How does it work and why does it cost less?

Kodak recently released a scanner that was originally designed to scan documents as a new way to scan a stack of print photos. Known as the Kodak i1220 or Kodak s1220, these scanners can plow through a large number of photos very quickly. Using document scanners isn’t a new idea and you can find a number of services offering to run your photos through a document scanner to inexpensively capture your images. Using a document or sheet fed scanner to scan photos has two major benefits. It's fast and it's less labor intensive.

DigMyPics has long resisted using document scanners to scan our customer’s photos because the quality is substantially inferior to our various traditional archival techniques of scanning print photos. However, consumers are asking for a more cost effective way to digitize their mountains of photos and the Kodak 1220 scanners can achieve that feat, but not without some compromises in quality that we believe you should be made aware of.

DigMyPics is offering this service for customers who want a more cost effective scanning solution and archival quality isn’t as important. If you are looking for a quick, inexpensive way to get your photos on to a digital picture frame, for example, this service may be for you.

About the Scanner

Consumers need to understand that the Kodak s1220 scanner, like any document scanner, suffers with some serious quality issues so we aren’t considering the scans originating from these devices as archival quality. This page gives some examples of the differences between a scan from the 1220 and our traditional archival quality scans. Note: These problems aren’t just problems with the Kodak i1220 and s1220; they’re inherent in the design of all sheet fed type scanners. Kodak uses some software techniques to try and compensate for some of the problems but there's only so much software can do.

Here is how the Scanner Works:

It feed prints from the top (Top View)	It then pulls photos through rollers then over plastic and the glass covering the sensor. (Inside View)	It stacks the photos at at the bottom when done. (It's pretty fast)

Potential Scan Quality Issues

Because prints are dusty and the paper they are printed on sheds there's an issue with the dust becoming stuck to the piece of glass covering the sensor. When dust lodges itself on the glass it blocks light from striking the sensor on that pixel. Because the print moves over the sensor the dust's effects are felt all the way across the picture in the directrion of travel resulting in thin red, green or blue lines spanning the entire length of the scan and every scan that follows. Cleaning the glass between batches helps, but it's impossible to eliminate the problem. You can see the lines when you zoom in on the image. If you are using your photos for viewing on a TV or Digital Picture frame, you most likely will never notice the lines.

There is also an issue with the scanner occasionally leaving "streaks" (wide colored bands) on the scan. These are most obvious in light areas, like in sky or snow as well as in dark areas and shadows. You would probably not notice the streaks on a TV or computer monitor (until you zoomed in).

Here is an Example:

Green Line in the scan is not in the original print (Click Here to see the entire photo)	Streaking in the scan not in the original print (Click Here to see the entire photo)

The Kodak 1220 also captures less detail than we can acheive with our tradational print scanning techniques. This results in having less information to work with while making edits and color correcting. It also affects the crispness of the image, resulting in artifacts in the scanned images.

Here is an Example:

This print was scanned at 300dpi on the Kodak 1220. It is zoomed in at 300% (Click Here to see the entire photo)	This is the same print scanned at 300dpi on a quality flatbed scanner. It is also zoomed in at 300% (Click Here to see the entire photo)

Questions About Photo Scanning? Give Us a Call! 1-866-364-5952 or email:sales@digmypics.com