What is the ideal scanner setting to capture old photos

Question

I have several very old photos that I want to scan using a Canoscan 9950F and incorporate them into a video. I was told by the person who has some of these old photos that she has some on CD at 300dpi. I plan to add motion to some of the old photos and on others (group shots) I'd like to go in very close, isolating on the face of one individual, then adding pull out motion to reveal the group---or vice versa---without artifacts. I have been told I need to set FCE-HD at something like 100% or more of 720x480 to insure quality resolution using motion--- 1140x960 or higher. Can those images scanned at 300dpi work that way or should I re-scan originals at a higher dpi, and if so, what would you suggest?

Answer 1

Depends how big the group is and how small the face. if the face is smallish in the frame, 300dpi on an small picture like 4x5 is going to be marginal to get in as close as you might want.
Measure the frame on the closest size you want to get on the image, then calculate what dpi you have to scan to so that you get an image that will fill the 720x540 SD screen. I can't do the math myself. I simply use Photoshop to make the image size calculations for me.