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RichB · 07-08-2006, 11:38

Here are my rambling thoughts:

I've had a negative scanner for a few years, 35mm only, a Canon Canoscan FS2710, and I usually scan at the highest resolution; then manipulate the image in Photoshop, as required. You can always reduce the DPI, and resolution/information of the scan, but it's difficult to go the other way and increase it, unless you're a Hollywood/TV film maker, or a government agency, with big pockets!

As with most things, it depends on what you intend to do with the scans. Archiving, I'd recommend the highest possible resolution to capture as much information; especially as data storage is now so cheap, and you don't really want to be repeating the scanning process. Printing, well, you don't actually need a scan resolution higher than the printer can handle, unless you want to safeguard the scan image for whatever printer you may have in the future; in which case you're back to the maximum again!

It also depends on the film speed that was used, e.g. 25ASA would need a higher resolution than 400ASA, to capture the information down to the grain of the film layer.

Hope this helps.

Richard.

07-08-2006, 11:38	#6 (permalink)
RichB Quite Chatty Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 53	Re: Scanning old Negs Here are my rambling thoughts: I've had a negative scanner for a few years, 35mm only, a Canon Canoscan FS2710, and I usually scan at the highest resolution; then manipulate the image in Photoshop, as required. You can always reduce the DPI, and resolution/information of the scan, but it's difficult to go the other way and increase it, unless you're a Hollywood/TV film maker, or a government agency, with big pockets! As with most things, it depends on what you intend to do with the scans. Archiving, I'd recommend the highest possible resolution to capture as much information; especially as data storage is now so cheap, and you don't really want to be repeating the scanning process. Printing, well, you don't actually need a scan resolution higher than the printer can handle, unless you want to safeguard the scan image for whatever printer you may have in the future; in which case you're back to the maximum again! It also depends on the film speed that was used, e.g. 25ASA would need a higher resolution than 400ASA, to capture the information down to the grain of the film layer. Hope this helps. Richard.