Minolta Dimage scan repair appeal!

[ozboz]

My Minolta Dimage Scan Multi Pro has stopped working.

There must be service technicians,world wide, who have worked on these machines. What has happened to them? Every appeal for help has fallen on deaf ears. It's as if people have been scared off offering Minolta scanner service.

I understand that spare parts are probably non existent (but, again, whatever happened to the spares that must have been at service outlets - it's like these parts have just disappeared....) I think that my machine probably just needs contacts cleaning - but no one will volunteer to even look at it. It's bizarre.

Please help!

Ian (Australia)

 

[Never Satisfied]

Hi Ian, had the same issue, easier to look for a good replacement.

Andrew.

 

[ozboz]

But what else is there? I can't afford an Imacon and I feel really let down with the Minolta. Mint appearance, cost me $4000, now have to dump it. Just not fair. I have an Epson V700. it's good but not in the same league as the Minolta. The Plustec 120 looks like a damp squib and doesn't have focusing. Nikon 9000 scanners are defunct too and if I got one, wouldn't this just conk put, leaving me high and dry? Sorry to rant but it's so damn frustrating.

 

[Joao]

I had a similar problem with a Konica Minolta DiMage Dual IV scanner; something went wrong with it and the local repairman (in Lisbon, Portugal) wasn't able to help due to "lack of replacement parts". Another repairman in Germany said it was necessary to replace most of the core parts of the scanner (at a far superior cost than I had initially paid for it).
Well, I sold it as "faulty/for parts" at a local auction site...

 

[Keith]

Bad luck ... I was kind of hanging my hat on the plustek 120 being a complete winner which it appears not to be sadly. Maybe they'll get it sorted but with all the disappointments after the release they may just bail out and discontinue it?

 

[ozboz]

Re the complete impossibility of anyone even having a go at repairing Minolta scanners, it's enough to raise accusations of a conspiracy!
Has there ever been equipment in the history of the world so universally spurned by repairers as Minolta scanners?

 

[nakedcellist]

Too bad, I just got the IV and I love it. I think a good alternative would be the reflecta rps 7200 professional. It's not too expensive and much better than a flatbedscanner.

 

[Bobfrance]

Have you tried subscribing to the Multi-pro Yahoo group? There's quite a lot of knowledgeable people there who may be able to help you.

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/multipro/





.

 

[ReeRay]

Google the Minolta Multi Pro User group. You'll need a Yahoo account only. Some very helpful folk there who may be able to help. You say it's " stopped working", what exactly happened. I have a Multi Pro incidentally.

Edit: Just seen the above post.

 

[Aristophanes]

But what else is there? I can't afford an Imacon and I feel really let down with the Minolta. Mint appearance, cost me $4000, now have to dump it. Just not fair. I have an Epson V700. it's good but not in the same league as the Minolta. The Plustec 120 looks like a damp squib and doesn't have focusing. Nikon 9000 scanners are defunct too and if I got one, wouldn't this just conk put, leaving me high and dry? Sorry to rant but it's so damn frustrating.

Check out the Plustek 120 thread here. There is some good data coming in that this scanner is very good and does NOT require focussing.

 

[Bobfrance]

Ha ha! Yes, I have a Minolta too. It was Ray who kindly put me on to the Yahoo Multi pro group in the first place. 🙂

 

[Bob Michaels]

Precision Camera Repair is the authorized service center here in the US. Or, at least they were a few years back. They have whatever spare parts that Minolta used to have.

No idea who their equivalent is there in Oz.

 

[ozboz]

Minolta scanner repair

Minolta scanner repair

Precision Repair basically told me that there's nothing that can be done.
I'm flummoxed.
There are people that will repair a 200 year old watch, a long defunct Dusenberg, old cameras that haven't been made for 70 years. There are even masses of technicians that'll repair a 40 year old tube TV, that hasn't had parts manufactured for 30 years. Here am I with a 7 year old scanner and for all it seems, I might as well be asking for a an alien spacecraft's warp drive to be repaired.
It could be something as simple as the damn mains plug that has a wire loose but it's as if someone's put out a death fatwa on anyone who dares to try and fix a Minolta scanner. - What on earth is going on?
I'd replace the thing if I possibly could but what offers:-
1) 6x9cm and 35mm scanning.
2) Automatic focus
3) Digital ICE
4) High resolution
5) High dMax.
6) Glass slide carrier.
Even the horrendously expensive Hassleblad doesn't have ICE and I'm told that dust removal is a significant problem on it.
The Plustec 120?
1) Problems with manufacture. (They've had to call in a team of external quality control engineers to sort the manufacturing out).
2) Fixed focus.
3) No glass slide carrier
4) Unimpressive dMax

The Epson V700?
Good machine but not in the same league as the Minolta. (Resolution or shadow detail)
No autofocus.
(I bought one - I use it, of course, because the Minolta doesn't %^$#@*& work but every time I see the scan, I think to myself - " Not bad but wish I had the Minolta working...")
Excuse me ranting but I'm really annoyed about the repair apathy out there.

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/images/icons/icon8.gif

 

[peter_n]

Repairing a modern scanner and an old mechanical device aren't really comparable. Back in the day a skilled tech could diagnose problems in printed circuit boards and replace faulty components, provided they're available. That level of skill isn't used any more in most commercial electronics with their integrated circuits, all you need to know is to be able to troubleshoot at the board or major component level. Once the boards are no longer in production you're screwed. On the other hand you can machine or mill a replacement mechanical part, and even replace components on some old PC boards as well.

I have Minolta Dual IV and luckily it's still going. I'll probably get an Epson when it dies.

 

[ozboz]

True to some extent.
The power board might be faulty. If that's the case there are probably countless alternate boards that could be used. I bought a Sharp calculator in 1972. One of the proprietary chips blew. (In 1976). I was told "Sorry, can't help. These chips are specialised - nothing but the original component will fit". Sounded fair and reasonable. Then I was able to get it repaired five years ago, because there were similar electronics that had been and gone and were able to be adapted. So couldn't be repaired in 1976 but could thirty years later......
There's no way that Minolta would have had a chip made specifically for their scanner - it would have cost way too much. They'll have used a generic chip and adapted it. After all, a scanner is just a glorified photocopier. Some electronics guru out there can fix it....

 

[johannielscom]

Precision Repair basically told me that there's nothing that can be done.
I'm flummoxed.
There are people that will repair a 200 year old watch, a long defunct Dusenberg, old cameras that haven't been made for 70 years. There are even masses of technicians that'll repair a 40 year old tube TV, that hasn't had parts manufactured for 30 years. Here am I with a 7 year old scanner and for all it seems, I might as well be asking for a an alien spacecraft's warp drive to be repaired.
It could be something as simple as the damn mains plug that has a wire loose but it's as if someone's put out a death fatwa on anyone who dares to try and fix a Minolta scanner. - What on earth is going on?
I'd replace the thing if I possibly could but what offers:-
1) 6x9cm and 35mm scanning.
2) Automatic focus
3) Digital ICE
4) High resolution
5) High dMax.
6) Glass slide carrier.
Even the horrendously expensive Hassleblad doesn't have ICE and I'm told that dust removal is a significant problem on it.
The Plustec 120?
1) Problems with manufacture. (They've had to call in a team of external quality control engineers to sort the manufacturing out).
2) Fixed focus.
3) No glass slide carrier
4) Unimpressive dMax

The Epson V700?
Good machine but not in the same league as the Minolta. (Resolution or shadow detail)
No autofocus.
(I bought one - I use it, of course, because the Minolta doesn't %^$#@*& work but every time I see the scan, I think to myself - " Not bad but wish I had the Minolta working...")
Excuse me ranting but I'm really annoyed about the repair apathy out there.

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/images/icons/icon8.gif

Get a Canon 8800f with BetterScanning ANR glass for MF and a dedicated 35mm negative scanner (mine is a Minolta ScanDual IV).

My 6x9 color slides at full bore (4800dpi) are 168MP scans! 😱 TIFF's at 275MB size a piece. Results are ridiculously sharp.

The Canon has FARE and apparently it's similar to Digital ICE, but I haven't tried it.

If I hadn't heeded the anti-Canon call (which seems greatly about the 35mm results) and simply bought it, I might have hung onto my Rolleiflexes...

 

[ozboz]

I suspect my V700 Epson would be better than the Canon. That's the prevailing opinion on most of the sites I've seen.

 

[johannielscom]

I suspect my V700 Epson would be better than the Canon. That's the prevailing opinion on most of the sites I've seen.

IMHO, 'prevailing opinion' don't say much since you cannot tell what motivated those online posters to post experiences online. Might easily be that Canon buyers were too busy scanning to post their opinions to the net, while Epson buyers were frantically persuading themselves they chose right...😛

Lacking autofocus is what separates the Plustek OpticFilm 120 from the Minolta Multi Pro or the Nikon 9000, but if you want to use the V700 over the 8800f (and violate your own feature list in the process...), you're welcome to it. In which case, I would simply get the OpticFilm 120 and be done ranting! 😀

 

[ReeRay]

As I asked 4 days ago - what has gone wrong exactly?

 

[ColSebastianMoran]

Precision Repair basically told me that there's nothing that can be done.
I'm flummoxed.
There are people that will repair a 200 year old watch, a long defunct Dusenberg, old cameras that haven't been made for 70 years. There are even masses of technicians that'll repair a 40 year old tube TV, that hasn't had parts manufactured for 30 years. Here am I with a 7 year old scanner and for all it seems, I might as well be asking for a an alien spacecraft's warp drive to be repaired.

I'm in the same boat with a Contax RTS Camera body. The best repair sources won't touch it.

Time to go at it with your tools? See if you can isolate the fault, buy a "parts" scanner with a different fault, and start swapping major components.

You've mentioned "mains" a couple of times. Might be the power supply. Then, "Hey, who can repair this power supply?" might get more answers than "Who can repair this Minolta Multi-Pro Scanner."