On this page, you can find several Minolta DiMAGE Scan Elite 5400 scan examples. The results focus mainly on the resolution capabilities, determined by using a resolution target.
Three crops of a test target shot on 35mm Provia F100.
Al three scans (and one sharpened version) are from the same piece of film, but scanned several years apart. Look at the detail in the center of the target, and also notice the difference in the 'grain-aliased' white background. Also remember that you are looking at an approximately 1.6x1.6mm piece of film, so on my monitor that represents an 78x enlargement. The first two comparison scans are resized to match the third, as explained below.
The above crop on the left was scanned on a Nikon LS-2000, and the crop on the right was scanned on a Nikon LS-4000. An electrical interference caused two bad scan lines on the LS-4000 scan, but that didn't hinder the evaluation.
To allow a comparison with the higher resolution scan below, the two Nikon scans were resized up, so they'd match the Minolta scan size. To compensate for the upsampling, they were "stair-step" sampled at +10% for each step. This slightly enhances edge contrast.
The above crops were scanned on a Minolta DiMAGE Scan Elite 5400.
The image on the left has not been sharpened, the one on the right has, and they were saved as a high quality JPEG. Remember you are viewing an enlargement of 78x the size on film. When printed at 300ppi, the full uncropped image would measure 26.0 x 17.4in or 66 x 44cm.
If you have left Javascript enabled in your browser, then you can switch here between the same images, superimposed on each other for a more accurate comparison.
The interesting thing with such a target is, that you can judge the resolving power of the entire imaging chain. It also allows, by measuring the diameter of the central unresolved 'disk', to calculate the limiting resolution. It also reveals that this LS-2000 has a stepper motor pitch that is slighty different than the sensel pitch.
The approximate overall resolution limit for the three scanner samples is:
LS2000: 45.4 lp/mm, LS4000: 62.1 lp/mm, SE5400: 76.1 lp/mm
