Okay boys, let's talk something different, lets talk SCANNERS!

[ShinRa]

Yeah im in the market for a scanner...or so i think. I dont know much about them. What i DO want to do is take all of my old film printed pictures and put them onto my computer digitally. I dont have the negatives, but i hear i can still get a perfectly good digital image using a scanner. So can someone tell me what kinda scanner i should be looking for for this particular project of mine? and what kind of results i can expect?

 

[Asus]

I don't have a lot of personal experience with current scanners. But from what I've heard Canon has some decent scanners out for about $150. Higher priced Epson scanners are very good. Have not used HP scanners recently. If I remember right the bottom models for HP, Epson and Canon are about $80-100.

Just keep in mind it isn't all about the resolution so don't get a cheap brand thinking it's good enough just because the resolution is the same as the more expensive ones. They have to reproduce the right colors.

How many photos do you have?

 

[ShinRa]

oh id say about 1000 lol

 

[Revisedsoul]

id say stay with canon or epson. hp's work alright, but usually a bit over priced.

all epson's and most canons will also come with photo restoration software. if it helps you any, majority of the professional photo guys in town use epson with a few towards canon(a bit cheaper than epson)

 

[ShinRa]

so epson is where its at i guess. and im pretty retared with scanners. so all i do is put the picture on the scanner like i was going to make a copy of it, and itll just poof! be there on my computer screen?

 

[Revisedsoul]

you have to run the scanner software. and choose what res and such. but basically once you have your settings, just click the button and it scans. rinse, repeat.

 

[ShinRa]

sounds fun. cant wait to rinse and repeat.....

one thousand four hundred and eighty two times.

 

[63]

Depends on what you're using it for. If you're just using it to scan pictures you could get away with the HP3180/4180 3in1 printer/scanner and save some cash.

 

[Asus]

But that is a value multifunction unit. It does alright for home users. Although if you demand more then you would really want to get a dedicated scanner. Even the multifunction photo printers at the high end (500$) don't scan as well as some of the dedicated scanners.

 

[bliink]

Have an eye out for ones that can scan photos with a document feeder.

 

[ShinRa]

document feeder?

 

[bliink]

yeah, like.. a tray you put documents (and maybe photos) on, and the scanner feeds them through one after the other, scanning everything in the tray automatically.

 

[ShinRa]

sounds like it might help those 1,482 pictures go by a bit faster

 

[Asus]

I've seen those for slides and negatives. If they have em for photos that would be really good for ya.

 

[Revisedsoul]

they have them for regular sheets/photos. they cost a lot though, on average of 200-400 canadian on top of the price of the scanner.

you can get multifunctions with a document scanner as well, not too sure how well those will work for pictures.

 

[ShinRa]

well you guys really have been an awesome help thank you so much for everything!

 

[ShinRa]

quick update:

http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/consumer/consDetail.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=yes&oid=53540925

does this one look like its on the right track?

 

[Revisedsoul]

yeah thats a good mid range guy for you there. and anything aboev would be a waist for your use.

http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/ProductQuickSpec.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=yes&oid=63054989&category=

theres the automatic feeder for you as well