Posts Made By: Michael Reed

I have seen several differnt posts here where scanning in an image was mentioned. One way is to scan the print, the other being to scan the negative. To me it seem like you would loose alot of resolution if you were to scan the negative, but remember, the title of this post is "Newbie Question" lol. What are the pros and cons of scanning the negative vs the print.

Thanks.

Michael Reed

The new flat screen or LCD monitors have excellant quality, and the prices have been dropping considerably over the past couple of years. I remember not 2 years or so ago a 17" flat screen would run $1k or more. I do have a few suggestions to help you screen the good from the bad.

One of the biggest complaints I get about flat screens is that if you are not looking at them head on, the brightness suffers considerably. There are monitors on the market now where this is not a problem. Before you buy any monitor, move your line of sight from the center slowly to the side to get a good idea of how wide the field is. This will also save you headaches later.

Because you are looking to use this monitor for image processing I would also suggest upgrading your video card if you do not have a digital output from the one you have. This investment will not only give you great graphics, but probably better graphics that you can get period on a standard tube monitor. Talk to your dealer. You do not have to buy the absolute top of the line card for this feature, but expect to pay more than approx $150 dollars for the card. (prob 128MB mem or more though you might get away with 64MB mem on the card). Do NOT buy one that uses your computers memory to boost it's capabilities. You should not have this problem for a card with digital outputs, but is a word of warning. You will not be happy if you do.

The reason for this suggestion is that you will be very pleased with the results if you get the right equipment. Instead of your computer changing the data to analog to pass to your monitor, the data stays in digital format for unparalleled crispness of image. Talk to your dealer and he should know exactly what I am talking about. If you plan to buy online, I suggest at least talking to a few salesmen at BestBuy or similar if you are not familiar with the monitor you wish you buy. Even though I have been doing this 10 years, I normally go to the store to "play" before I go back to work and buy online for less money (if the shipping costs dont kill the deal lol).

Hope this helps. I am not a telescope expert but I know my computers lol.

Michael Reed
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