Scanner scratches negatives, focus is off = dirty?

Hello,

I bought a Konica-Minolta DiMAGE 5400 II last year right before they
disappeared and initially was very happy with it. I got good, sharp
scans with little noise.

However, recently I've been having a number of problems. One is that
I'm getting horizontal scratches on my negatives, I suppose from the
scanner? The second is that the default auto focus doesn't work like
it used to, the prescan stage is always out of focus and I have to
manually reset the focus for each frame.

I used to get shots like this:

http://ichigoichie.org/photographs/reference/060504_paris016_C4.jpg
http://ichigoichie.org/photographs/reference/060821_nakameguro015_C4.jpg

but now most of the negatives after scanning end up looking like this:

http://ichigoichie.org/photographs/reference/061202_honmachi020_C4.jpg
http://ichigoichie.org/photographs/reference/070214_tokyoMisc018_G4.jpg

(if the above links don't work by just clicking on them...cache
problems, please just try copy-pasting the URLs directly...sorry for
the trouble!)

Has anyone had similar problems? Should I try to get the scanner
cleaned? Konica-Minolta seems to be out of the film business now so
I'm not sure if I could even get it serviced.

Thanks for the help, I really appreciate it!

"HeroOfSpielburg" <ventudg.RemoveThis@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1176387465.073644.87390@y5g2000hsa.googlegroups.com...
> Hello,
>
> I bought a Konica-Minolta DiMAGE 5400 II last year right before they
> disappeared and initially was very happy with it. I got good, sharp
> scans with little noise.
>
> However, recently I've been having a number of problems. One is that
> I'm getting horizontal scratches on my negatives, I suppose from the
> scanner? The second is that the default auto focus doesn't work like
> it used to, the prescan stage is always out of focus and I have to
> manually reset the focus for each frame.
>
> I used to get shots like this:
>
> http://ichigoichie.org/photographs/reference/060504_paris016_C4.jpg
> http://ichigoichie.org/photographs/reference/060821_nakameguro015_C4.jpg
>
> but now most of the negatives after scanning end up looking like this:
>
> http://ichigoichie.org/photographs/reference/061202_honmachi020_C4.jpg
> http://ichigoichie.org/photographs/reference/070214_tokyoMisc018_G4.jpg
>
> (if the above links don't work by just clicking on them...cache
> problems, please just try copy-pasting the URLs directly...sorry for
> the trouble!)
>
> Has anyone had similar problems? Should I try to get the scanner
> cleaned? Konica-Minolta seems to be out of the film business now so
> I'm not sure if I could even get it serviced.
>
> Thanks for the help, I really appreciate it!

>>>>>
It's been a while since I last used film, but the marks on the images do not
look to me like they have been made by your scanner, but rather at the time
of processing! or before processing, by your cameras film transport,
especially in the image 070214_tokyoMisc018_G4.jpg, though I can't be sure.
Having said that, I do not know how the "DiMAGE 5400" works, do you slide
the negs through it, or place them one at a time? as I suppose sliding the
negs through could be scratching them?
Have a look at the negs with a loupe or magnifying glass etc, to see if they
are marked before scanning or not.
If it is only the last film that has had this problem, then it could have
happened during the processing stage, but if it is happening all the time
then it is more likely to be your camera or scanner, depending on at which
stage the negs are being scratched.
Good luck
Mick

>