DiMAGE scanner problems

[hel...@stanford.edu]

I just bought a Konica Minolta Dimage Scan Elite 5400 II and have some
comments as well as questions I hope someone can help with. I am using
the scanner with a 20" iMac running OS10.4.3 (the latest version), on
a 2 GHz G5 with 1.5 GB of RAM.

1. One of the reasons I bought this unit over the Nikon was that the
salesman (at a store I really respect, so that's why I trusted the
statement) told me this Dimage unit could scan 4 slides or 6 negatives
at one time, unattended. The similarly priced Nikon unit couldn't do
that and the next one up could, but only with a $500 slide feeder that
was prone to jamming. Well, it turns out batch scanning mode only seems
to work at 8 bit depth, which loses a lot of the reason for buying this
unit. Am I missing something, or is that really the case? BTW, the Easy
Scan option clearly only works with 8 bit depth, as noted in the
manual. I don't know why they did that. Also the manual uses very
poor resolution on its figures, even in the PDF electronic version,
making them almost impossible (OK, many are impossible) to read. Kinda
stupid for a high res scanner to have low res figures in the manual.

2. Changing the exposure setting doesn't seem to have much effect -
at least most of the time. I am using Auto Exposure but the manual
(page 42) says that you can still increase or decrease exposure
compared to the Auto value by the amount you specify. I am using the
scanner utility app, not the Easy Scan or Scan Launcher apps at 16 bit
depth and 2700 dpi with Digital Ice turned on, but nothing else. The
manual (also page 42) says I should get a star on the Image Correction
Tab after making an exposure change and I don't. The star appears on
the Exposure tab instead. I assume that's just a typo, but maybe not
and I'm doing something wrong. Any thoughts will be appreciated.

3. Even worse, the exposure of the final scan is sometimes markedly
different from that of the prescan on which I base my decision of
whether or not to change the exposure. In one case, I had to go to +1.5
on the exposure compensation to get the scan to match the exposure
shown in prescan. (To do this, I brought up the resultant TIFF and cut
the window size so only part of the picture could be seen and placed it
right next to the prescan at the same image size.)

4. Does anyone know if you have to hit the "apply" button on the
Exposure Control tab to have the exposure compensation take effect?
Given problem #3 discussed immediately above, it's a waste of time to
redo the prescan (which hitting the apply button does) and it adds a
lot of time to the process. I tried experimenting, but as noted in #2
above, sometimes changing the exposure doesn't have any effect.

5. I tried to import some of the scanned photos (both TIFF and JPEG)
into iPhoto, but at first iPhoto didn't recongize any of them. When I
chose the menu "Add to Library", all the scans were dimmed out,
meaning they were not accessible. Yet Preview (Apple's app for
opening a number of files, including pictures) opened them just fine,
and allowed them to be chosen from its OPEN menu. I finally figured out
the problem and am posting it in case someone else has it as well: Even
though I was saving as a TIFF or JPEG, I had to append the .tiff or
.jpg extension in order for iPhoto (but not Preview) to recognize the
file type. A lot of programs just don't show the file extensions, so
that would be an easy one to miss. I had to go into Terminal and use
Unix's ls command to figure that one out!

6. Does anyone know if the software stores temporary files, and if so
where? I ask because I started to do a batch scan to test out the 8 bit
question in #1 above, but wanted to stop after the first scan was done.
I hit the CANCEL button, but to no avail, so eventually I force quit
the app. Even though the progress bar said it had finished one scan, I
didn't see it where it was supposed to be stored and I'm worried
it's somewhere in a tmp folder or similar. It would be nice to get
rid of it.

7. When I tried to restart the scan utility after force quitting in #6
above, I keep getting an error saying "Unknown error. Confirm all
other DiMAGE Scan software is closed." I tried unplugging the scanner
and plugging it back in, but the problem persisted. Even restarting the
Mac didn't help, so I uninstalled and reinstalled the scanner
software which also didn't fix it. During the uninstall I got a
message saying some files were in use and couldn't be deleted, so
I'm guessing those are the culprits. Anyone know what and where they
are? So never force quit the scanner software!! A bad design.

Many thanks for any help you can provide. I'm at wits end.

Martin

[Peter Blaise Monahon peterblaise@yahoo.com]

Hello and welcome Martin, fellow DiMage-Scan-friend,

hel...@stanford.edu wrote:

I just bought a Konica Minolta Dimage Scan Elite 5400 II and have some
comments as well as questions I hope someone can help with. I am using
the scanner with a 20" iMac running OS10.4.3 (the latest version), on
a 2 GHz G5 with 1.5 GB of RAM.
 

   -- Is that called TIGER?

 
1. One of the reasons I bought this unit over the Nikon was that the
salesman (at a store I really respect, so that's why I trusted the
statement) told me this Dimage unit could scan 4 slides or 6 negatives
at one time, unattended. The similarly priced Nikon unit couldn't do
that and the next one up could, but only with a $500 slide feeder that
was prone to jamming. Well, it turns out batch scanning mode only seems
to work at 8 bit depth, which loses a lot of the reason for buying this
unit. Am I missing something, or is that really the case? BTW, the Easy
Scan option clearly only works with 8 bit depth, as noted in the
manual. I don't know why they did that. Also the manual uses very
poor resolution on its figures, even in the PDF electronic version,
making them almost impossible (OK, many are impossible) to read. Kinda
stupid for a high res scanner to have low res figures in the manual.
 

   -- Batch scanning has it's own default settings and does not inherit your single scan settings.

 
2. Changing the exposure setting doesn't seem to have much effect -
at least most of the time. I am using Auto Exposure but the manual
(page 42) says that you can still increase or decrease exposure
compared to the Auto value by the amount you specify. I am using the
scanner utility app, not the Easy Scan or Scan Launcher apps at 16 bit
depth and 2700 dpi with Digital Ice turned on, but nothing else. The
manual (also page 42) says I should get a star on the Image Correction
Tab after making an exposure change and I don't. The star appears on
the Exposure tab instead. I assume that's just a typo, but maybe not
and I'm doing something wrong. Any thoughts will be appreciated.
 

    -- I think the printed manual and the software may be different versions.

    -- You seem to want both worlds - batch scanning and individual settings per image.  Pick one!

 
3. Even worse, the exposure of the final scan is sometimes markedly
different from that of the prescan on which I base my decision of
whether or not to change the exposure. In one case, I had to go to +1.5
on the exposure compensation to get the scan to match the exposure
shown in prescan. (To do this, I brought up the resultant TIFF and cut
the window size so only part of the picture could be seen and placed it
right next to the prescan at the same image size.)
 

    -- I would NOT be surprised if there was a slip between setup and and clicking the scan button such that the settings were not "saved" for that scan.  I agree that the depth of the choices on many, many screens is daunting, so I've "simply" been batch scanning, and even that causes me consternation when my settings to not save from session to session.

 
4. Does anyone know if you have to hit the "apply" button on the
Exposure Control tab to have the exposure compensation take effect?
Given problem #3 discussed immediately above, it's a waste of time to
redo the prescan (which hitting the apply button does) and it adds a
lot of time to the process. I tried experimenting, but as noted in #2
above, sometimes changing the exposure doesn't have any effect.
 

    -- Hitting "apply" makes sense on each screen where you make changes, but does that then re-pre-scan each time you hit "apply"?

 
5. I tried to import some of the scanned photos (both TIFF and JPEG)

into iPhoto, but at first iPhoto didn't recognize any of them. When I

chose the menu "Add to Library", all the scans were dimmed out,
meaning they were not accessible. Yet Preview (Apple's app for
opening a number of files, including pictures) opened them just fine,
and allowed them to be chosen from its OPEN menu. I finally figured out
the problem and am posting it in case someone else has it as well: Even
though I was saving as a TIFF or JPEG, I had to append the .tiff or
.jpg extension in order for iPhoto (but not Preview) to recognize the
file type. A lot of programs just don't show the file extensions, so
that would be an easy one to miss. I had to go into Terminal and use
Unix's ls command to figure that one out!

    -- DOS wins!  ;-)  Yes, always add a 3-letter filename extension.

 

6. Does anyone know if the software stores temporary files, and if so
where? I ask because I started to do a batch scan to test out the 8 bit
question in #1 above, but wanted to stop after the first scan was done.
I hit the CANCEL button, but to no avail, so eventually I force quit
the app. Even though the progress bar said it had finished one scan, I
didn't see it where it was supposed to be stored and I'm worried
it's somewhere in a tmp folder or similar. It would be nice to get
rid of it.

    -- Do a file search by date.

 

7. When I tried to restart the scan utility after force quitting in #6
above, I keep getting an error saying "Unknown error. Confirm all
other DiMAGE Scan software is closed." I tried unplugging the scanner
and plugging it back in, but the problem persisted. Even restarting the
Mac didn't help, so I uninstalled and reinstalled the scanner
software which also didn't fix it. During the uninstall I got a
message saying some files were in use and couldn't be deleted, so
I'm guessing those are the culprits. Anyone know what and where they
are? So never force quit the scanner software!! A bad design.
 

    -- Bad design on Apple's part or Minolta's part?  ;-)

    -- I find many areas of the Mac to be cryptic and hidden from the end user.  How familiar are you with digging deep into the controls on the mack to actually kill and find a quirky application?  You may need a Mac guru to chat with and help you resolve some MAc issues.  As you are learning the KMDSE5400II AND the Mac at the same time, I imagine the learning curve and frustration levels are enormous.  Geesh!  All I can suggest is to take a break, keep it simple, and learn one thing at a time.  So, it doesn't respond quickly when you interrupt it -- so go get coffee and wait, and don't interrupt it again.  One thing learned!

 
Many thanks for any help you can provide. I'm at wits end.

Martin

----------

    Ask the maker:

Konica Minolta Photo Imaging U.S.A., Inc.,
Camera Division,
725 Darlington Avenue,
Mahwah, NJ 07430 USA

- Digital and 35mm cameras, scanners, binoculars, consumer and professional film and single-use cameras, color print paper, inkjet paper and minilabs

Phones: 1-800-285-6422 or 1-201-574-4000

Dealer Info: 1-800-MY-KONICA = 1-800-695-6642

USA Assistance (toll free): 1-800-808-4888

    Call Apple, too.

    AND please tell us what they say as you work this out.

    I wish I could be more help.  Be patient.  I use a dedicated computer with NOTHING else running and I also get awkward behaviors, but the scans are worth the wait.  I'm batch scanning everything to build my catalog, and I will single-scan to highest qualities later when I'm more patient.

    I have printed your problems and I will study them and the instruction manuals and internet links and get back to you when and if I find more help.

    Does anyone else have ideas and experience to share?

    I'll cc: this to a variety of Minolta groups for assistance.

--
Click!

Love and hugs,

Peter Blaise Monahon
Konica Minolta Olympus Contax Yashica Pentax Canon Nikon Nikkor Vivitar Tamron Samyang Cosina Fujifilm Ilford Kodak Agfa Adobe Hewlett Packard et cetera Photographer ... have I left anyone out?  Oh, yes - Leica tripods!  ;-)  And what now, Sony, too?!?  =8^o
peter...@yahoo.com
http://www.peterblaisephotography.com/

---

[hel...@stanford.edu]

Peter Blaise Monahon peter...@yahoo.com wrote:
> Hello and welcome Martin, fellow DiMage-Scan-friend,

Thanks. It is nice to have a group dedicated to Konica-Minolta. If
you're the one who started it, thanks. [Note: I've deleted some of my
original text to make this easier to read. All of my original text is
accessible in the first post of this thread.]

> -- Is that [Mac OS10.4.3] called TIGER?
YES 10.4 is Tiger, and 10.4.3 is the latest update thereto.

> > 1. ... batch scanning mode only seems

> > to work at 8 bit depth, which loses a lot of the reason for buying this
> > unit. Am I missing something, or is that really the case?

> -- Batch scanning has it's own default settings and does not inherit
> your single scan settings.

It turns out this scanner CAN scan 4 slides or 6 negatives at once, at
least in the sense that I meant. I got confused because what K-M calls
"batch scanning" may only work at 8 bits (though I'm not sure on
that), but "normal" scanning allows you to SHIFT-click to choose
any subset (including all) of the slides or negatives, and then scan
all that were selected. You can even set cropping and exposure
differently for each picture. I can set up the batch, click the scan
icon, and leave for the expected time of the multiple scans. My
confusion was partly due to a poor manual, but also to my trying to use
the scanner without first reading the manual in detail, though I had
skimmed it.

> > 2. Changing the exposure setting doesn't seem to have much effect -

> > at least most of the time. ... The
> > manual (page 42) says I should get a star on the Image Correction

> > Tab after making an exposure change and I don't. The star appears on
> > the Exposure tab instead. I assume that's just a typo, but maybe not
> > and I'm doing something wrong. Any thoughts will be appreciated.

> -- I think the printed manual and the software may be different
> versions.

I was able to resolve this too. The ReadMe file in the applications
folder says "The numeric values inputted into a text box in an
image-correction palette is set when another text box, button, or
slider is clicked." While not a good design, making sure I move to
another box after changing the exposure fixed this problem.

The manual is out-of-date on where the star appears though.

I also have started using the auto-exposure for slides option, which is
not the default, though in my opinion it should be. It seems to help a
lot, and I'll occasionally add a +-0.5 to +-1.0 correction on top of
that.

> -- You seem to want both worlds - batch scanning and individual
> settings per image. Pick one!

As noted above, it turns out I don't need to choose -- at least for
cropping and exposure control.

> > 4. Does anyone know if you have to hit the "apply" button on the
> > Exposure Control tab to have the exposure compensation take effect?
> > Given problem #3 discussed immediately above, it's a waste of time to
> > redo the prescan (which hitting the apply button does) and it adds a
> > lot of time to the process.

> -- Hitting "apply" makes sense on each screen where you make changes,

> but does that then re-pre-scan each time you hit "apply"?

YES, hitting APPLY causes a second prescan at great expense in wasted
time. But I've discovered that the APPLY button should really be
called an APPLY TO PREVIEW button. You do not have to click on it and
suffer the attendant delay to have the new exposure take effect. You
only need to click APPLY if you want to see how it will look in a
prescan. But since regular scans don't take that much longer, I skip
the prescan.

> > 6. Does anyone know if the software stores temporary files, and if so
> > where? I

> -- Do a file search by date.

But where? what folder? There are lots of files created or modified
automatically all over my machine all the time by various processes. I
later found that Page 71 of the manual lists locations for support
files. They are in "MacHD/Library/Application Support/DS Elite5400
2" and "MacHD/Library/Application Support/CFMSupport". The
intermediate results of the scans that were cancelled don't appear to
be anywhere on the HD (at least that I could find), and I have seen a
temporary file named 14000 in whatever directory I am saving the scans.
It goes away when the scans are done.

> > 7. When I tried to restart the scan utility after force quitting in #6
> > above, I keep getting an error saying "Unknown error. Confirm all
> > other DiMAGE Scan software is closed." I tried unplugging the scanner
> > and plugging it back in, but the problem persisted. Even restarting the
> > Mac didn't help, so I uninstalled and reinstalled the scanner
> > software which also didn't fix it. During the uninstall I got a
> > message saying some files were in use and couldn't be deleted, so
> > I'm guessing those are the culprits. Anyone know what and where they
> > are? So never force quit the scanner software!! A bad design.

> I find many areas of the Mac to be cryptic and hidden from the end

> user. How familiar are you with digging deep into the controls on the mack
> to actually kill and find a quirky application? You may need a Mac guru to
> chat with and help you resolve some MAc issues. As you are learning the
> KMDSE5400II AND the Mac at the same time, I imagine the learning curve and
> frustration levels are enormous. Geesh! All I can suggest is to take a
> break, keep it simple, and learn one thing at a time. So, it doesn't
> respond quickly when you interrupt it -- so go get coffee and wait, and
> don't interrupt it again. One thing learned!

Hitting the important point first, the culprit on my being unable to
use the scanner turned out to be MacintoshHD/Library/Application
Support/DS Elite5400 2/MFSLibInit. Moving it elsewhere (for safety, I
later deleted it) fixed the problem and the software created a new one.

Turning to your feelings about the Mac, I guess computers are like
religion. I am very happy with the Mac OS X after earlier attended
church at TRSDOS (1975-77), CP/M (1978-81), MSDOS (1981-even now
sometimes), Windows, NeXTSTEP (1991-95), OS2 (1995-98), and a later
version of Windows (1998-even now sometimes). OS X is much superior to
Mac OS9 which I never really liked. I loved my NeXT, but the lack of
user adoption and therefore lack of software forced me to move.

Killing an application (I'm not sure what a quirky one) is really
simple. I keep Activity Monitor open all the time and go there to
deliver the coup de grace.

[Juliette Cacahuete]

Hello users of Konica Minolta !

I am so glad to have found this group, I hope it still works. Just so you know, I'm French, so I might do a couple of mistakes explaining my issue in english.

Here is the thing : I've had my Minolta Dimage 5400ii for two years now, and I had quite a few malfunctions but the image quality is so great I don't want to change it. Lately the bigger issue is that all my images (especially the darkest ones) show a line above which the colors and contrats of the photo are slightly  different from the rest of the image. It's like a portion of the image was being processed with different settings, and it's always the same part of the image. I've tried opening and cleaning the scan (maybe not quite enough but I was so scared of damaging it), it didn't change a thing.

Did any of you ever had that ? Any idea where it could come from ?

Thank you so much for reading me

Juliette

[peterblaise]

I was just re-notifies by Google that this post needs approval, so here's an updated response.

Welcome BUT this group was started back when Konica merged with Minolta and Minolta even existed, and has been inactive for 16 years.

There may be better more-active resources on Facebook, Flickr, Photo-net, and other places.

My experience of the scanner was a bust - I needed to be with it 100% of the time, I could not ask it to scan a whole roll of film and go to bed or go away for the day, I had to hold the slide to keep it from cocking and going in at an angle, and the film curled causing poor focus across from center to the outer edges. 

Software-wise, others use non-Minolta software, and often set up a computer JUST to scan, using an old operating system, and rooting often to start fresh to reconnect and recover from errors.

I scanned each frame to 16-bit TIFF ~256 MB files, taking -f-o-r-e-v-e-r- per frame, then realized what I really wanted was screen-resolution as quickly as possible, so I put all the 4x6" prints in an easel and shot them quickly using a simple 5 MP digital camera.

You may want to run Mac utilities to clean in-use files and temp and realign assignments and whatever, even get an alternative hard drive and reload an older version of the operating system that matched when the Minolta scanner was created and boot from that when you want to scan - keep it super simple, and exactly as Minolta originally expected, even get an old computer if needed, even a Windows computer, they are super cheap, and operating systems are cheap, an XP SP3 machine with 4 GB and any size hard drive matches the ave of the scanner, street value today of $25 US, but a computer with Windows 7 and 8 or 16 GB and 2 TB drive is still cheap, starting at probably $200 US - the computer speed is immaterial as it awaits for USB 2 data transfer rates, ANY computer is faster than that.

My film scanner has sat unused for 16 years.

[peterblaise]

Of course, flip the film, and also scan a black frame and an empty frame, and compare.

Where does the anomaly appear, or does it go away?

If it stays in the same place ( that is, when flipping the film it stays at the top even with the image upside down ), it's optical or mechanical, maybe even memory-based, try a different computer, swap the memory chips in the computer around.

If the anomaly stays in the same part of the image, and is gone in a black or empty frame, then there's something reflecting maybe film-based, edge leaking, try rescanning an old frame that you already had success with, if it's good, then the problem is with the newer film, if the old film can't scan well anymore, then yes, something is getting wonky in the scanner, software, or computer memory.

Turn off everything, any anti-virus software, any automatic cleaning software, exit all software, reboot, no browsers, no updates, no Internet, nothing, let nothing autostart in the background as a scan progresses, the computer should be 100% dedicated to one and only one task.

The disk should be defragmented and error-free, if a Windows machine, make sure it has cooling air, loads of it aimed at the disk drive, then run [ ChkDsk /R ] and reboot, and wait for the drive to test and repair it's surface. it may heat up, hence the need for an extra fan - if the drive has bad sectors and is retrying retrying retrying retrying while the can is trying to save, it may cause a buffer misalignment or who knows what, s a perfect hard drive is essential - if a Mac, ask Mac support how to surface-test a hard drive.

Also check Facebook, Flickr, Photo-net, and other places to connect with Minolta scanner aficionados.