SE5400, Vuescan and my sanity

[Shaun Markham]

After spending a fair proportion of my life now trying to get my Minolta
5400, Vuescan and Linux working together I am still having trouble getting
the results I want. I have used most versions of Vuescan supporting the
5400 up to 7.6.74 without much luck.

After turning on the scanner and calibrating it with Vuescan I have tried
to scan an IT8 target. What I have found is that on the grey scale from 1
to 22 on the target I am only getting up to bar 18 with a density of
around 2. Bars 19 to 22 are black with a density shown as 4.80, 18. If I
enable the grain dissolver I then get to see all the grey bars although
the density still shows only around 2. Disabling the grain dissolver again
reproduces the poor result. Raw scans show the same output (48 bit).

Although I am using Linux at home, I have tried this scanner with Vuescan
on Windows XP at work and get exactly the same results. The Minolta
software works fine so I am sure the scanner is healthy.

Interestingly, if after turning the scanner on I calibrate with the
Minolta software and then fire up Vuescan without re-calibrating, the scan
of the IT8 target shows all the grey bars without me having to enable the
grain dissolver.

It has taken me many hours/days to get to this result when I should be
outside enjoying life. Scans are great with Vuescan as long as the grain
dissolver is enabled which extends the scan time.

Can any others shed some 'light' on this, or is it just me gone funny? I
just don't understand this.

Thanks,

Shaun

 

[Dierk Haasis]

Interestingly, if after turning the scanner on I calibrate with the
Minolta software and then fire up Vuescan without re-calibrating, the scan
of the IT8 target shows all the grey bars without me having to enable the
grain dissolver.

IIRC, there at least was an issue with VS and the density calibration
for the 5400. And I am not quite sure Ed has resolved it completely
with the latest version, but he was on it.

 

[Shaun Markham]

IIRC, there at least was an issue with VS and the density calibration
for the 5400. And I am not quite sure Ed has resolved it completely
with the latest version, but he was on it.

I'm sure Ed is very busy right now. After watching this
group for some time I was aware of a calibration issue for the
5400 but I wasn't sure if others were seeing results as bad as mine. I
find it strange that the grain dissolver gives me much better results when
enabled but other users have a problem with it. How could that affect the
calibration so much? Hmmm....

Shaun