35mm slide scanning resolution?

[omiof5]

My DH is about to start a large scanning project with years worth of 35mm slides. He's using the Nikon LS-5000-ED Film Scanner.

I'm finding a lot of different recommendations for resolution. We want high quality for the scans (have storage space and an auto-feeder for the scanner). I'm seeing everything from 600 to 4,000 (is it dpi or ppi?).

Obviously, it's time to turn to the people whose advice I actually trust. :tup: Suggestions?

[Janet]

CONGRATS on your archiving project! :) You have a wonderful scanner if it's the one I'm thinking of.

There are LOTS of settings - part of it depends on the output size you have them at. If you keep the output size the same as the slide, high quality is going to be 3000-4000 ppi (pixels per inch - often mistakenly referred to as dots per inch which has to do with printers). 4000 ppi at the size of the slide will yield you about a 50 mb file - 3000 really is enough. I do my own at 2000 - 3000 depending on how much I may need to crop it.

Luckily with slides, they're almost all the same size - it gets trickier when you have 1"x2" photos and 8"x10" photos - with those, I just create the same general output size.

Let me know if you have other questions or need more details on this. :)

[omiof5]

Thank you so much, Janet!!