vuescan and r800 printer confusion

[Andre C]

Sorry -posting again as my ISP is mucking around with the newserver
and my original post seems to have dissapeared.



I know this is an old chestnut but having read www.scantips.com and
other sources and then using vuescan on my Minolta Scan Dual IV I
remain confused.

Two seperate questions really. The scanner is rated at 3200DPI and in
the supplied sofeware you can scan up to 3200DPI. Yet when I run
Vescan and adjust the DPI manually I am allowed to scan to 6000 and
this certainly produced a larger image. I was not aware that this
scanner could interpolate or is it Vuescan taking liberties?

Secondly. I have an Epson r800. I am scanning my old negatives for
archive purposes but obviously want to be able to produce good prints.
I can set the output resolution at 300DPI and the input at 3200 in the
Minolta software, Seems fine and files are about 60MB in size. But I
also see options to set output resolution to up to 3200 whihc I
appreciate means no magnification. But what is better printing wise?
Scanning at 300 or 3200. And is 300DPI the ideal for printing or
should I be aiming higher?

ACC

 

[rafe b]

Two seperate questions really. The scanner is rated at 3200DPI and in
the supplied sofeware you can scan up to 3200DPI. Yet when I run
Vescan and adjust the DPI manually I am allowed to scan to 6000 and
this certainly produced a larger image. I was not aware that this
scanner could interpolate or is it Vuescan taking liberties?

There's never any point scanning at above the
scanner's optical resolution. This is true
in VueScan or any other scanner driver.

Secondly. I have an Epson r800. I am scanning my old negatives for
archive purposes but obviously want to be able to produce good prints.
I can set the output resolution at 300DPI and the input at 3200 in the
Minolta software, Seems fine and files are about 60MB in size. But I
also see options to set output resolution to up to 3200 whihc I
appreciate means no magnification. But what is better printing wise?
Scanning at 300 or 3200. And is 300DPI the ideal for printing or
should I be aiming higher?

Just make sure you're scanning at 3200 (or whatever
the real, maximum optical resolution is) independent
of any printing considerations.

The print resolution is a very different issue.

Quite often the confusion here arises from the
confusing user interface within the scanner
driver.

The "proof of the pudding" so to speak is the
size of the file you end up with, in Photoshop.

Let's assume for the sake of argument that a
35 mm frame is 1" by 1.5" (that's pretty darn
close, actually.)

So, if you're scanning that frame at 3200 dpi,
you should end up with a file that's 3200 x 4800
pixels. It's really that simple.

See www.scantips.com for a nice rundown of these
various "resolution" questions.


rafe b
www.terrapinphoto.com