PC Peripherals AIO or Flatbed Scanner for Scanning old photos

dexterz

Adept
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

Hope this helps :)

Regards

Edit 1: Spelling mistakes
 
Last edited:
Imo, scanning pics is PITA, try to use google scanner app on your phone, faster and better.
not sure I have the patience to do it using the phone
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

Hope this helps :)

Regards
This helps quite a bit. Will check the links. Thank you
 
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

Hope this helps :)

Regards

Edit 1: Spelling mistakes
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?
 
Please read for better understanding about sensors and how the software helps in different scanners

Hope this helps :)

Regards

Edit 1: Spelling mistakes
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
 
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)
That's the most important. If you can scan negatives you will get the best scan.
Other option be to get it done from a studio but I'm not too keen on that just yet.
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.
 
Last edited:
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.
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.
 
The commercial negative only scanners give output in TIFF format like apsc digital camera.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
 
Last edited:
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?
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.
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
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
 
Last edited:
Back
Top