Coolscan V vs Scan Elite 5400II

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silvalis

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Hi all, new poster 😀

I'm after a 35mm filmscanner for mostly c41 negs right now and b&w later when I find my old darkroom equipment (probably 50-50 later). I can't decide between a new Coolscan V or a 2nd hand Scan Elite 5400II. Price diff is around 400AUD.

2nd hand Coolscan V's aren't that easy to find here in Australia. I missed out on a 5000 for cheap the other day as my friend picked it up instead.

If I get the Coolscan V, I get a warranty. The 5400II was serviced last year though.

Any advice?
 
silvalis said:
Hi all, new poster 😀

I'm after a 35mm filmscanner for mostly c41 negs right now and b&w later when I find my old darkroom equipment (probably 50-50 later). I can't decide between a new Coolscan V or a 2nd hand Scan Elite 5400II. Price diff is around 400AUD.

2nd hand Coolscan V's aren't that easy to find here in Australia. I missed out on a 5000 for cheap the other day as my friend picked it up instead.

If I get the Coolscan V, I get a warranty. The 5400II was serviced last year though.

Any advice?
Click to expand...

Hi,

I have both of them. The reason for that is that I bought the 5400-II first, thinking that the higher dpi rate helps to reduce grain aliasing, and of course is better to scan extremely sharp negatives. However, I had to send back the 5400-II for repairs, fortunately at a time Minolta still existed. Unfortunately it broke down quickly after that. This time it seemed totally dead, though the power supply was ok. No use throwing good money after bad, so I got a coolscan V. Its lower dpi is not really a problem, to reduce grain I use Noise Ninja in a conservative fashion, I ran both scanners with Vuescan on Linux.

Conclusion?
If you can get the 5400-II real cheap, go for it, you might have more luck than I. It does have higher dpi, optics are ok, speed is ok, sometimes some scan artifacts.
Else, before going for the Nikon, have a look at the Epson V700 or V750 first, there are good reviews about it on the net.

Good luck! Hans
 
The Coolscan V has been discontinued, so once the stock remaining in stores is sold - that's it! So if you do decide to go for a Coolscan V, better to get it sooner rather than later.
 
I picked one up as soon as I heard it was discontinued, about a month or so ago. I couldn't be happier. And no matter WHAT anyone tells you, there is NO comparing a dedicated film scanner to a flatbed. I had hte Epson 4990 (very similar to the V700) and the difference is immediately observable. The sharpness of the Coolscan knocks it outta the park; the Epson maybe is an inside the park home run, but more like a triple. 😀
 
With either, check to see if the available software you need to run it is compatible with your computer.

I have a 5400 v1, and Minolta hasn't supported it with OS X for a long while. It, too often, just won't run with the Minolta software, so i've had to use VueScan.
 
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