scanning a smaller area give more detail?

[AshleyC]

Just to save me setting up my scanner and trying, im sure i know the answer anyway, but if i set up a scan of a negative to scan a smaller area of that negative, will it give me more detail than if i scanned the whole negative and then cropped it down to the same size?

 

[Mr Bump]

nope a scanner can only do a max of so much dpi

 

[ChrisR]

... but if you're scanning at max dpi, a smaller area will give you a more reasonable file size than a larger area... All caveat the "optics not up to the quoted resolution" meme...

 

[AshleyC]

yep fair enough, i thought as much. Just did a few tests and it indeed makes no difference at all.