Scanner Recommendations

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Laura
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Scanner Recommendations

Post by Laura »

I bought some Sailor Moon Crystal mini clear files from Japan and scanned them in as best I could to upload to my Uranus/Neptune shrine (and also to MiniTokyo). They're pretty small images, slightly larger than business cards but the print quality on them is very nice and crisp. It took me AGES to scan in a decent quality version of them. I'm kinda disappointed because I was hoping to get some high res scans out of them. :/

Now, I know enough to know that print is actually small dots of colour; if you zoom in far enough, that's what you'll see. That's why high dpi options on scanners is a lot better for scanning in higher quality, larger resolution photos. So I played around with settings and although I could get a higher res, it was all "dotty." I kinda just gave up and accepted that the images were too small to get larger scans out of. I really wanted to use them for layouts or wallpapers. T-T

I feel like there has to be a better option out there. I'm using an all-in-one scanner; it's a flatbed with high enough dpi that I should get something decent... but I also know that having a higher dpi doesn't necessarily equal a better result. My question: Does anyone have any recent experience with scanners and scanning in large resolution, high quality images?

I'd consider buying a new scanner if I knew that I'd actually be able to scan these images in higher detail but I haven't really looked at scanner hardware in a while. I'd love to hear anyone's experiences or recommendations if they have something to share. :)
dubiousdisc
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Re: Scanner Recommendations

Post by dubiousdisc »

Aha! I did this whole hunting about a year ago for similar reasons (and for scanning my art).

I ended up with an Epson Perfection V37 which seemed like a good bargain between its ok price and the scanning quality. It's been serving me well; I would suggest it. It even comes with its own options for cleaning up scans from printed media and stuff has been looking really good. Here's a scan that came out of that scanner so you can see the quality.

I've been also trying very small things (postcard-sized, as you were saying) and it did really well with those, too! I can even scan watercolor artwork without having to do too much post-processing. :D
Laura
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Re: Scanner Recommendations

Post by Laura »

dubiousdisc wrote:I ended up with an Epson Perfection V37 which seemed like a good bargain between its ok price and the scanning quality. It's been serving me well; I would suggest it. It even comes with its own options for cleaning up scans from printed media and stuff has been looking really good. Here's a scan that came out of that scanner so you can see the quality.

I've been also trying very small things (postcard-sized, as you were saying) and it did really well with those, too! I can even scan watercolor artwork without having to do too much post-processing. :D
Thanks!! I'm gonna check it out. :D The scan you linked turned out really nice. It'd be great if I could just scan stuff in-store and try it out there to see how they perform in comparison with one another. xD I was thinking about getting one of the CanoScan LiDE's since that's what I'm most familiar with (our art department at work had a few and I have an older model in storage somewhere). Epson is a really good brand too. <3

I might actually see if I can find my scanner from some years ago too. I can't remember the model number but it was a pretty good scanner so it might actually be on par with the all-in-one. At least it'd save me money and I don't have to go to the other room to scan in all this stuff. :x
dubiousdisc
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Re: Scanner Recommendations

Post by dubiousdisc »

I don't know if you can find a store that allows you to do that, but that would be perfect if you could!

I was also looking into those! I don't remember why I didn't end up getting them but I recall looking around and reading plenty of people say that the CanoScans LiDE line were a good choice. I don't remember why precisely I ended with the other one though. I think I used to have a Canon scanner which I couldn't bring with me when I moved from Italy to the US, but then why I didn't get another Canon? I think it had something to do with driver problems.
dubiousdisc
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Re: Scanner Recommendations

Post by dubiousdisc »

Yeah, the capturing of the texture sometimes is nice (I keep so many sketchbooks with different types of papers and I like to scan the paper textures so that I can reuse them in digital art/design work), and I think that's why I ended up with the scanner I have - because it also has some in-built smoothing that can be toggled for when you don't want that. :D

The problems of compatibility are indeed ringing a bell there...Dang, I'm sorry for your trouble :(

I know of a few people that scan their things with a handheld scanner and their scans look pretty great (if I recall correctly, the person behind Pokescans uses one), but I remember looking into that as well and being kinda scared by the price tags...
Laura
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Re: Scanner Recommendations

Post by Laura »

dubiousdisc wrote:I don't know if you can find a store that allows you to do that, but that would be perfect if you could!

I was also looking into those! I don't remember why I didn't end up getting them but I recall looking around and reading plenty of people say that the CanoScans LiDE line were a good choice. I don't remember why precisely I ended with the other one though. I think I used to have a Canon scanner which I couldn't bring with me when I moved from Italy to the US, but then why I didn't get another Canon? I think it had something to do with driver problems.
I did read that there were some issues with user friendliness in the latest models. The ones I've used in the past had all been pretty good though. I think part of the problem is that 64-bit Photoshop hasn't supported the TWAIN driver for a few versions now, so if you want to scan anything you need to have either the 32-bit version or other scanning software. -_- I don't know what Adobe is thinking, I really don't.
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