Instruction manual

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8.7 Digitizing 35mm Film Photos
You may need to “digitize” photos taken with a 35mm film camera. There are
a couple of ways to do this.
8.7.1 Transfer the Photos to a CD
Several stores have services or kiosks that allow you to transfer 35mm film
onto a CD. You can then transfer these onto your computer and send them over
the internet, or deliver the CD by messenger.
8.7.2 Scan the Photos
Another way to digitize 35mm film is to scan the prints into your computer.
Scanner resolution is specified in dots per inch (dpi), and resolution is a rough
measure of the scanner's ability to capture small details in your film or print.
Optical resolution, as opposed to interpolated resolution, is the spec that matters.
You'll often see flatbed scanner resolution expressed as two numbers, such as
600 x 1200. The first number, the scanner's vertical optical resolution, is the most
important and should be at least 600 dpi for good quality scans of photographs. A
high quality film scanner, by comparison, will have a resolution of more than 2000
dpi, and top-notch units now go as high as 4000 dpi. Ignore the often astronomical
figures that scanner companies list for interpolated resolution; they're
meaningless.
Nearly all new scanners connect to your computer via USB or FireWire (IEEE
1394 or i.Link) interfaces, and most are Plug-and-Play compatible with Windows.
Windows also includes a handy Scanner and Camera Wizard (discussed in the
chapter on “Transferring and Organizing Images”), which will take you step-by-
step through the process of getting your print and film pictures into your computer.
The wizard should appear as soon as you turn on your scanner, or you can open
it by selecting Start > Control Panel > Scanners and Cameras and then selecting
your scanner. For example, we’ll use the wizard to scan in a 35mm photo of an
aircraft crash: