[MacDV] dias and idvd

[Rich]

On 8/9/05 3:28, Ferdinand Fuchs wrote:

>hello,
>
>a friend of mine would like to scan his old dias, so he can use them  
>in idvd. therefore he asked me, if I can recommend him a scanner. I  
>like canon-scanners and so I recommended him the cansoscan 5200f or  
>the canoscan 8400f. but I'm not sure, which resolution I need to get  
>good photos for idvd. canoscan 5200f has 2.400x4.800 and canoscan  
>8400f has 3200x6400
>  
>
In scanning, like everything to do with digital images except printing, 
it is all about the number of pixels; the number of pixels per inch (or 
millimeter) of the image is totally irrelevant. To scan film or 
transparencies (dias) they need to be clean and flat (the holder is 
important) and they need to be held at the focus point of the scanner. 
Once that is done then scan them at the highest resolution available 
compatible with the grain of the film (until the grain is just resolved 
if the scanner is good enough). Then write the image or images to a CD. 
A good practice is to also write copies of these images with fewer 
pixels (either scan at lower resolutions or down-sample in photoshop) so 
you can use the best image depending on what your purpose is. IF the 
8400f does a good job with film (and the only way to know is to test it) 
then I'd use it since it does have the higher resolution quoted for it.

Rich