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Thread ID: 93707 2008-09-28 03:01:00 Scanning old photos shomenno (7767) Press F1
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708280 2008-09-28 03:01:00 I am wanting to scan into my computer all the old family photos (colour and Black and white), I am not sure which scanner will best service my needs. At the moment I am looking at the Cannon LiDE, there two models I have a choice from but I am not sure what DPI is adiquate for those standard size photos one used to get from the developers. There is a 4800*4800 model and a 2400*4800, both are 48bit. I like these models as the have a one button approach to the scanning process.

Can anyone give me a pointer as to which resolution will suffice?

Regards, Shomenno.
shomenno (7767)
708281 2008-09-28 03:22:00 This site (http://www.scantips.com/) may be of some use to you in helping you decide. CI Sue (14168)
708282 2008-09-28 04:43:00 Any modern scanner has more than enough resolution for scanning photos. 600 dpi is plenty for most users. When you consider that a normal computer screen resolution is 72 dpi, anything more than 600 dpi is just creating a huge file size to no purpose.

At 600 dpi a postcard size photo would be 4 feet wide on a computer screen at 100% resolution!
Vallis (8886)
708283 2008-09-28 06:34:00 Scanning is a very slow process if you have got lots of photos. I was lazy and chose a cloudy day for dispersed lighting and set up photos on a table near the window and used my digital camera carefully trying to avoid parallax errors. If you are careful the results are quite impressive but not quite as good as scanning. johnd (85)
708284 2008-09-28 07:06:00 Scanning is a very slow process if you have got lots of photos. I was lazy and chose a cloudy day for dispersed lighting and set up photos on a table near the window and used my digital camera carefully trying to avoid parallax errors. If you are careful the results are quite impressive but not quite as good as scanning.

This works well for slides project them and re take them with a digital camera on a tripod
gary67 (56)
708285 2008-09-28 07:07:00 From my own experience I scanned many hundreds of B&W and Colour photos plus hundreds of colour transparencies using my Canon 8800F scanner and was most impressed with the results.
Remember that if saved to CD or DVD they may not be used just for screen viewing in the future.....someone may want to take off prints also, so a reasonable resolution is required.

JonB
JonB (1885)
708286 2008-09-28 09:09:00 The best result will be to purchase a scanner that can scan negatives or slides as well and scan them at maximum resolution. Canon is a good choice Ofthesea (14129)
708287 2008-09-28 23:29:00 As others have said, you will pay severely in speed if you choose too high a resolution. I usually scan 300dpi.

One other important point. Make sure the scanning software can work with multiple images. This means you can put several prints on the scanner and the software will separate each print into a separate file. Big time saver.

I'm sure you will get good results whatever you buy.
linw (53)
708288 2008-09-28 23:55:00 I am wanting to scan into my computer all the old family photos (colour and Black and white).

Can I ask why you want to?
pctek (84)
708289 2008-09-29 08:01:00 Can I ask why you want to?


Once they are in the computer it is possible to "Clean them up". Most programmes these days have a basic clean up at the touch of a button. After that you have to get serious. Have done the basic way & a little of the individual repair work. PJ
Poppa John (284)
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