images, for
instance night shots, which exceeded the capacity
of my last slide scanner.

There remain other problems, however. Top of the list is the results from color negatives. Granted, the results from
my Nikon Coolscan III also suffered the same deficiency in
saturation but I bought that scanner in 1999 and figured
this would be a solved problem. When you scan a negative
in this unit, expect to have to readjust it, a hassle with
negatives for which there may be no real reference
(ie prints, etc) I've gotten beautiful rich prints from
Kodak negative film and these scans just do not come
anywhere near that richness of color. You'll do much better
to scan prints from a flatbed.

Of equal or more concern is the slapdash look of the software included. There was little or no attention paid
to the look of the user interface, which leads me to distrust the value of many of the suppposedly automated functions, such as noise reduction and dust and scratch removal.
The prescans seems to be superfluous. Nikon's
software left this in the dust. I know for a fact that the color adjust is basically for show only. It doesnt appear to
update as you adjust it. Anyway, it's advertised as some
remarkable support ware for scanning which it is not.

The most serious concern is the occasionally wild
variations in scan times that occur when scanning
negatives, however, and the varying times of setup
when you leave it unattended after scanning.
I've seen this unit take from 6- 20 minutes(!) per image at the 2700dpi negative setting
and why it should take so much longer than the slide scan
is a mystery. What's worrisome is the variation in
function. In all fairness, the loaders allow you to load
and leave 4 slides or a strip of six negatives. While the scanner works, you can take a break or snack. I really
appreciate this function and you won't find it elsewhere
at this price. The unit has a thin long profile, and the firewire
makes transfer much faster than any USB scanner will muster.

However, the variation in function and motor noise, cheap appearance of the software, and online rumors make me wonder about the long-term durability of this item, so
proceed with caution. Buy an extended warranty, I guess. So far so good on the slides, though, and that's what really counts, since my experience until now has shown me that negative scans are not gonig to be great at the sub-$1000
price point. They're certainly sharp enough, but Minolta,
where's the color saturation? Telling me to adjust
it in the crappy interface is not a sufficentt answer. And
what in golly's name is the focussing button for?
How am I going to accurately focus a laser on a
small piece of emulsion? Does this mean that this
thing goes out of focus easily? GREAT. That's YOUR
job, Minolta. Mine is to focus the camera.
I'll be looking to another company from now on.
I expect to see a software update if you want to keep the
business of a PRO photographer.


Unit good when it works, problem is it doesn't always work.   April 7, 2004
28 out of 28 found this review helpful

I purchased this unit in Dec 2003. Scanned a few slides, then came back to in a month later. The unit would not load or unload slides. It made all sorts of grinding noises. Minolta fixed it under warranty. When they shipped it back, it had a damaged face plate. I stupidly did not bother to call them back and demand it to be fixed again. I did not care about minor cosmetic damage to the face plate. I subsequently scanned over 500 slides with it with good results. I did not use if for several months, and now the unit is dead. Won't load or eject the film holder. Now Minotla claims it is damaged and not under warranty. Before you buy this unit, look for others will similar repair problems. I wish I did before I bought this scanner. Not recommened do to the poor workmanship and faulty design that requires frequent trips to the repair shop.


Faulty design useless for serious work   December 30, 2003
Serge Nakhmanson (Chicago, IL USA)
22 out of 25 found this review helpful

Please, check out postings on serious digital photography forums before even considering this scanner. I would suggest the Digital Darkroom forum at www.photo.net (you can search for DSE 5400 related threads) and especially the Film Scanners forum at www.photo-i.co.uk.

Regarding my personal experience with this scanner, my unit was faulty right out of the box (the "green lines" problem, see forums for more). As of now my (less than one month "old") scanner has been at Minolta repairs service once where it was cleaned. NOTHING was actually done to repair the problem despite the truckload of info (including my original slides and their scans) that I'd assembled for the repairs service. In the next few days the scanner will be shipped out for repairs again but I have a big suspicion that my problem will be ignored just as the first time.

This is what I think about this. Yes, if you are lucky to get a perfectly operational unit, it would produce excellent scans for you. However, my feeling is that Minolta is pushing a poorly designed and tested product that is inherently faulty and susceptible to various quality problems. Currently the risk of getting such faulty unit is fairly high, and if you read this post then you know how you will be treated by Minolta repairs. Minolta appears not to be an honorable company. There is a big chance that if your unit is not operating as it should it will not be repaired but you will not get a refund for it either.


Buy at your own peril   September 16, 2005
J. Colucci (Boston, MA - USA)
11 out of 11 found this review helpful

I bought a Konica Minolta DiMAGE Scan 5400 II three months ago. I've not produced a single usable scan yet. Most of the time my scanner has been in transit between my house and Minolta's Technical Service. The scans have fine parallel streaks that show up on large prints. After I posted the resulting scans on a photographer's discussion list I got e-mail from many other people who had problems with Minolta scanners. It looks like this product has a very poor quality control. After three repair attempts Minolta agreed to replace my scanner. Today they went back on their word. Someone from their service department called and told me my scanner is "as per factory specifications" and that the streaks "can only be seen at high magnifications" - as if that was not the whole point of buying a dedicated film scanner. My advice: get a Nikon. You don't want to deal with jerks.