Austin, With mixed feelings so far! My unit had something loose inside the case when I unwrapped it, and eventually I got the offending object out - a very small black screw. Not knowing what damage this might have done to the optics whilst rattling around during transit, or what part it might play in holding something together, I am returning it for a replacement.
However, before repacking it, I did two or three scans of a slide on Provia 100F of a country garden full of different coloured flowers and shrubs with some people in the far distance. Side-by-side comparison of the Minolta 5400 scan with the Nikon 4000 scan were like chalk and cheese as far as resolution is concerned. Even my wife could see that the Minolta scan had far higher resolution of the fine detail, and the colors were more natural. But, when I sharpened the scan, I noticed some very fine vertical striations appearing in contrasty areas of the image. On enlarging these areas to 200-400% it was clear that there was a problem. The whole image consisted of vertical bands 4 pixels wide. Across each band the image seemed to move upwards one or two pixels in each pixel column. So if you looked at a white horizontal line, it sloped upwards within each band, and then dropped back down again in the first column of the next band, giving a zig-zag appearance. Sharpening emphasized the difference between the fourth and first columns. You might have a better idea than me as to what might be causing this, although I hope it has something to do with the missing screw throwing the innards out of alignment? I'll report back when I get the replacement. Bob Frost. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Austin Franklin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> I, for one, would love to hear how you like the Minolta 5400! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe by mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED], with 'unsubscribe filmscanners' or 'unsubscribe filmscanners_digest' (as appropriate) in the message title or body