Memory Keepers

Why should I have my 35mm slides scanned to a CD?
We all know what a hassle it is to set up a projector (if you are even lucky enough to have one!) and a screen, find a dark room, and a big enough space to view your slides.

Let Memory Keepers scan your 35mm slides and put them on a CD, then you can pop it in at any time and view those images on your computer...no problem! Viewing software is burned onto every CD and makes the viewing process a snap. You can also access the image files and edit, print, copy, email, and burn them just as you could with any digital image on your PC.

A CD is also a great way to store and preserve your 35mm images.

Why should I have my 35mm slides scanned to a DVD?
We all know what a hassle it is to set up a projector (if you are even lucky enough to have one!) and a screen, find a dark room, and a big enough space to view your slides.

Let Memory Keepers scan your 35mm slides and put them on a DVD. Your images are encoded into DVD video and will play in any compatible DVD computer drive or stand-alone DVD player. Enjoy watching your images with family and friends on your television in the comfort of your family room!

How does Memory Keepers scan my 35mm Slides?
Memory Keepers will scan your 35mm slides with our state of the art scanner, the Nikon Super Coolscan 4000 ED. This scanner can scan up to 4000 DPI and provides suprior results. Its use of LED light sources and optical glass allow for world-class results. This scanner incorporates Applied Science Fiction's Digital ICE ^{3 TM} image enhancement technology. The Digital ICE software reads the surface of the slide for defects (fingerprints, monor scratches, dust, etc.) and then removes them prior to writing the image file.

Can Memory Keepers improve the quality of my 35mm images?
Memory Keepers uses state-of-the-art equipment to scan your 35mm slides. This assures that you will get the highest quality image available. We are able to improve upon the original quality of the image. Our software removes fingerprints, dust, and minor scratches. However, flaws such as blurriness, poor lighting, and major scratches cannot be undone.

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How do I choose the resolution that is right for my images?
If you plan to print photos from your scanned images, remember that the resolution will determine the size print you can produce without sacrificing quality. A higher resolution will allow you to print a larger photo size without losing the quality of the image. If you try to print a larger size photo with insufficient dpi, you will suffer significant quality loss as the lack of data will result in a more pixelated photo.

Memory Keepers can scan your 35mm slides at any dpi setting up to 4000 dpi with the following resolution settings being the most common:
1200 dpi, 1400 dpi, 1700 dpi, 2300dpi, 2800 dpi, or 4000 dpi.

In choosing a dpi (resolution) for future photo printing, 95% of our customers choose 1700 dpi, the maximum dpi at the $0.55 per slide fee. This allows them to be able to print high-quality photos up to 5"x7". You can always bring back those slides you would like to make bigger prints of for a higher dpi scan.

If you are interested in only viewing the images on a screen (such as a TV or PC screen) we recommend going with a lower dpi setting so that you will be working more efficiently with smaller file sizes. Even at 1200 dpi, your screen can only utilize a fraction of the resulting file size. Remember, file size matters when printing your images.

Please see the chart below (which was compiled by averaging our own data as well as industry data) for more information.

DPI	300 DPI	Approx. File Sizes
Resolution	Std. Print Size	TIFF	JPEG
1200	3.5 x 5	4 MB	600 KB
1400	4 x 6	6 MB	800 KB
1700	5 x 7	9 MB	1.2 MB
2300	6 x 8	16 MB	1.9 MB
2800	8 x 10	25 MB	2.8 MB
4000	11 x 14	55 MB	5.8 MB

How do I know which file format to choose?
The two most common image file formats we supply to our customers are JPEG and TIFF. TIFF is an uncompressed file format. JPEG is a compressed file format. Almost all of our customers choose the JPEG because of the efficiency of the smaller file size and the fact that they don't wish to do any editing of the images. If you do want to edit your images after you receive them, you should understand that, for example, cropping out 10% of your image may reduce your file size by more than 50%. If you crop out 10% of a TIFF image, you will only lose 10% of your filze size.

We scan all slides in the TIFF format to start with. We then crop out the parts of the slide mounting that the scanner picks up so you are left with 100% image only. Next, we rotate the photo to the proper orientation for viewing. At this point, we can convert the JPEG file to a TIFF file, or simply just save the file in its current TIff format.

Please see the chart below (which was complied by averaging our own data as well as industry data) for more information.

DPI

300 DPI

Approx. File Sizes

Resolution

Std. Print Size

TIFF

JPEG

1200

3.5 x 5

4 MB

600 KB

1400

4 x 6

6 MB

800 KB

1700 5 x 7 9 MB 1.2 MB

2300 6 x 8 16 MB 1.9 MB

2800 8 x 10 25 MB 2.8 MB

4000 11 x 14 55 MB 5.8 MB