On this page, you can find a Minolta DiMAGE Scan Elite 5400 scan example. The initial result focuses mainly on the resolution capabilities. I have also included an example of what Neat Image can do to reduce graininess and other noise.
A Landscape/Nature example.
Below you will find a few crops from a 35mm Portra 160NC film image. It isn't the type of film I'd normally use for such a subject, but I happened to need a test film processed from an old refrigirated stock, and snapped a few images.
The 1.56x1.56mm crop of the butterfly is from a poor shot through some foliage, which significantly compromised the contrast and colors. I probably should have spent more time on color balancing it, but it was a rejected shot so I didn't bother. Besides, sharpness was my main focus for this test. Had I wanted to make a close up of a butterfly, then a macro shot would have produced an immensely better shot, but this butterfly just happened to pass by at a distance.
The first comparison crop image is a Nikon LS-2000 scan (@2700ppi), 'Stair-step' upsized to match the higher resolution scan. I'll try adding an LS-4000 version at a later date. The second is a Minolta DiMAGE Scan Elite 5400 scan (@5400ppi). The third image is the same SE-5400 image, but after some noise removal with Neat Image and used only a little sharpening in Neat Image. Again, I didn't take the time to really optimize the rejected shot, and as a result Neat Image mistakes some of the noise pattern for hidden detail.
The images have been scanned without the use of light diffusers which could have otherwise reduced some of the graininess but also a little sharpness.
Also in this case, the full uncropped film image would have measured 26.0 x 17.4in or 66 x 44cm.
The LS-2000 scan above, still shows enough detail to make out the antennas, the off-white patterns along the edge of the wings and the darker orange spots at the lower rim. Detail in the few remaining small flowers is mostly lost in the grain structure.
As you can see above, the detail in the small flower petals (look at the isolated one at the bottom, a bit to the right) is recovered better by the SE-5400, as is the pattern on the wings. The graininess makes it a bit of a guess how thick the antennas are.
After some Neat Image noise reduction on the SE-5400 scan, the antenna detail is recovered as the noise is somewhat suppressed, so the detail is there.
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.
