MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
Hi,
As above, want to buy a scanner for a mac mini. My main aim is to get all the processed pictures I have scanned onto the computer, so I can ditch all the old hard copy pictures.
Any recommendations? I was thinking of a flat bed scanner, (stand alone), as I had a scanner that was integrated onto the top of my old HP all in one printer and it was rubbish (took for ever to scan, picture printing was painful and never worked very well, ink expensive etc). Not sure if the all in ones are better these days, but I would want it to be able to scan and send the image over WIFI if possible.
I have one of these [url= http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fujitsu-ScanSnap-S1100-Document-Scanner/dp/B004HAVBFM ]Scanner[/url] i scan images and photos, i carry it with laptop and upload onto evernote or laptop.
I bought a cheap 3-in-1 at Tesco a few years back. Epson SX430. Wireless. Scans wirelessly too. Even at its top res it does it pretty quickly and quality is fine for text and photo. Wireless might be good or bad depending on how close the scanner is. Imagine walking up and down the stairs if you're scanning a few things.
Most decent quality combo printer/scanners will do a perfectly good job these days. You don't have to print from it, but it's good to have the option, and there are cheaper sources of ink than the OEM ones. Epson or Canon have made excellent scanner/printers for some time, and for most purposes, a scanner that goes up to 1600dpi would be more than adequate; print repro is only 300dpi, 600 at most, anything more and you can't see any difference, and your file sizes become unwieldy. I used to scan a 35mm tranny at 300dpi, and 850%, which would give a final file of roughly 40Mb, IIRC. (It's been a while since I did any professional scanning). Basically that would take it up to an A4, with a bleed.
That would be enough to see film grain in a 100ASA tran. If you're scanning prints, then be careful with glossy ones, because the shiny surface will cause moiré or interference patterns, which will look like grey blotches on the scan. I used to use special foils with a slightly frosted surface, to stop that happening.