Shutterstock Photographer Forum :: View topic

medtech · Joined: 05 Oct 2005 Posts: 3

Hi, I have a scanner that is a few years old. good quality, but the "native" or "true" dpi is 600 it's capable of interpolating<sp> up to 9600. from what i understand that would be considered up-sizing. with the 600dpi and 35mm slide they look great, but to small to meat the minmum size requirements. or am i not calculating correctly? or do i need a new scanner? typical scan is 800 x 500 at 600dpi.

thanks for any insight.

GeneralE · Posted: Thu Oct 06, 2005 6:37 pm

I think you need an up-to-date scanner if you want to scan those for stock or prints. See if you can't find one at 2000dpi (optical or native resolution) or higher -- that would give you a scan of 2000x3000 pixels or equivalent of a 6MP camera.

"Interpolation" done by the scanner is the same process as upsampling in Photoshop, only you're using algorithms as old as the scanner. Better to scan at the true optical resolution of the scanner and upsample yourself, where you can control what's going on, and use newer/better software to do it.

supertramp · Posted: Thu Oct 06, 2005 7:11 pm

GeneralE is right. You'll need a updated scanner. Todays scanners are quite capable of scanning 2000 dpi with excellent color quality.

Go to this link.
http://thumb.shutterstock.com/photos2/display_pic_with_logo/9079/9079,1126488093,2.jpg

Here is one of my images that I took several years ago and scanned using a CanoScan FS2720. Its a dedicated film/slide scanner that will scan up to 2720 dpi with pretty good color quality. But I do find that my Canon 20D camera gives me much nicer images.

You should be able to pick up a scanner for about $150-250 to get all those thousands of pics you have up on this site. And you may also want to consider getting a DSLR. Its cheaper in the long run.

Good luck

medtech · Joined: 05 Oct 2005 Posts: 3

Thanks,

I have an N80 what kind of DSLR would be equivilant and would the current lenses fit??

hellobob · Posted: Sat Oct 08, 2005 1:15 pm

your lens will fit any of the nikon digi slr bodies....d50,d70, d100 and above.

medtech · Joined: 05 Oct 2005 Posts: 3

sounds good, thanks for the help. for now a cheap scanner will have to do.