Qustion re scanner resolutions

[Walter R.]

I am converting my photo albums to digital images. I am using an Epson
Stylus CX4600 printer/scanner for scanning the photos.

This is a color flatbed scanner, using a CIS (contact image sensor). It has
an "optical resolution" of 600 dpi and a "hardware resolution" of 600x1200
dpi. Maximum resolution is 9600x9600 interpolated. (This technical stuff is
beyond me!)

I have been scanning my photos at 300 dpi and the resulting digital images
look pretty good.

Would the quality of my images be improved if I bought a Canon Lide 25
scanner? This unit costs only $ 50. It shows Max. Hardware Resolution of
1200x2400 dpi (interpolated 19200c19200).

If I set my software to scan in 300 dpi mode, would it make any difference
if I used the Lide Scanner with a resolution of 1200x2400? Seems to me that
I would not gain anything because, if I scan at 300 dpi, I am not even
scanning at the maximum capacity of the Epson scanner.

Can someone enlighten me? For my purposes, scanning at 300 dpi, would there
be any difference between my old 600x1200 scanner (old Epson), or 1200x2400
(new Canon Ide 25)?

Thank you for your help

 

[Barry Watzman]

If you are serious about this, you should get a good dedicated scanner.
Only for very casual use are the scanners in MFP devices adequate.

Resolution, per se, is not the issue. 600dpi is fine for almost
anything, and if you are starting from anything larger than about 4x6,
even 300 dpi may be ok. But low cost scanners don't have the focus or
color accuracy that anyone who is serious would probably want (it's ok
if you are a "casual" (VERY casual) user).

[On the other hand, going from one cheap scanner to another cheap
scanner may not change anything]

It's clear to me that you could use some "edumication" in photography
and digital imaging. Quality aside, a 1200x200 image would take forever
to scan and the resulting file would be huge, with no benefit to you in
terms of image quality unless you were making a truly enormous enlargement.

 

[Terry]

I am converting my photo albums to digital images. I am using an Epson
Stylus CX4600 printer/scanner for scanning the photos.

This is a color flatbed scanner, using a CIS (contact image sensor). It has
an "optical resolution" of 600 dpi and a "hardware resolution" of 600x1200
dpi. Maximum resolution is 9600x9600 interpolated. (This technical stuff is
beyond me!)

I have been scanning my photos at 300 dpi and the resulting digital images
look pretty good.

Would the quality of my images be improved if I bought a Canon Lide 25
scanner? This unit costs only $ 50. It shows Max. Hardware Resolution of
1200x2400 dpi (interpolated 19200c19200).

If I set my software to scan in 300 dpi mode, would it make any difference
if I used the Lide Scanner with a resolution of 1200x2400? Seems to me that
I would not gain anything because, if I scan at 300 dpi, I am not even
scanning at the maximum capacity of the Epson scanner.

Can someone enlighten me? For my purposes, scanning at 300 dpi, would there
be any difference between my old 600x1200 scanner (old Epson), or 1200x2400
(new Canon Ide 25)?

Thank you for your help

You might want to read Scanning Basics 101.
Link: http://www.scantips.com/

 

[Talker]

I am converting my photo albums to digital images. I am using an Epson
Stylus CX4600 printer/scanner for scanning the photos.

This is a color flatbed scanner, using a CIS (contact image sensor). It has
an "optical resolution" of 600 dpi and a "hardware resolution" of 600x1200
dpi. Maximum resolution is 9600x9600 interpolated. (This technical stuff is
beyond me!)

I have been scanning my photos at 300 dpi and the resulting digital images
look pretty good.

Would the quality of my images be improved if I bought a Canon Lide 25
scanner? This unit costs only $ 50. It shows Max. Hardware Resolution of
1200x2400 dpi (interpolated 19200c19200).

If I set my software to scan in 300 dpi mode, would it make any difference
if I used the Lide Scanner with a resolution of 1200x2400? Seems to me that
I would not gain anything because, if I scan at 300 dpi, I am not even
scanning at the maximum capacity of the Epson scanner.

Can someone enlighten me? For my purposes, scanning at 300 dpi, would there
be any difference between my old 600x1200 scanner (old Epson), or 1200x2400
(new Canon Ide 25)?

Thank you for your help

Like Barry said, you should look into getting a better scanner if
you want to do some serious scanning.
As to the resolution, it depends on what you are planning on
doing with the scans. If you think that you might someday want to
print out the scans, then you should scan the picture at 300 dpi which
is what most printers require to print out a good image. Keep in mind
that the printer needs a 300 dpi image to be sent to it. That doesn't
mean that the printer is going to print it out at 300 dpi. Printer
dpi and image resolution dpi are two different things.
If you scan a 4x6 picture and want to print it out as a 4x6
picture, then you would scan it at 300 dpi. If you want to scan a 4x6
picture but enlarge it to say an 8x10, then you would need to scan it
at approximately 600 dpi. The reason for the higher dpi is so that
the software that will enlarge the photo has enough pixels to do the
enlargement without having to interpolate pixels that aren't there.
If you scanned it at 300 dpi and tried to enlarge it, then the
software would have to create pixels in order to make the picture
bigger. When software creates pixels, the image is poor.
With 600 dpi, the software has what it needs by spreading out the
600 dots per inch to fill and 8x10 picture. When it spreads out the
dots, it will result in an 8x10 picture with approximately 300 dots
per inch.
I hope I didn't confuse you with my explanation...

Talker