BetterPhoto Q&A
Category: New Answers

Copying Of Colour Slides and Old Photos

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July 02, 2002

For your slides you can buy a film scanner, OR take them to a shop that will put them on Kodak Photo CD for you. Choose only your best slides for this, or you'll spend enough to buy a film scanner. Check out the articles on my web page for some specifics about scanning.

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July 04, 2002

	Contest Winner Notice the dust and jagginess in the image . Scanned by a lab from Print T Lee
	Precious More dust, and that scratch wasn't there previously either.Scanned by a lab from neg T Lee
	Santa Baby Believe it or not, none of the marks are reflections, not even the big one to the right of center. Scanned by a lab from neg T Lee
	Weed Not a very good shot, but it does show the scanner's capabilities. Delta 400, slightly over-processed. T Lee

I was unable to find much when I did a search on the internet for your scanner, so I haven't any information on doing a scan from neg or slide on your particular scanner. One thing that I can suggest though, is instead of a dedicated film scanner, perhaps it is time to upgrade your scanner to a more practical one for your purposes.

I have an Epson Perfection 1250. (1200x2400dpi and 48bit color) There is also a 1650 (1600*??? dpi), but I've never even used the full resolution of the 1250, so couldn't justify the extra money for that one. I generally scan at 300dpi and 24bit color, so the need for 1600xwhatever dpi seems unlikely. I bought the one with the Photo scanner attachment, and it cost me $200Cdn total. I believe that translates to about $135USD.

When I bought it... I didn't expect much out of it. I thought, "really... $200 how good can it be?" It knocked my socks off. It has more than paid for itself since I bought it. I shoot mainly black and white, and learned after the first time that I paid to have it developed, that I didn't want to go that route again. I now develop the film in my basement, and make contact prints. If time does not permit for the contact prints, or if it's too darn cold in the basement ( like in the winter in my uninsulated basement.) and I'm feeling like a wimp, then I sit down and scan the pics onto the computer. The quality of the scans far far outperforms my expectations. I use Delta 400 as my primary film, and have recently been playing with Delta 100, even the grain from the 400 isn't terribly noticable until I scan at HUGE resolutions. I have even scanned Delta 3200, and found that the scans were no more noticably grainy than an 8x10 print.

The other reason that I mention this scanner, is that I have a PhotoCD that was made for me at a lab. It's got dust in it, and poor quality images, even though I supplied them images. I was burnt, and will never go back to that method. (Especially now that I have a scanner that does way better than they did. :) )

Stormi

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July 13, 2002