Holey moley!!! DImage 5400 elite scanner lens. Just wow!

[Lou Jost]

Cube-tube, the rated resolutions of most scanners refer to the number of pixels in the sensor, not the resolution of the lens, and usually the lens resolves MUCH less than the sensor. There are a few places on the internet that actually measure the optical resolution with test slides. The most complete is this one:
http://www.filmscanner.info/en/NikonCoolscan5ED.html
Note that some scanners are only described in pages in German. This is the site that motivated me to buy a Nikon Coolscan 8000 a year or two ago, and it is also reported on the high quality of the DiMage 5400.

[cube-tube]

Thanks, Lou Jost!

[RobertOToole]

My Dimage 5400 elite scanner arrived this morning and I've been playing with, err, I mean testing the lens since. I can't think of strong enough superlatives to describe it. Robert O'Toole praised it very, very highly and I expected great things as a result. But not THIS great! Wow!

Hi Beatsy,

Just ran a big group of lenses at 2.1x including the little Minolta but also SK Macro Varon, Canon MP-E, Scitex S-3, Magnagons, Rayfact GF, Tominon, a Rodagon, about 12 lenses in all.

The standouts?

Minolta 5400 was easily the best performer, other than the MacroVaron and a GF Rayfact, it made the other lenses look pretty average in side-by-side comparisons.

Robert

[Beatsy]

...The standouts?

Minolta 5400 was easily the best performer, other than the MacroVaron and a GF Rayfact, it made the other lenses look pretty average in side-by-side comparisons.

Oh noooo!! I *was* happy. Perfectly content and happy. But now you confirm there are at least two lenses that are better (even if they do have telephone-number prices). Nasty man!

Just kidding. The 5400 is a stonker - I'm really chuffed with my options around the 2x mark now. If only the 5400 were telecentric too...