Hi all,

Just a quick beginners question. When it says about a film scanner that "... max. color dpi resolution of 4800 x 9600" what does that mean? How many pixels to you get on each side?

Thomas

I don't know what that phrase means, dpi is only one number, not #### x ####

My Nikon Coolscan 4000 does 4000 dpi which yields a image after cropping off the ragged edges of @ 5500 x 3500 pixels

DPI stands for dots per inch. Obviously, that means that the number of 'dots' recorded will vary depending on the size of what you're scanning. A medium format negative will thus result in a larger file than a 35mm negative.

-Lee

Make sure you check the optical resolution, not what funny software can output..
I doubt you can find a scanner with 9600 dpi optical resolution, and it will also be difficult to get over 4000 dpi on a normal budget I think. But, there is Imacon..

Just beware that the optical resolution is the max One can expect and even that with a grain of Salt (marketing...) like 6400x4800... it's the 4800..
A Plustek 7600 is in reality no more than 3200 DPI.
A Epson V700 can barely touch the 4000 DPI.
The density reading is sometimes more important to get the details as well (the usual Dmax number).
It all depends being a flatbed or a dedicated film scanner and the software you use (VueScan or Silverfast)
Dedicated yourself for a lot of "try & error".

For film or slides, a slide copier attached to the camera could bring better results and faster too.

my 2 cents

Thanks for the replies! I hadn't been wanting a film scanner, but trying to do research on the different models it seems hard to figure out how large the pictures come out in pixels. Is the following math right:

Say a scanner is 4000 DPI and 35 mm film is 24x35mm, so .94x1.4 inches so then I get a file being approx 3700x5600 pixels. (or do I need to not the pixels per inch which depends on the software?)

Thomas

This is correct. As others have said, only use the scanner in max optical dpi mode.