Best Software for a Minolta 5400 II ?

[CameraQuest]

I've just taken a Minolta 5400 II scanner in on trade,
don't have a clue about it.

I plan to use it with an old Imac, unless there is a good reason to use it with a Windows 7 i7 machine instead.

What is the best scanning software for it ?

Will be scanning B/W, Color Negs, and Color Slides -- I hope!

Any suggestions how I should handle it ?

Thanks!

Stephen

 

[Godfrey]

I've just taken a Minolta 5400 II scanner in on trade,
don't have a clue about it.
I plan to use it with an old Imac, unless there is a good reason to use it with a Windows 7 i7 machine instead.
What is the best scanning software for it ?
Will be scanning B/W, Color Negs, and Color Slides -- I hope!
Any suggestions how I should handle it ?

Which 'old' iMac? What version of OS X will you be running? I've been running VueScan on every Apple system and OS since whatever it was I had in 2000.

The best scanning software I can recommend is VueScan, available from http://www.hamrick.com/
You'll need to be sure to obtain a compatible version for your hardware and OS version. If in doubt, ask Ed Hamrick.

I've been using VueScan so long I forget what was troublesome to learn in it now. But there are good books on using VueScan now, written by Sascha Steinhoff:

The VueScan Bible: Everything You Need to Know for Perfect Scanning
Scanning Negatives and Slides: Digitizing Your Photographic Archives

They're available from Amazon.com, and they have Kindle editions available too if you prefer.

G

 

[raytoei@gmail.com]

I used to use the Vuescan for windows
on the Minolta 5400 I until I sold it
a week ago. Vuescan recognizes the
features in the 5400, eg. ICE,
Diffuser as well as setting the
focus point.

I find that the choice and position of
the USB cable is important. Issues with
scanning and connectivity can be resolved
with a shorter cable and certain ports.

Once, I encountered no issues with the preview
scans but found the scanner to freeze half-way
during a proper scan. After plugging
it into another port, it worked without problems.

raytoei

 

[KevinS]

Vuescan is the best $80 I ever spent. Runs most scanners and is a mere 9MB IIRC. Just got the Kindle version of The Vuescan Bible so I can use an iPad for reference while scanning on an iMac. I'm so glad I never messed around with more expensive software, and also that Nikon stopped software support. Vuescan works better for me than Nikon Scan.

 

[mfunnell]

I use both a Canon (flatbed) and Nikon (dedicated 35mm) scanner and I've found that I tend to use the vendor's software most of the time (even if the Nikon stuff had to be hacked about a bit to work on Win7-64). However, I've also found that if I have a scanning problem that can't be solved (or more likely is just hard to solve), Vuescan has always managed to save me. So I've used it quite a bit yet somehow I've never really taken to it for day-to-day use. That's probably more my problem than anything to do with the software.

...Mike