scanner or aio recommendation

[f1sh3r]

my wife wants to scan and restore her parents wedding photos. its their 30th anniversary and shes making them a coffee table book. we have other photos like our wedding & a trip to italy that i would like to scan as well, and would appreciate them sans grain.

things im interested in:

high resolution
multiple photos at once
vista compatible
trying to stay < $200


do the aio psc offer what i want?

could i grab a $179 HP Photosmart and call it a day? i could use a new printer anyways.

thanks AT peripheral masters.

 

[Zepper]

I prefer Epson scanners - you could check their specials/clearance center on their web site - usuall free ground shipping.

.bh.

 

[montag451]

I got the Epson 4490 (I think it was) to scan some real old photos - 40 - 80 years old.
Crap results.

Sent it back and got a canon
http://www.superwarehouse.com/...ner/1307B002/p/1488404

Wonderful results and very very happy with it.
And no, I don't have shares in canon.

 

[MadAmos]

I recently bought the Cannon 8600f so far this scanner has been the best I have tried and it even had Adobe Elements 4 included. check the specs and you will be impressed. around 159.00 shipped to my door from am****.com

Amos

 

[Madwand1]

Originally posted by: f1sh3r
my wife wants to scan and restore her parents wedding photos. its their 30th anniversary and shes making them a coffee table book. we have other photos like our wedding & a trip to italy that i would like to scan as well, and would appreciate them sans grain.

Grain? Sounds like you're looking for a negative scanner. Look for something with hardware dust filtering -- Digital ICE / FARE.

Software such as Neat Image can do wonders for grain if you need it.

http://www.scantips.com/

 

[montag451]

http://www.superwarehouse.com/...ner/1307B002/p/1488404

FARE level 4

 

[bluestrobe]

How fast is the cannon scanner? I have about 2,000 photos I would like to digitalize and am looking for something in the >$200 range.

 

[montag451]

Depends on resolution.

at 'Hires' can't remember exactly the dpi now, might take 10 seconds for A5 ish size.
At low (600dpi) was very quick.

 

[Madwand1]

Originally posted by: bluestrobe
How fast is the cannon scanner? I have about 2,000 photos I would like to digitalize and am looking for something in the >$200 range.

Scanning takes a lot of time for various reasons. If you can automate much of it, you might be able to do this sort of volume, but it still sounds like a long shot. And then, you'd want to do it just once, not find that the results aren't what you hoped for and spend a lot of time tweaking them or worse, doing the scanning all over again.

There's a fair bit of difference in the quality that you can get out of an inexpensive flatbed scanner and dedicated negative scanner (such as a Nikon 5000). 35mm negatives can be usefully scanned up to around 4000 DPI resolution (assuming you have good film and images to start). Much below that, you won't get all the detail. Above that, you might not be seeing any more detail. Desktop scanners claim such resolution, but don't do so well in comparisons. OTOH, the lack of sharpness of consumer flatbed scanners might not be noticeable in small prints, and can also do a good job of hiding grain.

4000 dpi scans each take a lot of time and a fair amount of space (esp. if done in 16-bit colors). In addition, the post-processing steps/layers and final images add more time and space.

I personally don't have 2000 photos worth scanning. I'd keep the negatives in any case. I suggest getting a decent scanner and only scanning ones worth post-processing. I leave "decent" to your judgment. Despite my comments, you can enjoy the results from consumer flatbed scanners, and you might find that the time cost is such that it's not worth the hassle and expenditure for a higher-end scanner.

 

[bluestrobe]

These photos are from the last 20+ years and I don't have the negatives. I would probably tweak the first one and use those settings for the rest. I would be going for the quantity then go back later with my flatbed scanner and touch up the special ones.

 

[Madwand1]

Originally posted by: bluestrobe
These photos are from the last 20+ years and I don't have the negatives.

Then you can save a lot of money on the scanner -- the quality of the scanner won't be nearly as important when you're only scanning prints. The resolution will also be a lot lower, even though the source image will be larger. According to http://www.scantips.com/basics08.html you can only usefully scan prints up to around 300 dpi.

So the good new is that you can save money, space, and time. The bad news is that the potential resolution won't be as high.

 

[montag451]

As madwand said,
But, I scanned all the photos I had to scan at hiDef just in case (and to future proof my hard work), and at lo-res (600dpi) for browsing.

It used to be that you should scan at about 1/3 the resolution of your printer. My printer should be able to do 2400dpi, so amen.

 

[Azimuth40]

Most of the all in one's skimp on the scanner section. They assume that you want a copy machine basically. Get a separate scanner this should fit your needs with twice the color depth and twice the optical resolution of your Photosmart choice

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16838104039

or for a little more

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16838104040

Both and well under your $200 budget

If some of those pictures end up being sephia tone of gloss B/W they will be easier to clean up with the software that comes with the scanner or Photoshop in extreme cases. The windows software that comes with XP Media center, Office or Vista will help keep costs down.

Now for the best light weight model of any scanners in your price range I really like the Canon Lide series. The color depth is not as high but the optical is still better than most all-in-ones in the sub $200 price range. The 600F handles Pictures and Film and is powered from the USB port. You can grab one of these and take it anywhere in a hurry. And it has pretty decent software considering the price for the novice user to remove dust and scratches. You can probably get your wife going on it quickly and it also can have a vertical footprint At $124 on sale at the Egg it is a good deal for the casual user and leaves you a few bucks for your inkjet. The Lide 70 is even less if you don't need film.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16838111011

Good luck

 

[JackMDS]

Actually for old photos and beat up original you do not need a good scanner the better is the scanning the more the imperfections comes out and it does not look so good.

 

[montag451]

Originally posted by: JackMDS
Actually for old photos and beat up original you do not need a good scanner the better is the scanning the more the imperfections comes out and it does not look so good.

This is what FARE and Digital Ice do, they take out some of the old imperfections (well at least the FARE does) - it managed to make some torn pieces look a lot better than I could have using PShop.

 

[trikster2]

Epson 4990 was one of the bestest in it's day (2005)

There's a $100 rebate on the 4990 now so the price is $250ish

http://forums.anandtech.com/me...id=40&threadid=2071711