Minolta 5400 feeder

  • Thread starter Thread starter Dps
  • Start date Start date
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Dps

Hi all,

I recently managed to snap the small lock of the negative 6x feeder of my
Minolta 5400. It is not that I actually forced it a lot somehow, it just
broke when I pulled it to open, exactly where the small spring forces the
plastic tab to the locking position. I asked the local representative if
they have a replacement, and he told me he would ask. Finally, he told me
that there is no replacement and I have to buy the whole thing, which is
quite stupid, as all you have to do to replace it is to unscrew two screws
and put them back (that's exactly what I did, I used one of the tabs of the
slide feeder). The question is, did anybody else have this problem? Did
anybody get a replacement part and not have to buy the whole thing? Finally,
I have sent a letter to Minolta HC in Europe (I live in Greece). People
there do not even bother to answer, so I keep sending every day. Is there
some other e-mail I could use?

thanks a lot!!!

Dimitris
 
Dps said:
Hi all,

I recently managed to snap the small lock of the negative 6x feeder of my
Minolta 5400. It is not that I actually forced it a lot somehow, it just
broke when I pulled it to open, exactly where the small spring forces the
plastic tab to the locking position. I asked the local representative if
they have a replacement, and he told me he would ask. Finally, he told me
that there is no replacement and I have to buy the whole thing, which is
quite stupid, as all you have to do to replace it is to unscrew two screws
and put them back (that's exactly what I did, I used one of the tabs of the
slide feeder). The question is, did anybody else have this problem? Did
anybody get a replacement part and not have to buy the whole thing? Finally,
I have sent a letter to Minolta HC in Europe (I live in Greece). People
there do not even bother to answer, so I keep sending every day. Is there
some other e-mail I could use?

thanks a lot!!!

Dimitris
Click to expand...
The days of just replacing a part are long gone.
Today most service houses just replace modules.

If you could find who manufactured (assembles) the film holder you may be
able to get the one part. But, I would not hold may breath!.

It the price is $20 or less for the film holder, Buy it!
 
Dps said:
Hi all,

I recently managed to snap the small lock of the negative 6x feeder of my
Minolta 5400. It is not that I actually forced it a lot somehow, it just
broke when I pulled it to open, exactly where the small spring forces the
plastic tab to the locking position. I asked the local representative if
they have a replacement, and he told me he would ask. Finally, he told me
that there is no replacement and I have to buy the whole thing, which is
quite stupid, as all you have to do to replace it is to unscrew two screws
and put them back (that's exactly what I did, I used one of the tabs of the
slide feeder). The question is, did anybody else have this problem? Did
Click to expand...

I seem to recall a recent posting of the same flavour. Google groups.
anybody get a replacement part and not have to buy the whole thing? Finally,
I have sent a letter to Minolta HC in Europe (I live in Greece). People
there do not even bother to answer, so I keep sending every day. Is there
some other e-mail I could use?
Click to expand...

I used to get e-mail replies from Minolta Canada within 2 days. Since the
Konica merger I have not gotten a single reply to anything at all except a snail
mail letter to the head shop in Japan. Most recently, e-mails to K-M (US), K-M
Canada and K-M germany have gone 100% non-reply.

As to the 5400 negative holder, I've been using it and the slide holder several
times per week for the past year and a bit ... nothing broken.

Good luck.

Cheers,
Alan
 
The days of just replacing a part are long gone.
Today most service houses just replace modules.

If you could find who manufactured (assembles) the film holder you may be
able to get the one part. But, I would not hold may breath!.

It the price is $20 or less for the film holder, Buy it!
Click to expand...

Thanks, that's what I figured. It is not for the money though, it's about
stupidity, bad engineering, bad aftersales and bad attitude, for a product
that is extremely good in scanning
 
Hi Alan,
I seem to recall a recent posting of the same flavour. Google groups.
Click to expand...

It was probably mine in another thread
I used to get e-mail replies from Minolta Canada within 2 days. Since the
Konica merger I have not gotten a single reply to anything at all except a snail
mail letter to the head shop in Japan. Most recently, e-mails to K-M (US), K-M
Canada and K-M germany have gone 100% non-reply.

As to the 5400 negative holder, I've been using it and the slide holder several
times per week for the past year and a bit ... nothing broken.
Click to expand...

Good luck to you too with your holder, I hope it never brakes!
 
Dps said:
Hi all,

I recently managed to snap the small lock of the negative 6x feeder of my
Minolta 5400. It is not that I actually forced it a lot somehow, it just
broke when I pulled it to open, exactly where the small spring forces the
plastic tab to the locking position. I asked the local representative if
they have a replacement, and he told me he would ask. Finally, he told me
that there is no replacement and I have to buy the whole thing, which is
quite stupid, as all you have to do to replace it is to unscrew two screws
and put them back (that's exactly what I did, I used one of the tabs of the
slide feeder). The question is, did anybody else have this problem? Did
anybody get a replacement part and not have to buy the whole thing? Finally,
I have sent a letter to Minolta HC in Europe (I live in Greece). People
there do not even bother to answer, so I keep sending every day. Is there
some other e-mail I could use?

thanks a lot!!!
Click to expand...
Dimitris
Click to expand...

One tab on Scan Dual II broke after about 3200 images scanned. Ordered
replacement (for about $30can). When it came I was suprised to find 2
new holders in the package. Suggestion: get a couple. If I was getting
another minolta, I'd get an extra holder (of each kind), up front.
That way, you have back-up, and you can load one while the other is
scanning, to save time.

I agree with your assesment, the holders are the Achilles heel of
Minolta scanners. Atleast the replacements aren't too expensive. Mine
took about 3 months to come, though!
 
I agree with your assesment, the holders are the Achilles heel of
Minolta scanners. Atleast the replacements aren't too expensive. Mine
took about 3 months to come, though!
Click to expand...

WOW At least here they have it in stock!!!
 
new holders in the package. Suggestion: get a couple. If I was getting
another minolta, I'd get an extra holder (of each kind), up front.
That way, you have back-up, and you can load one while the other is
scanning, to save time.
Click to expand...

Actually I did just that. My 5400 arrived yesterday along with
an extra holder, one of each type.

Mike

P.S. - But I may hack into one of the two to make it compatible
with RBT 3D stereo slide mounts. :-)
 
Actually I did just that. My 5400 arrived yesterday along with
an extra holder, one of each type.

Mike

P.S. - But I may hack into one of the two to make it compatible
with RBT 3D stereo slide mounts. :-)
Click to expand...

Hack!?! Please, this offends my ears! ;)

I have a new Elite 5400 now, also, and have extra holders "on order".

I'm finding my times/quality outputting Vuescan 64bit Raw Files
(without gd) to be very good. Just to be on safe side, I warm-up 1/2
hour and initialize with Minolta sw first.
 
Hack!?! Please, this offends my ears! ;)
Click to expand...

Sorry, didn't mean to do that. How about if I say
"enhance one to provide RBT Mount stereo pair scanning"?

"Hacking" only refers to my mechanical skill level. :-(
I have a new Elite 5400 now, also, and have extra holders "on order".
Click to expand...

Maybe I'm not remembering right, but didn't you order them some time ago?
I ordered everything last Thursday night from B&H in NYC and they
arrived Tuesday (in Oregon, about 3,000 miles away). In addition to the
scanner and extra holders, I also ordered a couple rolls of both
Fuji Astia 100F and Velvia 100F to see how they work out. I've
used neither as of yet (mostly Provia 100F and Kodachrome 64).
Scanner is my "surprise" birthday present from my wife (birthday
is next week Friday on the 5th).

Would postage be excessive (they're not very heavy) for you to
order holders from B&H (or did you)?
I'm finding my times/quality outputting Vuescan 64bit Raw Files
(without gd) to be very good. Just to be on safe side, I warm-up 1/2
hour and initialize with Minolta sw first.
Click to expand...

I've very little experience with it thus far, but so far so good. My
first install didn't work, but moving to a different USB port on my
machine and uninstalling my old Polaroid film scanner software made
it work (don't know which fixed it, tbd). Next weekend will give me
more time to play with it. It came with the current software version
and all the booklets say "Konica Minolta" on them, so at least it's
a recently built scanner.

I've used Vuescan "forever" (and have been upgrading for about as
long, what a great deal -- makes me almost want to register a
second time), but haven't tried it with the 5400 and with the
reported problems, I'm not looking forward to it. I'll see if
I can get comfortable with Minolta's software first.

Mike
 
Sorry, didn't mean to do that. How about if I say
"enhance one to provide RBT Mount stereo pair scanning"?

"Hacking" only refers to my mechanical skill level. :-(


Maybe I'm not remembering right, but didn't you order them some time ago?
Click to expand...

I ordered them maybe a week back. Maybe you recalled my trials getting
extra dual II holders. I'm not that comfortable ordering mail order,
tho this would have been a good opp. for a test order from B&H.
Instead, I've just ordered them thru the dealer I bought my 5400 from.
They're saying 2 weeks IF they can get them from Toronto (I'm in West
Coast Canada).
I ordered everything last Thursday night from B&H in NYC and they
arrived Tuesday (in Oregon, about 3,000 miles away). In addition to the
scanner and extra holders, I also ordered a couple rolls of both
Fuji Astia 100F and Velvia 100F to see how they work out. I've
Click to expand...

Velvia100F scans very nice, that has been my "test" roll.
used neither as of yet (mostly Provia 100F and Kodachrome 64).
Scanner is my "surprise" birthday present from my wife (birthday
is next week Friday on the 5th).

Would postage be excessive (they're not very heavy) for you to
order holders from B&H (or did you)?


I've very little experience with it thus far, but so far so good. My
first install didn't work, but moving to a different USB port on my
machine and uninstalling my old Polaroid film scanner software made
it work (don't know which fixed it, tbd). Next weekend will give me
more time to play with it. It came with the current software version
and all the booklets say "Konica Minolta" on them, so at least it's
a recently built scanner.

I've used Vuescan "forever" (and have been upgrading for about as
long, what a great deal -- makes me almost want to register a
second time), but haven't tried it with the 5400 and with the
reported problems, I'm not looking forward to it. I'll see if
I can get comfortable with Minolta's software first.
Click to expand...

You should definetely try Vuescan with the 5400. Keep it dead simple
when doing the "actual" film scan. Here's some of the details of my
slide workflow:

1. Warm up first (1/2 hour), initialize with minolta sw, then with
Vuescan.

2. Lock exposure with advanced workflow (prevents having doing a
prelim. exposure calc. pass).

3. Turn GD OFF, crop to max, and output 64bit rgbi.

****end of physical scanning****

4. Scan from disk from above file, outputting 48bit rgb raw file to a
separate directory. Set the raw file to be output with "save" (this
will incorporate the cleaning, and rotate the raw. Set cleaning to
medium. Specify rotation, in the "list" field. Set crop position to
"auto" and size to 4860x7290 (more on this). Also output some jpegs or
whatever, for ref.

5. Review the jpegs, if any debris is missed, open the last (48 bit)
raw file in ps and clone it out.

6. Run a batch in ps, downsizing all the raws by resetting the
resolution field from 5400 to 4000. (I'm still debating over this, but
end result seems to be no discernable detail loss, with file size for
48 bit raw dropping from over 200megs to around 110.) Note, coupled
with the crop dim's. in step 4 (which just squeak in, slightly smaller
than slide mount), the finished file samples down to 5400x3600 (a very
nice round number, huh!).

7. Run some final tiff's or jpegs from these last raws. Note, a bug in
Vuescan of late causes problems scanning from rotated raws. My
workaround is to "scan-from-preview". This seems to work fine.
 
You should definetely try Vuescan with the 5400. Keep it dead simple
when doing the "actual" film scan. Here's some of the details of my
slide workflow:
Click to expand...

Thanks for your workflow suggestions. I'll definitely upgrade my
installation
to the latest version and try vuescan with it after I've "perfected"
using
Minolta's software. I'll then be able to best judge how I want to
do things eventually after things settle down (will need to work
custom ICC's into the workflow at some point too, I bought the set of
IT-8 slides (plus print)
from the fellow in Germany as well).

Thanks, and I hope your slide holders come soon.

Mike
 
Thanks for your workflow suggestions. I'll definitely upgrade my
installation
to the latest version and try vuescan with it after I've "perfected"
using
Minolta's software. I'll then be able to best judge how I want to
do things eventually after things settle down (will need to work
custom ICC's into the workflow at some point too, I bought the set of
IT-8 slides (plus print)
from the fellow in Germany as well).

Thanks, and I hope your slide holders come soon.

Mike
Click to expand...

Mike, a few things I've become aware of since my last posting (I've
had the Elite 5400 about 10 days now):

1. With really grubby slides, Vuescan's cleaning just doesn't clean
well enough. Accordingly, I'm using Minolta sw to ouptut 16 bit linear
with GD/ICE, to serve as Vuescan Raw File.

2. GD appears to be a necessity when scanning Kodachromes with ICE, to
avoid "artifacts".

3. I've been REALLY struggling with focus, not just getting one spot
in focus, but trying to get reasonably close to getting
corner-to-corner focus. To really see what's happening with the
surface contours of my slides, I've been doing spot manual focus at
many points around the image. I've been finding the top border (in
landscape orientation) is alway soft, if rest of image is reasonably
sharp. Vuescan's manual focus numbers bear this out. Most of the
numbers are -.200 to -.400, EXCEPT near top edge, where they drop to
-.05 to -.08. With emulsion facing the lens, the film tends to be
cupping, in the direction of lens.

Finally, the light bulb went on! I strongly suspect the top metal
tangs (hinge side) that press down on the slide are not pressing down
as well as the bottom tangs (latch side). Accordingly, I think the top
edge of the slide is tilting towards the scanner lens. This just seems
to make sense, considering my soft focus along top of landscape image.

I will need to research and test. First, I'll just stick on a little
stack of 3m sticky strips on that top edge of the slide, and see what
happens. If the top focus improves, I'll then bend the top tangs down,
carefully. I strongly suspect this is going to improve my corner to
corner focus, by making the slide more perpendicular to the lens, and
moving the top edge away from the lens.

Will keep you and all posted.
 
Mike, a few things I've become aware of since my last posting (I've
had the Elite 5400 about 10 days now):

1. With really grubby slides, Vuescan's cleaning just doesn't clean
well enough. Accordingly, I'm using Minolta sw to ouptut 16 bit linear
with GD/ICE, to serve as Vuescan Raw File.

2. GD appears to be a necessity when scanning Kodachromes with ICE, to
avoid "artifacts".

3. I've been REALLY struggling with focus, not just getting one spot
in focus, but trying to get reasonably close to getting
corner-to-corner focus. To really see what's happening with the
surface contours of my slides, I've been doing spot manual focus at
many points around the image. I've been finding the top border (in
landscape orientation) is alway soft, if rest of image is reasonably
sharp. Vuescan's manual focus numbers bear this out. Most of the
numbers are -.200 to -.400, EXCEPT near top edge, where they drop to
-.05 to -.08. With emulsion facing the lens, the film tends to be
cupping, in the direction of lens.

Finally, the light bulb went on! I strongly suspect the top metal
tangs (hinge side) that press down on the slide are not pressing down
as well as the bottom tangs (latch side). Accordingly, I think the top
edge of the slide is tilting towards the scanner lens. This just seems
to make sense, considering my soft focus along top of landscape image.

I will need to research and test. First, I'll just stick on a little
stack of 3m sticky strips on that top edge of the slide, and see what
happens. If the top focus improves, I'll then bend the top tangs down,
carefully. I strongly suspect this is going to improve my corner to
corner focus, by making the slide more perpendicular to the lens, and
moving the top edge away from the lens.

Will keep you and all posted.
Click to expand...

Ok, the tangs were both making good contact. Still, because of the
consistant softness, I've put a 3 layer 3m stick strip across the top
of each slide holder frame. Doing a manual focus near vertical
centerline, about 3/4 up, gives me good compromise focus. Some scans
are quite sharp right into the corners, some "almost".
 
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