Hi--

>If I may impose on your time once more -)
>
>do you have any recommendations for good quality slide scanners - the
>top ones?

All the top ones are about 2700dpi, 30-36 bit, all work well.
Some people prefer the LS2000 Nikon, but even an old Nikon
film scanner does nice scans. The trick is to make good scans
(bad looking...) for manipulating into good screen/print images
(most people don't realize this, and go for the best looking scans
instead...). Learn to use a good photo editor, like Micrographx
Picture Publisher or Photo Shop.

>What is the best resolution afforded by printers?

Maybe 720x1440? The Epson Photo printers produce the most photo-like
prints (on the appropriate papers, though...).

>at what resolution does one start noticing the graininess of scanned
>images (for eg. while printing on paper)

Dunno - but even at 1350 dpi, film grain is recorded in the digital
image, and the results make good 8x12 prints...

>How far does digital cameras (or videocams) have to go to catch up with
>photo film resolution?

Exclude video cameras - the stills from these are barely adequate
for (small) screen images. The 1200x??? better digital cameras make good
5x7 images, the 3-megapixel cameras can make fairly good 8x12. 1350 dpi
scan makes a file about 6.5 megs, and 2700 dpi makes a file about 26 megs.
Maybe the very sharpest film image shot carefully would take about 5000
dpi to represent?

>Is their current resolution sufficient for
>"publication" quality images?

Depending on size of the original file, and print size, yes.
(I just sold my first two digital-format images [from the
www.visitithaca.com site] to a magazine, and for 2"x3" reproductions
at 300 dpi, the file sizes were surprisingly small.)

>Thanks
>
>ramana athreya
>
>European Southern Observatory
>Alonso de Cordova 3107, Vitacura Casilla 19001, Santiago 19, Chile.
>Phone (+56 2) 228 5006 Extn 3116 Email rathreya@eso.org
>FAX (+56 2) 228 5132 rathreya@sc6.sc.eso.org
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