Minolta Scan Multi II Woes

[Tim Eitniear]

Hi,
I just purchased a used Scan Multi II, and I am really having a hard
time getting it to work. I can't use the Minolta software that came
with it because the SW is too old. I am running Mac 10.2.8. I tried
Vuescan and I cannot get sharp focus on known good negatives. I tried
Minolta for OS X and get an error about having other Minolta software
open, I also tried Silverfast SE and AI and get a module interface
error. I am about ready to use this thing as a boat anchor. I am ok
using vuescan except for the focusing issues. How do I resolve that?
Do I need to clean the bulb?


Tim

 

[Fernando]

Vuescan and I cannot get sharp focus on known good negatives. I tried

Did you try manually focusing? Can you get sharp scans by manually
focusing, i.e., scanning say 10 times the same portion while entering
different numbers in the Manual Focus box (say from -0.5 to 0.5) ?

Bye,

Fernando

 

[grrovensynth]

Hi Fernando,
I tried your suggestion. There is not much difference btwn -0.5 and
0.5 with a 10x sample. I tried the max -1 and 1 and found that -1 was
marginally better,but far from acceptable. I will assume that either
the focusing is broken, or that it is dirty. I hope It's dirty.


Thanks

Tim

 

[George]

Hi Fernando,
I tried your suggestion. There is not much difference btwn -0.5 and
0.5 with a 10x sample. I tried the max -1 and 1 and found that -1 was
marginally better,but far from acceptable. I will assume that either
the focusing is broken, or that it is dirty. I hope It's dirty.


Thanks

Tim

Did you check the Konica-Minolta website for newer software? I know that
I got updated stuff (for Windows) that is newer than what mine shipped with.
Mine works fine...hang in there a bit!

George

 

[Alan Browne]

Hi,
I just purchased a used Scan Multi II, and I am really having a hard
time getting it to work. I can't use the Minolta software that came
with it because the SW is too old. I am running Mac 10.2.8. I tried
Vuescan and I cannot get sharp focus on known good negatives. I tried
Minolta for OS X and get an error about having other Minolta software
open, I also tried Silverfast SE and AI and get a module interface
error. I am about ready to use this thing as a boat anchor. I am ok
using vuescan except for the focusing issues. How do I resolve that?
Do I need to clean the bulb?

Are you new to scanning film?

If you are, then at first results may seem very soft as you're seeing
them very close. You need to also apply a USM pass (PS) to make things
sharp for each print size after resizing.

Check the Minolta site for s/w upgrades as well.

If you can do so without damage, open the machine up and look for dust.
Clean carefully. I doubt dust on the light source would do much
against sharpness, but dust on the lenses and scanner elements would.

G'luck.

 

[Tim Eitniear]

Alan,
Yes this is my first attenpt at scanning film. What is USM? Can I
assume (PS) is photoshop? I did download the newest Minolta drivers,
but get a error that the program is already opened. I'm not sure what
that is about. Since there isn't a warrenty to void, now that I know
where to look. I will try to open it up this weekend and take a look.

Thanks

Tim

 

[CSM1]

USM is UnSharp Mask.
PS is PhotoShop.