- Epson perfection v500 photo scanner best buy portable#
- Epson perfection v500 photo scanner best buy software#
Epson perfection v500 photo scanner best buy portable#
If you're just starting out on the paperless trail, a portable scanner may be your best first purchase. Portable document scannersĪ document scanner can help you dramatically cut down on paper clutter in your home and office. Try a web search for "image scanning services". Some services offer bulk scanning of slides, transparencies, negatives and photos at less than $1 per scan. If you have a lot of slides to convert to digital format and you want to preserve them in high-quality files, it might be far quicker and easier to pack them all off to a slide scanning service. Many scanners of both kinds claim to do "high quality" scans, but on cheaper scanners this is often marketing-speak.Īlthough some film scanners scan fairly quickly, speed doesn't really matter if the quality is a bit on the rubbish side. You should be wary of claims on marketing materials and packaging. You'd be forgiven for believing that slide scanners would perform better when scanning film than a jack-of-all-trades flatbed scanner, but that's not always the case, particularly with better-quality flatbed scanners. Slide scannersĪlthough slide production is a dying medium, there are enough people around that either still use slides, or have large slide collections that they want to preserve digitally, to make slide scanners a perennially popular product. This is even more so with models that have a light source built into the lid for transparency scanning. Even reflective-only A4 models are relatively bulky and need space overhead for opening and closing their substantial lids. If you're limited for space, a flatbed scanner is probably not for you.
Likewise with colour correction, which you'll probably have to do, regardless of the product you choose. In fact, sharpening and image modification is often better done in a good image editing program, rather than using the built-in scanning software.
Epson perfection v500 photo scanner best buy software#
Software enhancement can only do so much, so a good quality optical scan is important. If you need to further sharpen the image, it's generally better rely on a quality lens rather than a software solution, particularly one that's built into the scanner. Cheaper units don't really do a good enough job for high-quality 'archival' scans, but if it's just preserving happy snaps for posterity they may be good enough for your needs. It depends on the quality of the slide scanner too. But if their default sharpening functions are left on, they may produce acceptable images. The other important factors are sharpness, quality of the colour reproduction and the ability to deal with lots of shades of grey (from almost pure white to almost black).Ĭheaper flatbed models may produce images that aren't as sharp as dedicated slide scanners when their sharpening function is turned off. Until recent years, consumer-level flatbeds didn't provide the same high resolution as a dedicated consumer-level slide scanner, but printing up to A3 size from a slide is possible without having to worry about a degraded image.īut size of image is only one factor to consider. Flatbeds usually come in two sizes, able to handle A4/US-letter size or A3 size material, whereas a dedicated slide scanner can only cope with negatives and slides. These models have a light source built into the lid and usually come with several frames for holding different sized film. Flatbed scannersįlatbed scanners come in models that just scan reflective material such as photos and artwork, as well as models that can scan transparency material such as film slides and negatives. We take a look at three different kinds of scanners – flatbed, slide and portable document scanners – to help you decide which one you need. Flatbed scanner vs slide scanner vs portable scanner But buy the wrong scanner for your needs, and you could end up with a very expensive paperweight. Using the right scanner for the job – like a specialised slide scanner if you have boxes and boxes of Kodachrome – will make the task of preserving your captured memories that much easier too. Scanning will help you preserve these forever, if that's what you need. Photos and receipts will fade over time, and even bills and other paper documents can decay if not stored well.
Converting the physical into digital will not only help you clear out space at home, it's a great way to protect your personal treasures and important documents.
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