A high quality 35mm film may contain over 70MB of data, but in most case a 2700dpi scanner (3700x2550 pixel, around 28MB) can capture most of the information on a frame. 2700dpi is equivalent to 106 pixel per mm, it can resolve over 50 lines/mm, that is comparable to normal 35mm camera system.
When come back to our normal needs, 300dpi is good enough for normal viewing. A 4"x6" print at that resolution is equal to 1200x1800 pixels, which is only 6.5MB.
If you are scanning from a photo or film scanner, you should scan at the native resolution, that is same or less than the optical resolution of the scanner. Don't perform any interpolation, it will not increase the resolution but only make it worse.
For 35mm slide output, please make sure the aspect ratio is close to 3:2, otherwise blank borders will result.
Typical image size of some media.
High quality 35mm film scanner
2700dip
file size 28MB
Kodak Photo-CD
3072x2048 pixels
file size 18.8MB
Olympus C2020 Digital Camera
1600x1200 pixels
file size 5.8MB
Color and Contrast Adjustment
Of course we prefer you do your own adjustment before sending the files to us. A good monitor calibration is important for obtaining the best result. If your monitor is calibrated to your inkjet printer (some latest models), then you can expect a quite close result with our film recorder.
If your monitor can adjust color temperature you should set it to 5000K, if you are using Photoshop you can go to the "preference"-"monitor adjustment", set the gamma to 2.2. Enter the calibration manual and follow the instruction to calibrate your display.
Or you can check here for a test chart and follow the advise on the page. For better result, please view test chart under the photo editing software you use.
In case if you want us to make color/contrast adjustment for you, we will perform this free of charge. But we cannot guarantee it match with what you exactly need.
Image compression
For photographic image, JPG is the best one I have ever seen. A 28MB file can be compressed to around 1.5-2.5MB without noticeable loss when viewing at 1x on monitor. This is our recommended file type when sending through Internet. If you are sending MO or Zip disk, you may save the file in TIF or BMP format. Please don't send GIF image as it contain only 256 colors.
Output Resolution
We employed a high quality variable resolution film recorder with 36 bit colors, files can be output at up to 8K lines resolution. For bitmap files, we will output at your file's original pixel size, a picture of width 1000-1500 pixels can provide quite good result. For vector graphics, such as CorelDRAW! and PowerPoint, we will output them at 8K.
Sending files
For files smaller than 3MB/frame, Internet is a good tool. For larger files, MO, Zip or CD-ROM can be used. Please note, sending disks to us from overseas will increase both you and our cost, we will charge you extra shipping cost for the disks if you order less than five output.
Please contact us at chling@accura.com.hk if
you have any questions, we are very flexible in many aspect, please feel free to ask for special arrangement.
