From: Clyde Rogers (xrogers@attbi.com)
Date: 12/01/02-01:45:56 PM Z
Sandy,
The scanner software should scan at the nearest higher optical
resolution and then downsize to provide the resolution you requested.
Silverfast is good software, I'd expect it to work that way. This
should give OK results.
Despite that, I would expect you'd get noticeably better results
scanning at max resolution. Epson flatbeds don't provide the sharpness
of a film scanner, but I've had good results making up for that lack of
sharpness by using a higher scan dpi. For an Epson 1680, 600 scanned
pixels per printed inch isn't a bad number at all, and for your
situation, you can get a little over 700 if you use full resolution.
You can use Photoshop to interpolate that down to whatever you want, or
start figuring out optimal printing dpi for your printer, or just send
the higher resolution to the printer and let it do what it thinks is
best (that's easy and has worked for me, but success may depend on the
printer driver).
My flatbed rules of thumb for black and white negs are:
1. Always use maximum optical resolution (saves thinking to do it one
way, and on a flatbed, the resulting files are never too big).
2. Up to three times enlargement gives excellent results (a film
scanner isn't notably better).
3. Four times enlargement isn't as good, but still can be acceptable
(film scanner begins to show its stuff).
4. Film scanners always win beyond 4X.
I expect these rules to hold for color negs. Color transparency is
different, and the rules may change. An Epson 2450 is different from a
1680, and may change the rules again.
Good luck!
--clyde
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