Stoopid Scan Question

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Posted By: Paul

I'm thinking about posting a few cards for sale or trade, but my scans always come out blurry. I have a Lexmark X75, & I was wondering if its a scanner issue or the operator? I tried a few different DPI settings, but no luck. I'm perty smart about some things, but this ones got me discombobulated. Thanks.

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Posted By: Joe Jones

I have found that deep scanners work very well, especially with cards that are in thick slabs. I use an Epson 4490 stand alone scanner which functions great with slabbed and raw cards.

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Posted By: Paul

Well, I suspected I probably need to pony up some money to buy a better scanner. Therefore, its great to see what scanners work well for our board members. Thank you.

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Posted By: Joann

I use an Epson Perfection 4180 Photo scanner and just love it. The hinge is floating, not fixed. You can scan something that isn't flat and the hinge will slide up so the lid still closes parallel. I've even made a pretty good scan of a wine bottle with it. (Don't ask.)

I keep it on the magazine setting - between the almost totally automatic and professional settings, and it works just fine.

Plus, and this is important, if I can figure out how to use the thing intuitively (I have an aversion to instruction manuals), anyone can. I don't know jack about scanner technology, but it only took a day or so of playing try-this-try-that to land on good settings.

Someone on this board said not to try to go bargain-basement on a scanner, and was right. This is far from the top of the top, but it's not from the two-fer bin at Walmart either.

Joann

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Posted By: Dave

You don't need to spend big bucks to get a good scanner these days. I bought a HP 3970 a few years ago for $99 at Best Buy. It's no longer sold, but they keep improving and bringing out new models. Here's a compressed view of a scanned card in slab, and a close-up of a corner.

The original scan was made 2x, and reduced 4x from that to fit here. The corner pic is cropped from the 2x scan.

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Posted By: Paul

Yesterday I bought an Epson Perfection V350 scanner, & no more fuzzy scans. I suppose now I should look into a website. Thanks for the help!

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Posted By: JK

nice scan Paul - do you mind sharing your settings (as I have an epson as well) - for example, in addition to dpi, what level of compression, etc.

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Posted By: t-205

if your looking for a site, try photobucket.com for free service, or if u want to pay for the service use i think its called imageevent or something like that

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Posted By: Paul

I did it in "full auto mode". Other than a 300 dpi, I have no idea about other settings. I'll try to figure it out when I have more time. Gotta get some sleep before work.

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Posted By: arcade

That's a nice rich scan yougot out of your Epson, there.

Traditionally, you don't need to scan anything going to web more then 72dpi. The 300 dpi is a standard for publishing a photo in a book or magazine. You won't get to see that much detail in the images you post to the webso you might as well opt for smaller file sizes.

The Epson was a good choice.

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Posted By: Chris Bland

Are all epson scanners good ones to go with, or should you stick with a certain model?

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Posted By: leon

I think in todays world almost all Epson scanners will be good. I bought a Microtek scanner about 7 yrs ago for $48. Recently I bought an all in one HP with a scanner built in. I hate the scanning part so I hooked my old scanner back up and am happy as a pig in sh**. It works great. So the short answer is I will bet any Epson one will be fine. Personally, I would buy a fairly cheap one. The results will probably be the same. regards

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Posted By: Chris Bland

Thanks for the info leon

I have a Canon CanoScan scanner, but with slabbed cards it looks like you are looking at the image through a coke bottle. I will try one of the cheaper Epson's.

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Posted By: leon

I hear ya and if you look ever look at any cards I show they will have been scanned with my cheapo scanner....and come out pretty good...

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Posted By: jackgoodman

Chris, I also tried the Canon with the same results. Also tried a Visioneer. Not any better. Finally got an HP 4850 Scanjet (about $150.) and it does what I need, especially on graded cards.

Hey Leon, I have a microtek scanner too and it worked great. I couldn't make the software work on my new computer so kept it hooked up to my old computer. But the wife doesn't like the extra clutter of another monitor and cpu sitting on the floor just so I can scan some cards. Thus I broke down and bought a new one.

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Posted By: Paul

The only setting I know is the 300 dpi. Cant find any other settings that's viewable in "full auto mode".

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Posted By: arcade

Leon's right, any of the cheaper models will perform beyond what most of us here need for scanning cards or photos. The fancier models really compete with the specs you would see on things like drum scans and negative flatbed scanning, all services you should go to a pro graphic service bureau to handle.

A suggestion with scanning - skip the free software and use photoshop if you have it. Just install the TWAIN driver. It should still do an auto scan but you can change the dpi, or colors easier.

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Posted By: Mike

www.scantips.com will give you a good starting place!
helps to clear up common myths and misconceptions about scanning.

Enjoy,
Mike