Hi-Quality Scanner based on scan quality not price

[Frea]

Hello, everyone—

I'm new here so apologies if this has been covered. I searched and found an old thread that dealt with scanners more on basis of price.

I'm actually more concerned with the scan quality right now. I'm scanning a large amount of old photos (prints) and other OLD items such as newspaper clips, wedding invitation, drawings, etc.

I'm saving as photoshop files.

I'd like to get the highest quality scanned output as possible or recommended for creating an archive like this. It probably would be used for display later in print and online. Also, people may want to download items and print using desktop printers or have printed at a pro processing establishment.

So, again, I feel I have to put quality above price (even though money is always an issue).

Anyone have recommendations for scanners out there as of mid-2010?

Thanks so much.

 

[Consultant]

Drum scanner.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image_scanner

Some of them can go for tens of thousands of dollars.

 

[snberk103]

Epson V700, for about $550 US - depending.

There are few flatbeds that are better, perhaps none. The Epson V700 is also capable of scanning film, so may have more capability than you need. Most reviews say the V700 is close to (but not quite as good) the quality you would get with a drum scanner.

It is well supported on the Mac platform.

Do a little more research on how scanning works before making a purchasing decision. Just from your brief description, it may be that you are at risk of over-scanning. Start with your final product, both now and future uses, and work backwards.

For example, if you printing newspaper clippings at nearly life size then you don't need to scan at 4800 dpi. Same thing for photos. Where a good photo scanner earns it's keep is not necessarily in the dpi department, but the Dmax (dynamic range). The scanner with really high resolution are suited for scanning originals that will be enlarged considerably from their original size. So film to normal print sizes, or normal prints to poster sized prints, etc etc

 

[FourCandles]

+1 for the Epson V700 / V750. The quality is excellent.

 

[line]

very happy with Epson V750