How to choose a scanner for photos

Nothing is as refreshing as a photo. Just one glance at the captured moments of strong emotional outbursts helps to remember the whole range of feelings experienced at that moment. But unfortunately, digital cameras and cloud storages became available quite recently. And this means that most of the images dear to the heart grow old and turn pale in family photo albums, since paper and film tend to fade and become damaged. And the only available way to perpetuate them is digitization.

How to choose a scanner for a photo

Important! Antique crescent, black-and-white images that do not lose their relevance, color frames that strike at the depth of colors - each version of images requires a careful approach to creating a digital duplicate.

Work equally well with all types of photos can only professional equipment. Its cost makes the purchase of such powerful scanners inexpedient for digitizing a couple dozen frames - with this number of shots, it is better to turn to specialized specialists. When it comes to hundreds of moments caught in the lens, it will not be superfluous to know the basics of digitizing.

What is the feature of photo scanning

Important! Before you start choosing such expensive equipment, you should decide on the purpose of scanning.

Most often the photo is digitized for:

  • restoration of old photographs;
  • universal storage;
  • increase in size;
  • copy;
  • posting on the Internet;
  • forwarding.

The first three tasks require equipment with high resolution and maximum color depth. The second one rather needs orientation on the speed of the procedure. But to digitize the film, most likely, you will need a scanner that can cope with all the above tasks.

Important! Work with the film has its own specifics, since quite often it is associated with the need to eliminate minor damage characteristic of such a fragile information carrier.

What criteria to choose

The first item is the type of scanner. Tablet options are the most versatile, so for the home it is best to choose just such a model. Since the format of the photo rarely exceeds the size of a standard A4 sheet, attention at this point can not be sharpened. But the option of automatic feeding can facilitate the processing of the film or a large number of one-dimensional images.

Important! Consideration should be given to supported operating systems. There are three of them: Windows, MacOS and Linux. On which computer works, the same should be indicated in the passport scanner.

As for the resolution, it can always be adjusted in the right direction, if the equipment was purchased with a margin. For home use, the recommended values ​​range from 600 to 1200 dpi, but photo editor is better to buy equipment with an indicator of 2 thousand dpi.

If we are talking about color depth, then 24 bits are enough for a home scanner, but specialists will need 48 bits. A significant role is played by the type of sensor:

  • CCD guarantees sharpness, color accuracy and overall quality of digital copies, but is quite expensive and requires careful handling;
  • CIS is cheaper, less energy-intensive and faster, but low depth of field often leads to a loss of quality;
  • LiDE is the arithmetic average of the previous two types.

When working with photographs, it is often necessary to compromise between the quality and size of a digital copy. Therefore, you should know that the supported TIFF format is indispensable when digitizing images with a large number of shades, and the more common JPG is focused on obtaining photos of moderate size.

The above are the main important characteristics of scanners for photos. Often, a number of additional options are combined with them, such as the possibility of direct sending copies to the network storage or their automatic processing with the elimination of defects. Each of these improvements requires a skeptical approach to the question of its necessity, since they significantly affect the final cost of equipment, but are often redundant.

Watch the video: Best Photo Scanners in 2018 - Which Is The Best Photo Scanner? (March 2024).

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