Because slides and negatives are so small and must be enlarged so much, these units must have very high resolutions to be really useful. Even at 2700 dpi, a print on a 1500 dpi printer would be less than 2 inches wide. Courtesy of Konica . Some of the best film scanners use a software program called Digital ICE from Applied Science Fiction to eliminate dust and scratches on the surface of the scanned film. Flatbed scanners are reflective scanners useful for scanning both black and white and color prints.
Flatbeds are excellent for scanning old photographs for restoration purposes.
One advantage of flatbed scanners is that they do double-duty. The Epson Expression 636 color scanner delivers 36 bit scanning at 600 dpi. It has an optional transparency adapter so you can scan slides and negatives. Courtesy of Epson . Many flatbed scanners come with optional transparency units that allow you to scan slides.