The sharpest of all...

Author's Rating:

Pros: THE BEST SCAN QUALITY today. Sharpness dynamic range like you've never seen before.

Cons: Slow, no real batch scanning compared to the LS5000. But sharper and more sensitive.

The Bottom Line: 
So cheap and so good... Just get one !

Author's Review
I've tested it briefly on my worst slides and negs, but not used it long enough to tell exactly what it's worth on a long term use.

I own the Dimage Scan Multi Pro, an amazing 4800 dpi medium format 35 mm scanner. This one seems old compared to the brand new Nikon LS 9000 (or 5000), but the results are just incredible. Old... only for speed and productivity. The Nikon is fast and has the ability to scan two 6x9 in a few minutes @ 4000 dpi, when the Minolta only scans one at a time, and slooooowly. Then, the job is just PERFECT. I have recently produced some absolutely perfect scans, I have to admit with the use of the Scanhancer.

The 5400 globally produces the same scan quality, except it's even better in terms of sharpness : the film grain is perfectly rendered, "drawn" with a scalpel, comparable to a rotative scan...
The scanhancer is integrated ("grain dissolver"), that's a big advantage : if you use it, the settings are automatically adapted. No color shift to be corrected. (unlike the Multi Pro scanhancer). Don't forget in this case to set multipass scans (4x or more if you have deep shadows) to avoid noise in the dark areas.
With this revolutionnary device, you completely avoid the terrible peppergrain effect. The combination Grain Dissolver Ice 8x multisamplig is here to produce perfection.

The dynamic range is fantastic. This scanner is able, like the Multi Pro (in 8x or 16x), to extract all the informations from the brightest highlights to the deepest shadows, WITHOUT NOISE. The Nikon is excellent in the shadows, but not as accurate and deep as the 5400. The software now does a pretty good job with negatives, and once again, you'll never find such a scan quality on negs on ANY other scanner today, thanks (again) to the scanhancer. So sharp, and the grain is not exagerated as it used to be.

I have not yet tested it with B&W negs. I wasn't that happy with B&W scans in my Multi Pro, the Scanhancer made things better but not as good as I hoped.

People say it's able to scan Kodachromes and Ice would still work. I don't have Kodachromes to scan here with me, maybe later.

Do NOT use the automatic settings. If you're lucky you'll get something acceptable most of the time, but why buy a Ferrari if you don't drive it yourself ?

And the last thing : I've compared side by side two scans of the same frame, one from the 5400, and one from the fantastic Scitex Ever Smart Supreme (set @ 6000 dpi, downsampled to 5400 dpi).
The two scans were so good I couldn't tell wich one was the best. Maybe the Scitex was a bit sharper, just a little bit...

Minolta has produced an exceptionnal scanner with this 5400. And it's so cheap ! If you're interested in BIG prints ( /- 100 Meg files), it's the one you need. Otherwise if you're interested in a cheap scanner, it's the one you need !
But if you need speed for your 10000 old slides, get the Nikon LS 5000 SF-200, the fastet today, much more expensive, and so much more productive. And excellent too.