Step one: Decide how much you want to spend

Like color printers, digital cameras, and other electronics, scanners vary dramatically in terms of features, capabilities, and price. Your challenge: Find one that suits your needs and fits your budget. Although some scanners cost well over $2,500 (all the way up to about $40,000 or more), many home scanners are available at just about any price point in between $80 and $2,500.

For the majority of people wanting to use a scanner, some of the newer scanners in the $150 to $500 price range are sufficient. They produce good scans, and they definitely create more than adequate images for use on the Internet. If you want a professional-quality scanner, you'll l need to spend $800 or more for a flatbed scanner and $1,700 or more for a film scanner.

What do you intend to scan? Besides being able to scan photographs, you can scan other flat "things," such as book pages, artwork, newspaper or magazine clippings, and more. Some scanners even make good images from things such as leaves, pressed flowers, jewelry, or other small 3D objects. If you shoot slide film, you might want to be able to scan slides or even negatives. After you decide exactly what you want to scan, you can decide which kind of scanner to buy.

The following are three kinds of scanners:

· Flatbed scanners - Scan flat, printed materials such as photographs and printed pages

· Film scanners - Scan film (photographic negatives), slides, and transparencies

· Combination scanners - Scan film and slides as well as flat, printed materials

If you need to scan film, make sure you get a scanner that enables you to scan film in the format that you need to have scanned. Some film scanners scan just 35mm film or slides, whereas others also scan APS film or wide format, such as 120 or 220 film. If you've spent years shooting slide film, as many photographers have, you will most likely want to get a scanner that can scan slides or one that at least has an optional slide adapter that you can purchase.

Until recently, combination scanners did not do a very good job with slides or film. Now, several scanners on the market produce reasonably good film and slide scans in addition to high-quality scans from the flatbed part of the scanner. One particularly good example of a high-end combination scanner is the Microtek ScanMaker 5, which costs around $1,800.

If you want the best scans from film or slides, you need to get a film scanner, such as the Nikon CoolScan III. The CoolScan III offers 30-bit color depth and 2700 optical resolution and can scan 35mm film or slides (or APS film, with an optional adapter). It costs around $800.

Two other excellent scanners to consider are the Nikon Super CoolScan 2000, which costs around $1,700, and the new Polaroid SprintScan 4000 which is a 36-bit film scanner that has 4000 dpi optical resolution and costs around $1,800.

Step three: Consider features that impact image quality

Although many factors affect the quality of a scanned image, three of the most important factors are optical resolution, color depth, and density range.

Optical resolution Optical resolution not only determines the overall sharpness of an image but also is the major determinant of how large an image can be. Optical resolution varies from 300 dpi up to more than 4000 dpi for some of the high-end film scanners. Consider scanners with at least 600 dpi or higher. Also, make sure that you are looking at the optical resolution rating and not the interpolated dpi rating, which is achieved with software.

Earlier in this chapter, we looked at how dpi and image size are related. For example, if you plan to make digital images that can be printed as 14x20-inch prints, then you need to make sure that you buy a scanner that has an optical resolution that enables you to create an appropriately large digital image file. Assuming that you scan a 4x6-inch photograph and will use a 300 dpi printer, you need a scanner that can scan at 1000 dpi or greater.

Color depth was covered earlier in this chapter. A 24-bit scanner might be adequate for your needs - a 30-bit scanner is better, and a 36-bit scanner is even better. Although color depth is an important determinant of image quality, often the more important factor is the quality of the scanner—some expensive 24-bit scanners produce a better-quality scan than an inexpensive 36-bit scanner. As usual, you get what you pay for.

Density range You might recall that the density range is a measurement of the breadth of the tonal range that a scanner can capture. This is the single-most important value for film scanners and professional scanners. Most consumer-level scanners do not offer density-rating values. If you want image quality, look for a density range above 3.2; preferably, find a scanner within your budget that has a density rating of 3.4 or even 3.6 or higher.

Step four: Other things to consider

Depending on what you intend to scan and how you intend to use your scanner, you might want to consider these other factors:

Scan speed is the amount of time that it takes to scan a single page at a specific resolution. If you plan to scan many images or large images, scan speed might be very important to you. Scan speeds depend greatly on the interface and sometimes on the software.

The choice of interface (the connection between your scanner and your PC) is an important issue to consider. Generally, a SCSI interface is the fastest, followed by USB, and then parallel interfaces, although this is not always true. If you intend to use your scanner with several PCs, and each PC has a USB connection, USB might be your best choice. Although SCSI interfaces are fast, they also can be difficult to install.

Scanner software

Scanner software varies greatly between different manufacturers. If scan speed or image quality is especially important to you, it will be worthwhile for you to look closely at the scanner's software. Some software enables you to scan an image with a single button click, whereas other packages force you to look at an image preview after the image has been scanned and then wait again while the final scan is made. Likewise, some scanners offer software that gives you lots of control over your scan to optimize the resulting image, whereas others offer little control. In the latter case, you have to manually adjust your images with image editing software.

Bundled applications

More often than not, scanners come with a bundle of software applications. Sometimes, these applications are demonstration versions or are one version older than the most current version. In other cases, you get terrific software that makes the bundle a "good deal." Some of the more common bundled applications include optical character recognition (OCR) software, document management applications, and various painting or digital image editing applications.

Special features

Many scanners offer special features that might be very valuable to you. For example, many Nikon scanners enable batch scans and come with proprietary software called Digital ICE (Image Correction and Enhancement,) which automatically removes dust and scratches. Some scanners come with automatic document feeders or transparency adapters, whereas other scanners do not offer such features or offer them only as add-on components that must be purchased separately.

Step five: Selecting a brand and model

After you decide what you want to scan and decide on the type of scanner and features that you need, you must then select a specific brand and model. As explained in Chapter 1, "Introducing Digital Cameras," even attempting to provide detailed and specific information on electronic products such as scanners isn't worthwhile, because these products change much more quickly than a book can be written and printed. However, there are many excellent online resources with all the up-to-date information and pricing that you can possibly need.

I strongly recommend that you first visit ZDNet at www.zdnet.com/computershopper/. It is the most useful site on the Internet for learning about scanners or for finding an online store from which to purchase one. Not only can you search for scanners by manufacturer, merchant, computer type, interface, and price, you can also read product reviews and articles on how to buy scanners. It is a "must-visit" site for anyone considering a scanner purchase. You might want to make a quick visit to Amazon.com, as well, because it has a useful Buying Guide for purchasing a scanner.

After you visit the ZDNet site and have a few ideas about which scanners might be right for you, you should visit the Web sites of each of those scanners' manufacturers to learn more about their products.

Step six: Buying a scanner

After you know what kind of scanner you want, you have many buying choices. If you want to buy from a local store, try one of the national retail chains, such as CompUSA, Office Depot, Best Buy, or Office Max. If you want to bid for one at an online auction, try www.ebay.com, www.egghead.com, or even www.amazon.com.

If you decide to buy online, I again recommend using www.zdnet.com/computershopper/, because it enables you to compare the prices for a specific product at many online merchants. It makes your online shopping about as easy as it can be. 

______________________

About the author, Gregory Georges: Using medium format, 35 mm, and digital cameras, Gregory has amassed a personal collection of more that 12,000 pictures -- all taken purely for the fun of it. He has, in one way or another, used computers extensively for work and at home since taking his first computer class in 1969. As an experienced photographer and avid user of computer technologies, Gregory has the perfect background and passion to write about digital cameras and how to get the most from digital images. You can visit him at his website: www.reallyusefulpage.com .

Digital Camera Solutions is published by Muska & Lipman Publishing of Cincinnati, Ohio. You can visit them at www.mlstore.com/camera.html to find out more about this book.

Buy It Right Now! You know you need it!

Click Here to buy this book from Amazon.com.

to the previous page.  Back to the Apogee Photo Home Page

Apogee Photo and Apogee Photo Magazine are trademarks of Apogee Photo, Inc. Copyright © 1995-2007. Apogee Photo, Inc. All Rights Reserved.