Minolta Dimage Scan Elite 5400 II

Advantages: Excellent colour rendition and resolution
Disadvantages: Slow to scan at top spec

...I say slow when referring to personal settings. When I bulk scanned photo's it was quick. The software for it has very good functionality but the bulk scan could be improved. You have to pre scan, correct the frame and final scan individually. It would be helpful if you could correct each one on an individual basis and then scan them all, that way you wouldn't have to come back to it every 10 mins. Another issue I encountered was it kept crashing my Pc. I tracked it down to the nforce 2 chipset, I tried three different branded motherboards and it crashed on all of them. I now have it set up on a pre N force 2 pc. Overall the quality of the pictures is great, but it is annoyingly slow... Read review

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Advantages: good quality, lots of editing features, produces up to A3.
Disadvantages: slow, requires more time to edit than your digi photos, glitchy software.

...afterwards. Depending on your editing skills the end result was, usually, pleasing. Though, for the price i paid (the price of a very good digital camera), it was hard to know what to expect. After a lot of scanning i found that my 35mm slides and negatives looked sharper when scanned in at 1800 dpi (dots per inch) as opposed to 5400dpi. Confused? Well, its all down to the 'resolution' of the slide/negative itself. At 5400 dpi the scanner was scanning detail that wasn't actually there. When i blew up the photos to 100% they looked overdone (!). At 1800 dpi they were just right and printed well up to A4. If you need A3 then you'll have to scan higher than 1800dpi. If you use the ICE software to automatically remove dust, the scan takes many minutes. I could boil the kettle and make a cup of tea - with brewing time! - and come back and it would... Read review

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Advantages: A fine scanner at a budget price.
Disadvantages: Yet anotherthing to plug into your PC!

.../semi-pro photographer and three years ago I bought a Minolta Dimage Scan Dual II brand new. These can now be found on Ebay for £100 or so and offer a fine machine at a rather more affordable price. The results I've had are truly superb, with fine detail and subtlties of colour faithfully reproduced. The Scan Dual II is a machine capable of scanning 35mm and APS (with optional adaptor) negatives with an output resolution of up to 2820dpi. This is more than enough to produce images on your PC which, after re-sizing will print at exhibition quality at A4. At A3, which few people would want to print, the quality still remains excellent with only a minor fall off in image quality. The unit measures 150x100x320mm and weighs in at 1.5kg., so it takes up little room on the desk top. Although it connects to your PC via a USB port, it needs to be powered via... Read review

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