Minolta DiMAGE Scan Elite 5400 Lens Test at 1.2x

Have questions about the equipment used for macro- or micro- photography? Post those questions in this forum.

Moderators: rjlittlefield, ChrisR, Chris S., Pau

RobertOToole
Posts: 2627
Joined: Thu Jan 17, 2013 9:34 pm
Location: United States
Contact:

Post by RobertOToole »

Smokedaddy wrote:The image looked flat so I ran dehaze on it in PS. Naturally I could of missed focus too.
If the image looks flat JW, try these two things.

A quick and easy way to stop any possibility of any internal reflections:

Pull off the body and roll up some flocking material or some flat black suede type paper and roll it into a tube, and place it down the lens, trimming to fit.

A quick and easy way to stop any possibility of any stray light hitting the lens from a weird angle:

Grab some of the same type of material and make a snoot type long hood and tape it onto the front of the lens.

Scanner lenses can be a little tricky with stray light sometimes.

I would rather show you some examples of these but I just landed in another country so its impossible.

Hope this helps.

Robert

Smokedaddy
Posts: 1953
Joined: Sat Oct 07, 2006 10:16 am
Location: Bigfork, Montana
Contact:

Post by Smokedaddy »

RobertOToole wrote:Smokedaddy the photos really help.

Also your test crop looks a little OOF, (out of focus). I run a stack, the steps depend on the magnification of course, then zoom into 100% and chose the sharpest one. You might be just a couple microns off of focus.
Robert
Thanks ... still experimenting. I know the focus was off. Out of curiosity what would you suggest for 'step' with this lens and 1.2x mag?

-JW:

Smokedaddy
Posts: 1953
Joined: Sat Oct 07, 2006 10:16 am
Location: Bigfork, Montana
Contact:

Post by Smokedaddy »

This one turned out better. No dome on this one and no additional (TP) diffusion on the flashes.

https://squattingdog.smugmug.com/Semico ... -c3h2bRq/O

-JW:

RobertOToole
Posts: 2627
Joined: Thu Jan 17, 2013 9:34 pm
Location: United States
Contact:

Post by RobertOToole »

Smokedaddy wrote:
RobertOToole wrote:Smokedaddy the photos really help.

Also your test crop looks a little OOF, (out of focus). I run a stack, the steps depend on the magnification of course, then zoom into 100% and chose the sharpest one. You might be just a couple microns off of focus.
Robert
Thanks ... still experimenting. I know the focus was off. Out of curiosity what would you suggest for 'step' with this lens and 1.2x mag?

-JW:
Sorry JW, I'me in Africa now so my emails will be +6 hrs ahead.

I run them closer than I need to, I think I was doing 5 microns steps. You can get away with them a lot farther apart and still be fine.

Robert

RobertOToole
Posts: 2627
Joined: Thu Jan 17, 2013 9:34 pm
Location: United States
Contact:

Post by RobertOToole »

Smokedaddy wrote:This one turned out better. No dome on this one and no additional (TP) diffusion on the flashes.

https://squattingdog.smugmug.com/Semico ... -c3h2bRq/O

-JW:
There you go, looks much sharper.

You can experiment with angle of the flashes, on some, lower, more parallel brings out more details.


Robert

Smokedaddy
Posts: 1953
Joined: Sat Oct 07, 2006 10:16 am
Location: Bigfork, Montana
Contact:

Post by Smokedaddy »

... thanks for all the help.

lothman
Posts: 959
Joined: Sat Feb 14, 2009 7:00 am
Location: Stuttgart/Germany

Post by lothman »


enricosavazzi
Posts: 1474
Joined: Sat Nov 21, 2009 2:41 pm
Location: Västerås, Sweden
Contact:

Post by enricosavazzi »

I was able to add a few notes on the Scan Elite 5400 lens on my site, which might be of general interest:

http://savazzi.net/photography/scanner_ ... nelite5400
--ES

harisA
Posts: 513
Joined: Sun Jul 03, 2011 9:31 am
Location: Greece

Post by harisA »

enricosavazzi wrote:I was able to add a few notes on the Scan Elite 5400 lens on my site, which might be of general interest:

http://savazzi.net/photography/scanner_ ... nelite5400
The following is from enricco site:

''In particular, the sensor of the Scan Elite 5400 II scanner has a 53.5 mm long active area. Since the scanned film width, according to the specifications of these scanners, is 24.51 mm, the lens magnifies the subject by 1.78x onto the sensor. It is therefore reasonable to assume that the lens is optimized for about 1.78x magnification''


Why the scanned film width is 24.51mm? Width for 135 film is 36mm

Also if the numbers above are correct how we come to the number 1.78x.
53.5/24.51=2.18.

enricosavazzi
Posts: 1474
Joined: Sat Nov 21, 2009 2:41 pm
Location: Västerås, Sweden
Contact:

Post by enricosavazzi »

harisA wrote:
enricosavazzi wrote:I was able to add a few notes on the Scan Elite 5400 lens on my site, which might be of general interest:

http://savazzi.net/photography/scanner_ ... nelite5400
The following is from enricco site:

''In particular, the sensor of the Scan Elite 5400 II scanner has a 53.5 mm long active area. Since the scanned film width, according to the specifications of these scanners, is 24.51 mm, the lens magnifies the subject by 1.78x onto the sensor. It is therefore reasonable to assume that the lens is optimized for about 1.78x magnification''


Why the scanned film width is 24.51mm? Width for 135 film is 36mm

Also if the numbers above are correct how we come to the number 1.78x.
53.5/24.51=2.18.
The width of the exposed portion of 135 film is 24 mm (the frame width in landscape orientation is 36 mm, but that is another thing). The scanner scans the film as lines of pixels aligned with its shorter dimension, i.e. 24 mm.

The 24.51 mm comes from the scanner specifications, I guess Minolta decided to make it slightly wider than the "standard" 24 mm width to avoid cropping.

The 53.5 figure reported for the length of the active sensor area is wrong, thank you for pointing it out. The correct measurement is 43.5 mm, and I am going to correct it on my page. The resulting magnification is 43.5 / 24.51 = 1.77478..., shortened to 1.78x. This figure is already correct.
--ES

harisA
Posts: 513
Joined: Sun Jul 03, 2011 9:31 am
Location: Greece

Post by harisA »

Thank you for clarify this. Do you know if there are any mirrors inside the Minolta scanner optical block?

RobertOToole
Posts: 2627
Joined: Thu Jan 17, 2013 9:34 pm
Location: United States
Contact:

Post by RobertOToole »

harisA wrote:Thank you for clarify this. Do you know if there are any mirrors inside the Minolta scanner optical block?
Happen to have a 5400 scanner here next to my desk. Yes, there is a 45 degree mounted mirror since the lens is parallel the film holder chamber.

FYI, Minolta pro medium format scanner has three 45 mounted mirrors.

Robert

RobertOToole
Posts: 2627
Joined: Thu Jan 17, 2013 9:34 pm
Location: United States
Contact:

Post by RobertOToole »

enricosavazzi wrote:I was able to add a few notes on the Scan Elite 5400 lens on my site, which might be of general interest:

http://savazzi.net/photography/scanner_ ... nelite5400
Thanks for the update Enrico. Excellent information on your scanner page.

You caution readers about scanner sellers/users trying, and failing, to disassemble and clean a scanner lens. I recently picked up a Minolta pro medium format scanner recently and found this to be the case.

This lens had been taken apart by someone. You can see all the marks on the retainer rings.

Image

After testing the performance of the lens, it has definitely been taken apart since the images are not up to the level it should be.

Shame.

At least I have a 30 day return on the scanner :D

Robert

enricosavazzi
Posts: 1474
Joined: Sat Nov 21, 2009 2:41 pm
Location: Västerås, Sweden
Contact:

Post by enricosavazzi »

RobertOToole wrote:
harisA wrote:Thank you for clarify this. Do you know if there are any mirrors inside the Minolta scanner optical block?
Happen to have a 5400 scanner here next to my desk. Yes, there is a 45 degree mounted mirror since the lens is parallel the film holder chamber.

FYI, Minolta pro medium format scanner has three 45 mounted mirrors.

Robert
In the 5400 scanner there are also a 45 degree mirror and a 45 degree dielectric-coated beam splitter in the plastic box that contains the illumination optics, see the "Scanner technology" section at http://savazzi.net/photography/scanner_lenses.html . You need to open this plastic box to see the optical components.
--ES

lothman
Posts: 959
Joined: Sat Feb 14, 2009 7:00 am
Location: Stuttgart/Germany

Minolta Dimage scan dual II AF-2850-U

Post by lothman »

this is the lens from a Minolta scan dual II AF-2850-U so do you think it is 1:1?

The optic seems identical to a 2400 model
Image

Post Reply Previous topicNext topic