35mm scanning resolution?

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Hopefully a quick answer. What's the best resolution to scan 35mm negatives at? Reproduction will be either small prints or viewing on-screen.

All advice welcome...
 
It depends on the quality of the negatives.
If they were shot using good glass, then you could get away with a smaller resolution.
If not or you're not sure, go for the highest resolution your hardware supports, although for smaller prints, it doesn't make much sense to go above 2400 dpi.
If the camera/lens was of the cheap kind, you probably want to use a resolution that'll give you an image of about 10-12 megapixels.
You can sharpen it and shrink it afterwards. It's what I do, basically.
 
You're looking for about a 50mb file each time. Resolution is arbitrary above 300DPI. But more pixels=bigger prints.
 
Resolution is arbitrary above 300DPI. But more pixels=bigger prints.

I'm not sure where you get 300dpi from in a question about scanning. The maths is simple: given that 300ppi is the benchmark for fine-art quality prints, scanning your source at 300dpi will give a 1:1 reproduction just fine.
That's not very big for a 35mm frame, however... ;)
 
The arithmatic works like this:

A 35mm neg is around 1" x 1 1/2"

The aim is to end up printing at 300 dpi

Scanning at 2400 dpi therefore allows you to print up to about 8" x 12"

Of course nobody actually prints in that size so you are looking at 10" x 8" as a more standard size for your 2400 dpi scan which allows for a touch of cropping.

If you are cropping tighter or need a bigger print then you need to scan at a higher resolution - a 9600 dpi scan will allow you to make a 4 foot print at 300 dpi which will cost you a fortune so the shot had better be worth it!
 
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