To repair a KM 5400-II or not

[HvdV]

Hi All,

My Konica-Minolta 5400-II has broken now for the second time: this time it
doesn't initialize, blue led remains off, though the unit has power. I'm
wondering whether it is a good idea to have it repaired, especially because
with Minolta from the scene it is unclear who can do this and for how much.

My question: is there anyone with a 5400-II who has used it to scan >1000
slides without any trouble? Or is it time to take the loss and go for an V700
or a Nikon?

thanks, Hans

 

[xcomm]

HvdV a écrit :

Hi All,

My Konica-Minolta 5400-II has broken now for the second time:
My question: is there anyone with a 5400-II who has used it to scan
for an V700 or a Nikon?

Hi,

My advice would be :

- First of all, try to know what is the lowest price to repair your
Minolta 5400-II. Then think about your money against a new one whith
warenty an new hardware.

- If you are about to by a new one, I suggest to by a Nikon. Epson, are
not so good for slides, and their driver software is not as good as
Nikon's software.

Xavier

 

[hans]

Hi Xavier,

My advice would be :

- First of all, try to know what is the lowest price to repair your
Minolta 5400-II. Then think about your money against a new one whith
warenty an new hardware.

With Minolta from the scene that's hard to guess, I'd say at least 100
Euro. I suspect this time it is the motherboard, can be expensive. Maybe
it is just a connector though, so I'm going to try to reseat them all.
Another factor is that the 5400-II is IMO flimsy, inserting a not
perfectly closed slide holder can already ruin it. So it might break
quickly again...

- If you are about to by a new one, I suggest to by a Nikon. Epson, are
not so good for slides, and their driver software is not as good as
Nikon's software.

I'll probably keep using Vuescan on Linux, should work well with both. But
from the comparisons I've read so far it seems indeed the Nikon is still a bit
ahead. Especially I find the comparison on
http://www.terrapinphoto.com/jmdavis/ convincing, seems there is quite
some chromatic aberration apparent in the Epson. Too bad because its
versatility and low susceptibility to grain aliasing make it attractive...

-- Hans