Scanning Side Art, what scanner should I buy?

zoggynog

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Hey folks,

I'm looking to buy a scanner to scan in my pinball playfield, as well as, my Mortal Kombat 3 side art.

Is there a scanner out there that stands above the rest when it comes to doing this sort of thing? I know I need something with a removable lid. I keep hearing about these new LED scanners that work faster due to their lack of needing to warm up. I wonder if they have any draw backs?

Anyone have some advice, or better yet, model suggestions?
 
I just bought a Hp Scanjet 4600 based on what all the guys use here. I can't wait to give it, it's first run on a cab. Now I just need to get my plotter so I can make my own stencils.
 
I got a 4600 not long ago (used, off of ebay) for the same reason as mrsalvage and have used it to scan artwork for the Williams version of 1942. It worked great, although I have yet to see any results of that work to confirm that (andykmv is doing all the stitching, etc).

Do a search on the 4600 here and you'll find some others using it too. I think that includes prOk IIRC.
 
i'd think scanning with a flatbed scanner would be tedious and tough, they make a wand scanner i've heard of people using (specificly for side art). the 4600 would be fine for control panel scanning tho (including side/front control panel art). I'm going to scan a bunch of the NOS stuff i have before i use it, if i'm not happy with my 20$ newegg flatbed scanner (which has worked flawless for copying, and scanning so far minus a loud motor wheel) i'll take it somewhere and have it done on a higher dpi machine.
 
Thanks all,

Interesting to see all the 4600 love, I'll have to really consider going that way. Does it have the dpi capacity to do artwork justice?

Any idea how long it takes to complete a scan?

As far as flatbeds being tedious, I"m sure there's no "great" way to do it other than to scan and stitch. I've never heard of a wand scanner used for side art, I always thought they were too low on the dpi. Any chance you know the model?
 
negative on the model, it was a while ago that i saw it linked somewhere. and i too agree with the lack of dpi.

My scanner (i'll check the model tomorrow) is very quick, about 10 seconds per scan (this changes depending on the dpi tho), i'll scan some of my MK3 or nba jam side art and see what it can do later, sleep now.
 
another option would be to use artificial lighting with a high end DSLR and a really nice lens on a tripod, I'd recommend a Nikon D700 or higher, or some sort of FULL frame sensor camera. this approach is similar in fashion to the way one would get enlargements from old school film prints using an enlarger years ago. you could try a lower end DSLR, but make sure your optics are still really good that's what counts, with a lower end DSLR you'll need to take pictures of smaller segments and then piece them all together for an end product whereas the bigger better sensors will allow you to cover a far greater surface area in much less time, this could be tedious work if you're not proficient with adobe products or don't have access to a good editing alternative such as GIMP. I know you're looking for a scanner, but you might be able to find a friend that would lend you something like that for this project and the results might even be better, or maybe you even have something like this already you could try it with
 
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I would think even a high end camera wouldn't work well due to the way the perspective changes for each area of the art (e.g. left side of the art is viewed from the right, right side is viewed from the left, center is viewed straight on).

As for scanning side art being tedious, there are documented techniques for doing this which will minimize the difficulty of stitching. Mind you, I haven't yet done this part of the process myself but these are tried and true techniques and if those who reproduce artwork use these techniques, that tells me all I need to know about them. :)
 
I would think even a high end camera wouldn't work well due to the way the perspective changes for each area of the art (e.g. left side of the art is viewed from the right, right side is viewed from the left, center is viewed straight on).

As for scanning side art being tedious, there are documented techniques for doing this which will minimize the difficulty of stitching. Mind you, I haven't yet done this part of the process myself but these are tried and true techniques and if those who reproduce artwork use these techniques, that tells me all I need to know about them. :)

Do you have any links for the documented techniques
 
I would think even a high end camera wouldn't work well due to the way the perspective changes for each area of the art (e.g. left side of the art is viewed from the right, right side is viewed from the left, center is viewed straight on).

As for scanning side art being tedious, there are documented techniques for doing this which will minimize the difficulty of stitching. Mind you, I haven't yet done this part of the process myself but these are tried and true techniques and if those who reproduce artwork use these techniques, that tells me all I need to know about them. :)

Good camera, good optics, don't get up against the cabinet, and do smallish segments, and the amount of error from this issue will be irrelevant. The bigger problem when using a camera is trying to get the camera to be exactly perpendicular to the art!

Good luck!
 
Good camera, good optics, don't get up against the cabinet, and do smallish segments, and the amount of error from this issue will be irrelevant. The bigger problem when using a camera is trying to get the camera to be exactly perpendicular to the art!

Good luck!

I agree 100%, I've seen some awesome tripods with horizontal articulating arms and built in levels, if you were doing side art and you had the machine on its side, you could just level it on top of the machine itself and tilt the head 90 degrees and you'd be pretty darn close to being parallel to the art, I actually have a setup that that's similar to this that i use for maco copy work and stock images, if anyone's the the ny cap dis area and wants to try and give this a go let me know i'd be interested in seeing the results
 
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