Scanners: which levewl work best

External Since: Mar 21, 2006 Posts: 41

there was a thread almost like this earlier, but i have more specific
needs/questions.

my goal: to take some slides i have had for years, and convert them to
digital. also, to take some medium format and large format negs and scan
them to, to clean them up in photoshop.

the 35mm stuff is 90 per cent color, while the medium and large is mostly
B&W.

my problem: I went to Frys yesterday and got the low level "on sale"
Visioneer 9120 scanner. it said it does film, and i tried it, but to say it
lacks ummph would be an understatement. now, i know i was expecting too much
from a forty dollar scanner, but do i really need to spend $ 600.00 to get
the results i'm after? I want to be able to print some of them myself,
mostly 5x7s, but sometimes up to 11x14.

the visioneer scans them up to 2700 dpi, but the slides (when they get to
photoshop) look awful! the noise and dust are beyond a nuisance, and the
sharpness is pathetic.

i'm probably assuming that the medium and large format stuff will have to be
done professionally, but i'd like to to do the 35mm stuff at home.

so are there any suggestions, orther than the Nikon ?

thanks

External Since: Sep 18, 2005 Posts: 33

"joe mama" <dmoss74.TakeThisOut@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:8kiXe.72$G64.65@newssvr12.news.prodigy.com...
> there was a thread almost like this earlier, but i have more specific
> needs/questions.
>
> my goal: to take some slides i have had for years, and convert them to
> digital. also, to take some medium format and large format negs and scan
> them to, to clean them up in photoshop.
>
> the 35mm stuff is 90 per cent color, while the medium and large is mostly
> B&W.
>
> my problem: I went to Frys yesterday and got the low level "on sale"
> Visioneer 9120 scanner. it said it does film, and i tried it, but to say
it
> lacks ummph would be an understatement. now, i know i was expecting too
much
> from a forty dollar scanner, but do i really need to spend $ 600.00 to get
> the results i'm after? I want to be able to print some of them myself,
> mostly 5x7s, but sometimes up to 11x14.
>
> the visioneer scans them up to 2700 dpi, but the slides (when they get to
> photoshop) look awful! the noise and dust are beyond a nuisance, and the
> sharpness is pathetic.
>
> i'm probably assuming that the medium and large format stuff will have to
be
> done professionally, but i'd like to to do the 35mm stuff at home.
>
> so are there any suggestions, orther than the Nikon ?
>
> thanks
>
To enlarge slide to 5x7 or 11x14 you will probably need something with twice
the dpi of your visioneer. I think most of the dedicated slide scanners are
4200 dpi and up.

Also, be sure you are scanning at the highest dpi available on your
visioneer and save as a TIFF if you want to do anything with it in
PhotoShop.

Ron