Solution to banding problems with Minolta Elite 5400

  • Thread starter Thread starter Olaf Ulrich
  • Start date Start date
O

Olaf Ulrich

Under certain circumstances, the film scanner Minolta DiMAGE Scan Elite 5400
produces vertical or horizontal bands or stripes in the scans which are
sometimes
hardly, sometimes clearly visible.

In the Minolta website's download area there is a free update for MacIntosh
and
Windows (6.4 MB) which is supposed to solve those problems. It updates both
the DiMAGE Scan 'Scan Utility' to version 1.1.3 and the Elite 5400's
firmware to
version 1.10. It also suits the scanners Multi, Multi II, Multi Pro, and
Elite II.

Executing the setup program file first deletes the existing version of Scan
Utility
but preserves all your settings. Then it installs the new version into the
same
folders. On my machine the update was hassle-free and it runs smoothly. On
a Windows system, you'll need administrator privilege to execute the update.

I encountered a banding problem exactly once in many weeks---it was last
weekend. Re-initializing or switching the scanner off and then on again and
stopping and re-starting the scan software didn't solve the problem. The
other
day I installed the update. The banding is gone now.

The download area is not too easy to find. Go to:

<http://www.minoltaeurope.com/>

then click on:
Consumer Products
Digital Customer Support
[select your language]
Download Software
'I agree' (at the page's bottom)
Click to expand...

Then you are presented a set of combo boxes to choose your software
update from. Good luck!

Olaf
 
SNIP
It updates both the DiMAGE Scan 'Scan Utility' to version 1.1.3
and the Elite 5400's firmware to version 1.10.
Click to expand...

Maybe this firmware update will help Ed Hamrick with fixing the still
existing D-max error with VueScan and the DSE5400?

Bart
 
Bart said:
SNIP



Maybe this firmware update will help Ed Hamrick with fixing the still
existing D-max error with VueScan and the DSE5400?
Click to expand...

OTOH, the new version of the scan utility may have *introduced* a D-max
in the Minolta software as well. In other words: the problem with the
previous version may have been that it tried to capture too much from
the dark areas, causing minimal differences in sensitivity between the
CCD cells to show. Perhaps it's a good idea to repeat your test with tis
new version ...
 
Wilfred van der Vegte said:
OTOH, the new version of the scan utility may have *introduced* a
D-max in the Minolta software as well. In other words: the problem
with the previous version may have been that it tried to capture too
much from the dark areas, causing minimal differences in sensitivity
between the CCD cells to show. Perhaps it's a good idea to repeat
your test with tis new version ...
Click to expand...

I will verify, but the Scan Utility gave correct Dmax results where VueScan
is very wrong. VueScan results are 'correct' with my other scanners, so it
is a particular DSE5400+VueScan bug.

Besides, after upgrading, I'm not sure that the firmware version (1.10) is
different from the one that was in the scanner when I bought it. Installing
the v1.13 software upgrade is done without having the scanner connected, and
I didn't notice any particular time-out for updating the firmware when
connected, nor did the installation procedure ask permission. Most firmware
updates I've done, go accompanied by warnings to not interrupt the flash
procedure (or even move the mouse).

Bart
 
Olaf said:
In the Minolta website's download area there is a free update for MacIntosh
and
Windows (6.4 MB) which is supposed to solve those problems. It updates both
the DiMAGE Scan 'Scan Utility' to version 1.1.3 and the Elite 5400's
firmware to
version 1.10.
Click to expand...

Strange. I downloaded and installed it, but the firmware in my DSE 5400
is still at 1.09 (scanner was switched on during installation). Have I
missed some additional download file or did remove Minolta the firmware
part from what can be downloaded from the site?

Wilfred van der Vegte.
 
At first remove old virsion of DiMAGE Scan Utility and reboot. Than install
new version and reboot computer. The scanner MUST be turned-off during
installation. Than turn scanner on and run DiMAGE Scan utility. I have
ScanElite connected to USB 2.0 and Windows 2000 OS. After upgrading I that
version of ROM is 1.10. And this upgrade realy solve banding problem.

I thought that firmware upgrade was made during scanner4 initialization -
not during installation.
 
The scanner MUST be turned-off during installation.
Click to expand...

This is crucial as I learned the hard way; the sw won't run
(correctly) if the scanner was switched on during install. It just
stalls when you try to do anything.

The change of the firmware should have been documented by Konica
Minolta, but, as was written, it is done automatically when the sw is
first run.
 
Vadim said:
At first remove old virsion of DiMAGE Scan Utility and reboot. Than install
new version and reboot computer. The scanner MUST be turned-off during
installation. Than turn scanner on and run DiMAGE Scan utility. I have
ScanElite connected to USB 2.0 and Windows 2000 OS. After upgrading I that
version of ROM is 1.10. And this upgrade realy solve banding problem.

I thought that firmware upgrade was made during scanner4 initialization -
not during installation.
Click to expand...

Thanks for pointing this out: I removed the updated software,
reinstalled it with the scanner off and indeed the firmware was updated
from 1.09 to 1.10 the next time I started the scan utility.

In my case, the scanner is connected to FireWire and Mac OS X, but the
procedure is the same.
 
Wilfred said:
Thanks for pointing this out: I removed the updated software,
reinstalled it with the scanner off and indeed the firmware was updated
from 1.09 to 1.10 the next time I started the scan utility.
Click to expand...


How do you find out the firmware version?

THanks.
 
Start DiMage Scan utility, than move mouse pointer to the rectangle area at
the left upper corner of the utility window (where you see tooltips ) you
will see ROM and software version
 
Dierk said:
Just hover your mouse over the info box to the left of all the buttons
and sw/fw versions are shown.
Click to expand...

Thanks. Although I would suggest that you check your left and right ;-)
 
Thanks. Although I would suggest that you check your left and right ;-)
Click to expand...

Hm, you are right, either had too much wine ... or I should consider a
gender change ...
 
Reading this thread, does someone know the Dmin and Dmax of this
scanner? What range of a slide can it capture?

Olaf Ulrich said:
Under certain circumstances, the film scanner Minolta DiMAGE Scan Elite 5400
produces vertical or horizontal bands or stripes in the scans which are
sometimes
hardly, sometimes clearly visible.

In the Minolta website's download area there is a free update for MacIntosh
and
Windows (6.4 MB) which is supposed to solve those problems. It updates both
the DiMAGE Scan 'Scan Utility' to version 1.1.3 and the Elite 5400's
firmware to
version 1.10. It also suits the scanners Multi, Multi II, Multi Pro, and
Elite II.

Executing the setup program file first deletes the existing version of Scan
Utility
but preserves all your settings. Then it installs the new version into the
same
folders. On my machine the update was hassle-free and it runs smoothly. On
a Windows system, you'll need administrator privilege to execute the update.

I encountered a banding problem exactly once in many weeks---it was last
weekend. Re-initializing or switching the scanner off and then on again and
stopping and re-starting the scan software didn't solve the problem. The
other
day I installed the update. The banding is gone now.

The download area is not too easy to find. Go to:

<http://www.minoltaeurope.com/>

then click on:
Consumer Products
Digital Customer Support
[select your language]
Download Software
'I agree' (at the page's bottom)
Click to expand...

Then you are presented a set of combo boxes to choose your software
update from. Good luck!

Olaf
Click to expand...
 
As I found on Minolta Europe site - the TESTED dynamic range of SE5400 is
nearly 4.0D
 
Hi Olaf - I found your Mar 4, 2004 really helpful thanks.

I know its 15 years later - but my Minolta 5400 II has just started to create a yellow banding issue on the scans. Of course I can't now download the updates to version 1.1.3 and the Elite 5400's firmware to version 1.10.

I image that you downloaded them years ago - do you by any chance still have those downloaded updates? If so, is there any chance that you could make them available to me?

Thanks
John
 
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