Scanner Buying Guide: You Don't Need An Expensive Scanner For Quality Scans

1. All Scanners Are Built To Scan A LOT Of Pixels-- No Matter How Expensive They Are: It doesn't matter if you have a 0 scanner or a 00 scanner, they are built to do one thing: scan a lot of pixels. Any scanner on the shelf can scan slides and negatives at 4000 DPI; and 1200 DPI or above, for photos. But what about the quality of the pixels? Are the pixels the same no matter what scanner you have?

Here's what I did one day: Using a 0 Epson scanner and a 00 Nikon, scanner I produced a "natural" slide scan from both scanners. A natural scan is where no scan enhanceMent features were used, i.e. color fix, dust / scratch removal, etc. I wanted to compare pixels with pixels. And guess what? I couldn't tell the difference. I had to zoom in at the pixel level to notice anything. Of course, the Nikon uses better technology to pick up pixels, but is it worth it paying an extra 00 for something you can see only when you zoom in at the pixel level?

2. Then What The Heck Are You Really Paying For? You see, scanner manufactures know that their scanners are all pretty much even when it comes to DPI. So to compete with all the other scanners in the market, they offer you scan enhanceMent features that promise a one-click solution for quality digital images. The more expensive the scanner, the more fancy these scan enhanceMent features are.

For instance, take a look at your scanner. Does it have a "Digital Ice" logo on it? Well, Digital Ice is owned by Kodak, and Kodak licenses this technology out to scan manufactures. My Epson only has the basic Digital Ice license, and my Nikon uses the advanced Digital Ice 4. THIS is what you're paying for-- not for the machine, but for these fancy sounding scan enhancement features.

But here's the rub-- no matter what version of Digital Ice your scanner has (the basic or most expensive) you CANNOT press a few buttons and expect quality scans. The marketers are smart-- they know you and I like short-cuts-- who doesn't like quick fixes? But in my experience, what you save on time and convenience you will pay in quality. There are NO short-cuts when it comes to scanning. Believe me, I would love to press a few buttons and get consistent, quality scans. But instead, I had to figure out a different way to get quality digital scans. Here's what I did:

3. Don't Use The Software That Came With Your Scanner: Scanners were not made to edit, fix, improve digital photos. Let your scanner do what it does best, scan pixels. Get a "natural" scan, and use software designed to edit digital images. There is digital photo editing software you can download for free that can do a lot better Job than the one that came with your scanner.