Scanner Recommendations

[medalklector]

Hello Everyone,

I notice that most people talk about "scans" rather than a digital picture. Is there a reason for using scans instead of what I would expect is better quality digital photo. Is it to do with the forum pic limit or just that everyone has scanners instead of digital cameras :-)

Just interested...

[Alex.S]

hi

in my opinion you getter better quality image with scanner

alex

[Nack]

I can get ridiculously detailed images with my camera, but they are way too big to post on the forum. On the other hand, I don’t have a scanner so I just shoot pics and then shrink them using paint. Seems to work.

W/r/t everyone's preference for scanners, maybe it's because a scanner gets better colors since it is self-lit, whereas with a camera you have to worry about lighting? I don't know.

[Dolf]

Medalklector,

Just like Alex I also think that (at least for the purpose of posting pics here) scanners produce better results than digital cameras.
I have a Canon Power Shot A80 that makes great pictures, but in order to get a good, clear, detailed pic of a Medal, my old UMAX Astra 1220P scanner works much better!
I guess the reason could be the quality of the pics for small size items as our beloved Medals, Badges, etc.
I'm no expert but I suppose that in order to obtain a digital camera pic of similar quality of a scan, one would have to have probably the best macro digital camera, which is not the case with average cameras.
You just have to compare most pics shown on the Forum, those taken with a digital camera and those made with a scanner to realise the difference! And I guess it has nothing to do with the 50Kb limit, as anyway either for a digital picture or a scan it's almost always necessary to do some resizing work before posting the pics.

Just my two cents...

Hope it helps,

Dolf

[Christophe]

I also think you get more precise and detailed pics with a scanner. Moreover, if you use a professional one, with 3600x3600 resolution (or more), you can get real detailed pics on specific and small zones, far better than what you will get with a digital camera (even a 5 million pixels). This is very useful for details of medals. Last point, already stressed, the lighting is more regular.

Ch.

[redmedals]

I have a Canon MP360 that if called upon can make scans at 1200dpi which will rival my Olympus 4 megapixel camera in TIFF. This would yield a terrific medal at about 16 x 20 enlargement size. But I can't post anything high grade on the site with a 50 KB limit, so I scan at 75dpi and even then have to reduce the size in my PhotoshopCS.
I use the scanner for all my medals because the results are great and it is much easier to do this way.
Ron

[Christophe]

Originally Posted by Christophe

I also think you get more precise and detailed pics with a scanner. Moreover, if you use a professional one, with 3600x3600 resolution (or more), you can get real detailed pics on specific and small zones, far better than what you will get with a digital camera (even a 5 million pixels). This is very useful for details of medals. Last point, already stressed, the lighting is more regular.

Ch.

Here is an example of what you can get with a good scan... and, I believe, difficult to get with a digital camera.

Ch.

[Simon]

What is a good way to scan a reverse of a screwback order? If the order is simply place on the scanner, will the image be distorted due to the angle between the order and the scanner surface?

Thanks.

Simon

[medalklector]

Christophe,

I can obtain the same result with my sony 5m pixel camera. But I think I will start experiementing with my scanner just to reduce the number of steps it takes to actually have the pic on the P.C.

I would also like to know what you do regarding srewbacks, prop them up somehow???

Cheers

[redmedals]

The Canon MP360 - 390 series has a floating hinge on the cover this allows me to put things up to about 3/4 of an inch thick on the platen so when I close the cover it generally centers the screwback and balances it on the screwpost. And it has fantastic depth of field too. It leaves some adjusting to be done to the greyscale because obviously the cover not being light tight on the platen when scanning something as thick as a screwback allows light to bleed around the edges making what should be a white background shades of grey but this is easily done either with the scanner level adjustment to set the white point or afterwards in any photo editing program.
Using the scanner for medals is way easier of course because the cover can close on these and there is almost no adjustment necessary. I vote scanner over camera everytime for imaging a medal.
Ron