When sending your film in to be scanned, you want to make sure you choose the scanning resolution that meets your needs. It is a huge factor in determining the quality of your scans because the higher resolution you choose, the higher quality of a digital image you will get. Resolution refers to how many dots or pixels create your digital image.
DPI = Dots Per Inch (pixels)
Resolution is a very similar concept as Megapixels and digital cameras. The higher the megapixels your digital camera shoots at, the higher quality your image will be.
4000 DPI- When you scan your film at 4000 DPI, it is equivalent to 18 Megapixels. It is the highest scanning resolution for transparent film With these digital images, you can crop out portions of your image, create large photograph prints, upload online, use professionally, or use for pretty much any other purpose. We know everyone has a limited budget, but because of the high-quality and flexibility of our 4000 DPI scans, we recommend choosing the highest resolution.
Because photos are significantly larger than slides & negatives, they do not need to be scanned at such a high-resolution. Photos technically can be scanned at a higher resolution but it will not yield a higher quality picture, just wasted pixels and large files.
We scan our photos at 300 DPI or 600 DPI. If you plan to create larger reprints, you will want to choose the 600 DPI Please note that photos are lower quality than slide or negatives, so you are limited with how large of a print you can create. If you have the original slide or negative, we recommend you scan that instead.
