PC Peripherals AIO or Flatbed Scanner for Scanning old photos

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dexterz

dexterz

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I was looking to digitize old photos (postcard size) and wanted to know if a scanner in AIO would suffice or to go for a dedicated flatbed scanner? Other option be to get it done from a studio but I'm not too keen on that just yet. Appreciate any input from fellow members.
 
I recently did photo scanning and here are some of the points that I learnt,
1. To get a good digital reproduction(archival quality and better) of the photos you need a flatbed scanner, AIO's sacrifice something to be everything and unfortunately in our case the quality of the scan is, so avoid them.
2. Not all flatbed scanners can scan negatives, if you want get ones with attachment for negatives.
3. The hardware resolution and scan dpi has to match, else you get blurs and wasted space on harddisk.
4. Always scan to TIFF format(PNG is good but TIFF is the best), avoid jpeg like a plague
5. The software provided with the scanner will help in speeding up the process, You can scan multiple photos at a time and can easily crop them, tag them, name them, etc
6. It will take a lot of time to scan a considerable number of photos(I spent a week scanning photos from 3 wedding albums, not full time but you get the idea)

Please read for better understanding about sensors and how the software helps in different scanners

Scanners

My experiences with various popular scanners and a few pixel-peep tests to check details and smoothness in scanned images.
www.scanbasics.com www.scanbasics.com

Comparing the depth of field of two types of flatbed scanner, a CIS and a CCD model.

'Micscape Lite' article. Microscopy enthusiasts sharing their other interests.
www.microscopy-uk.org.uk

Hope this helps :)

Regards

Edit 1: Spelling mistakes
 
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chetansha said:
Imo, scanning pics is PITA, try to use google scanner app on your phone, faster and better.
Click to expand...
not sure I have the patience to do it using the phone
b.life said:
I recently did photo scanning and here are some of the points that I learnt,
1. To get a good digital reproduction(archival quality and better) of the photos you need a flatbed scanner, AIO's scarfice something to be everything and unfortunately in our case the quality of the scan is, so avoid them.
2. Not all flatbed scanners can scan negatives, if you want get ones with attachment for negatives.
3. The hardware resolution and scan dpi has to match, else you get blurs and wasted space on harddisk.
4. Always scan to TIFF format(PNG is good but TIFF is the best), avoid jpeg like a plague
5. The software provided with the scanner will help in speeding up the process, You can scan multiple photos at a time and can easly crop them, tag them, name them, etc
6. It will take a lot of time to scan a consideral number of photos(I spent a week scanning photos from 3 wedding albums, not full time but you get the idea)

Please read for better understanding about sensors and how the software helps in different scanners

Scanners

My experiences with various popular scanners and a few pixel-peep tests to check details and smoothness in scanned images.
www.scanbasics.com www.scanbasics.com

Comparing the depth of field of two types of flatbed scanner, a CIS and a CCD model.

'Micscape Lite' article. Microscopy enthusiasts sharing their other interests.
www.microscopy-uk.org.uk

Hope this helps :)

Regards
Click to expand...
This helps quite a bit. Will check the links. Thank you
 
b.life said:
I recently did photo scanning and here are some of the points that I learnt,
1. To get a good digital reproduction(archival quality and better) of the photos you need a flatbed scanner, AIO's sacrifice something to be everything and unfortunately in our case the quality of the scan is, so avoid them.
2. Not all flatbed scanners can scan negatives, if you want get ones with attachment for negatives.
3. The hardware resolution and scan dpi has to match, else you get blurs and wasted space on harddisk.
4. Always scan to TIFF format(PNG is good but TIFF is the best), avoid jpeg like a plague
5. The software provided with the scanner will help in speeding up the process, You can scan multiple photos at a time and can easily crop them, tag them, name them, etc
6. It will take a lot of time to scan a considerable number of photos(I spent a week scanning photos from 3 wedding albums, not full time but you get the idea)

Please read for better understanding about sensors and how the software helps in different scanners

Scanners

My experiences with various popular scanners and a few pixel-peep tests to check details and smoothness in scanned images.
www.scanbasics.com www.scanbasics.com

Comparing the depth of field of two types of flatbed scanner, a CIS and a CCD model.

'Micscape Lite' article. Microscopy enthusiasts sharing their other interests.
www.microscopy-uk.org.uk

Hope this helps :)

Regards

Edit 1: Spelling mistakes
Click to expand...
How bad are AIOs? I already have a HP Deskjet 1050 with a 1200dpi scanner and so a new flatbed scanner would be additional cost. Is the quality difference really that noticable? I've got tons of old albums I need to digitize, none of which are negatives. Is a scanner really worth the investment?
 
b.life said:
Please read for better understanding about sensors and how the software helps in different scanners

Scanners

My experiences with various popular scanners and a few pixel-peep tests to check details and smoothness in scanned images.
www.scanbasics.com www.scanbasics.com

Comparing the depth of field of two types of flatbed scanner, a CIS and a CCD model.

'Micscape Lite' article. Microscopy enthusiasts sharing their other interests.
www.microscopy-uk.org.uk

Hope this helps :)

Regards

Edit 1: Spelling mistakes
Click to expand...
looks like Epson V600 and V850 are no longer available. I could only find v39 with Epson authorized sellers and v39 doesn't seem to have enhancement or negative scanning like v600 did
 
b.life said:
I recently did photo scanning and here are some of the points that I learnt,
1. To get a good digital reproduction(archival quality and better) of the photos you need a flatbed scanner, AIO's sacrifice something to be everything and unfortunately in our case the quality of the scan is, so avoid them.
2. Not all flatbed scanners can scan negatives, if you want get ones with attachment for negatives.
3. The hardware resolution and scan dpi has to match, else you get blurs and wasted space on harddisk.
4. Always scan to TIFF format(PNG is good but TIFF is the best), avoid jpeg like a plague
5. The software provided with the scanner will help in speeding up the process, You can scan multiple photos at a time and can easily crop them, tag them, name them, etc
6. It will take a lot of time to scan a considerable number of photos(I spent a week scanning photos from 3 wedding albums, not full time but you get the idea)
Click to expand...
That's the most important. If you can scan negatives you will get the best scan.
dexterz said:
Other option be to get it done from a studio but I'm not too keen on that just yet.
Click to expand...
Ask if they can scan negatives presuming you still have them.

The quality you will get out of a negative with a capable scanner will be much better than the print quality of whatever photos you have.

Why don't you do a comparison test with a small batch at a print shop that has a negatives scanner that you can google up for specs. Scan negatives and the photos and do a comparison.

Then pick the shop with the best quality negatives scanner.
 
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blr_p said:
That's the most important. If you can scan negatives you will get the best scan.

Ask if they can scan negatives presuming you still have them.

The quality you will get out of a negative with a capable scanner will be much better than the print quality of whatever photos you have.

Why don't you do a comparison test with a small batch at a print shop that has a negatives scanner that you can google up for specs. Scan negatives and the photos and do a comparison.

Then pick the shop with the best quality scanner.
Click to expand...
Good point. I have to see if I still have the negatives. After shifting houses so many times, it's going to be a chore to track them down
 
I used to scan negatives at work. Those negative scanners are extremely costly and miles apart from normal flatbed scanner. The normal consumer scanners do a so so job. The commercial negative only scanners give output in TIFF format like apsc digital camera.

Don't scan printed photos because they are printed at very low resolutions on glossy paper. They have a fraction of quality of negatives. I used to scan negatives at 600+dpi. I think 300 dpi used to give too tiny output to be of any use.
 
6pack said:
The commercial negative only scanners give output in TIFF format like apsc digital camera.
Click to expand...
My scanner does TIFF which is lossless

Epson used to offer a scanner some time back for around 20k


I think some one on the board has it. remember chatting about it some years ago.
6pack said:
Don't scan printed photos because they are printed at very low resolutions on glossy paper. They have a fraction of quality of negatives. I used to scan negatives at 600+dpi. I think 300 dpi used to give too tiny output to be of any use.
Click to expand...
600 dpi is a good choice for negatives. They are quite small as it is. My scanner can go up to 1,200 dpi but that is digital. Optical as in native tops out at 600 dpi.

Wish there was a way to use an AIO with negatives but its not easy to do.
dexterz said:
Good point. I have to see if I still have the negatives. After shifting houses so many times, it's going to be a chore to track them down
Click to expand...
Something else you can try after you get the best quality scan is image enhancement with AI. Here is an example using a phone but there will be more powerful options for desktops.
 
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DentFuse said:
How bad are AIOs? I already have a HP Deskjet 1050 with a 1200dpi scanner and so a new flatbed scanner would be additional cost. Is the quality difference really that noticable? I've got tons of old albums I need to digitize, none of which are negatives. Is a scanner really worth the investment?
Click to expand...
The sensors on the AIO are not designed to archive level scans, the dpi that the manufacturer mention on the box is the software enhanced ones, the real senors dpi are a lot less(it depends on each manufacturer but I hope you get the idea) and as a result the software enhances the pictures and that is when the loss of detail happens. The main reason for scanning in high dpi is to make sure that we can print the photo at a higher resolution at a later date. If you don't plan on ever printing those and are okay with like 10%(I am guessing here) detail loss then AIO'w will be great. Regarding AIO's sensors capability i have no idea, I would suggest you to check up on scanner review sites to get a better idea.
dexterz said:
looks like Epson V600 and V850 are no longer available. I could only find v39 with Epson authorized sellers and v39 doesn't seem to have enhancement or negative scanning like v600 did
Click to expand...
If my memory serves me correct, even before 5 years they where not available here. I ordered mine from amazon.de and I suggest you do the same or from amazon.co.jp Sellers on amazon.com didn't ship it to India and so either .jp/.de is the best option for those scanners unfortunately.

If you do get negatives then please do a negative scanning diy setup, the image quality is a lot better.
A link for one such setup : https://www.diyphotography.net/how-to-build-a-diy-35mm-slides-and-negatives-copying-machine/
and also take a look at https://www.reddit.com/r/AnalogCommunity/ you many be able to make a better setup than the one I linked

Edit 1: DIY Link
 
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