A3 flatbed purchase help

Hey everybody, hoping to get some insight into my next major purchase. I have

been saddled, willingly, with the job of scanning, restoring and sharing the old

family photo albums. Some of them are from the late 19th century and will need

some work. I want to scan photo album pages as well as some delightful small

prints and am hoping that I can find something that will do both. Final output

will be to the web with the hopeful option of making some prints as well. I want

as much resolution and dynamic range as I can afford. The question is, what sort

of scanner resolution will I really need to make nice prints from very small

original prints and medium format negs for output to the web mainly but also

some enlargements made from small prints. By small I mean as small as 2"x 2" or

so and I hope to increase the print size as much as possible. So far I'm looking

at the Microtek ScanMaker 1000XL Pro, 3200 x 6400 dpi, Tabloid Size, Flatbed

Scanner with Transparency Adapter. I'm hoping to be able to also scan my 645

chromes with the thing. Any advice would be much appreciated.

There are some seriously wonderful old photos in this project and I'd love to do

them justice!

Hi Steve: The MT 1000XL is a very excellent machine. Please see the comments from one user Ed Gurie, in the 'about us ' page in www.scanscience.com who wrote: "I only want to tell all those who believe in Wet Mounting that this is the best scanning operation next to drum scanning. I have had 2 drum scanning experts look at several of these wet mounted scans. They could not believe they were not done on this scanner. Ed used the MT 1000XL. Also, the exact same project (size excepted) was accomplished with the Epson 4990, by two people, who did a set of comparisons of dry ad fluid scans. You can see their work in the page entitled 'Scan 4, B&W". The MT will enable you to give bring your treasured images with full justice into the digital world. It is a scanner built for the more the demanding requirements of commercial production houses. As you are new to scanners, it is well to understand that the specs for amateur machines do not have the same meaning as for the commercial ones. Also, there is a vast difference between what is achievable by fluid scanning. With legacy collections, the elimination of scratches and imperfections is one imperative. As you appreciate dynamic range, that is another benefit. Julio

www.scanscience.com

Thanks Julio, I just checked out your scanscience page and found it really interesting. I was not familiar with fluid scanning. I've been scanning my 35mm slides for years but have so far not had a need for a flatbed but I really want to save some of the old family prints and the negs are no longer available and fluid scanning sounds like it really only is feasible for negs and transparencies. Do I understand this correctly? It looks like this set up is mainly for large format shooters looking to get the most out of their negs/transparencies.

Hi Steve: The MT 1000XL is intended for any use from 35 mm to large formats. Fluid scanning is used for scanning all formats. With smaller formats the ability of fluid scanning to extract the most detail makes it particularly useful and with larger formats, its ability to achieve total film flatness makes it imperative. Fluid scanning is not a new technique and is quite simple. The important thing to understand is that it is an optical technique that eliminates the light scattering which is the bane of dry scanning. A fluid mounted slide or neg has a brilliance and tonal range that sets it apart, even to the naked eye. Its ability to fill in scratches is useful with any film but particularly with vintage collections.

Julio

www.scanscience.com www.wetmounting.com