Scanning. How large is too large?

[Jim Andrada]

I don't believe that the 850 comes anywhere close to 6400 DPI. I've seen several comparison tests using the USAF target that concluded that it is basically the same as the 750 - ie around 2400 PPI.

[Christopher Barrett]

Yeah, not surprising... it is a flat bed and they tend to exaggerate their abilities.

[Jim Andrada]

Depends on the flatbed. Some actually meet their own specs, but they tend to weigh a hundred pounds or so.

[seezee]

i forgot to say i am not a pixel pipper. i just want a fair negative scan of my 4x5 so i can show off on instagram facebook and my website

as for prints as i said, if i ever wanna print ill go in my darkroom like a good boy

thanks

As others have mentioned, you can calculate based on how large you intend to print. Since you are scanning for display on screens only, the highest resolution commonly used screen is Apple's 2880 × 1800 display. Let's say you want to display a landscape oriented image at the largest possible size on that screen. So the long side of your final file would be 2880 pixels. 2880 ÷ 4.67″ is ≅ 617. That's the PPI you would have to scan to.

Personally, I think that's overkill, but OTOH, if you ever want to print these, there's no such thing as scanning too large. I scan at 4800dpi and then reduce to 2400dpi. Here are my Vuescan settings. Just export them as whatever name you like but the file name should end in .ini; then import in Vuescan:

[VueScan]
[Input]
Source=PerfectionV800
BatchScan=0
DefaultFolder=/Users/chriszahller/Desktop/OKIE-X/scans-temp
[Input-PerfectionV800]
Mode=1
[Input-PerfectionV800-Transparency]
Media=3
ScanResolution=1
ScanDpi=4800
BitsPerPixel=3
Focus=1000
RGBExposure=1865
MakeGrayFrom=2
NumberOfSamples=2
[Crop-PerfectionV800-Transparency]
CropSize=0
XSize=23593
YSize=29762
AutoOffset=0
XOffset=6936
YOffset=12365
MultiCrop=6
AutoRotate=0
[Color]
BWVendor=0
BWBrand=0
BWType=0
OutputColorSpace=9
MonitorColorSpace=9
ViewColor=2
[Output]
DefaultFolder=/Users/chriszahller/Desktop/OKIE-X/scans-temp
RawFileName=raw0001+.dng
RawFileType=2
RawDNGFormat=1
LogFile=0
RawSizeReduction=2
[Output-PerfectionV800-Transparency]
JPEGFile=0
PrintedSize=0
PrintedWidth=4000
PrintedHeight=5000
RawFile=1
[Prefs]
StartupTip=10
WindowXSize=1500
WindowYSize=1230
SplashScreen=0
BeepWhenDone=3
EnableTIFFThumbnails=1
GraphType=2
EnablePopupTips=0
[Prefs-PerfectionV800-Transparency]
CropUnits=3
PrintedUnits=3
[Color-PerfectionV800-Transparency]
WhitePointRed=781
WhitePointGreen=781
WhitePointBlue=781
FilmBaseColorRed=522
FilmBaseColorGreen=522
FilmBaseColorBlue=522
ColorBalance=1
WhitePoint=11

[brad martin]

What Ken posted and now you can stop.

[chassis]

Agree that Ken's tutorial is very good for black and white negatives.