Negative to digital flatbed scanner

[4HOLIDAYS]

I am hoping to get some advice from some of the experts here on which scanner to buy.

My mom and I have 1000's of negatives and 1000's of old photos to scan and enter. I know this will be time consuming but we are patient and she has all the time she wants. We want them saved before they are too far gone/faded. I would like to be able to blow some up, correct the colors on some, but deinately not all,..that kind of thing.

There are a some negatives that are about 2 1/2 inches? (opposed to the strips of negatives)that I hope to also include.

I saw good reviews of Epson v600 and then the v700/750. I am not sure what I need.

If any of you could let me know your thought and experiences with this I would appreciate it.

thanks-Jennifer

 

[boBQuincy]

I have an Epson V600 and have used it to scan negatives. The holder accepts two strips of 6 (maybe even 7) and scanning is not fast, especially with dust removal and such turned on. One tip is to scan at monitor resolution (1200 dpi) then only scan at higher resolution when you want to make prints. 1200 dpi looks great on a 40" TV.

The holder also accepts 4 of the 6x6 (2-1/4 square) negatives.

 

[4HOLIDAYS]

Thanks-appreciate the response!

 

[klmall]

I don't have a specific scanner to recommend but just some general advice. I have scanned photos and slides myself and also had them scanned locally and via mail. What follows may help you decide what method to use. If irrelevant just ignore .

While I did scan hundreds of slides and photos (I refused to do my negatives!) and even after reading about what DPI to use and other settings, it was an enormous effort especially to scan the slides. Scanning photos is easier and depending upon their sizes multiple can be scanned at one time and separated via scanner software. And given the quality of cameras at the time the pictures/slides were taken, still required post-scanning editing using Photoshop Elements. I had to work on the clarity and brightness in particular.

The photos that came out the best were old black and white slides and prints while color prints and ugh, Polaroids were unpredictable.

Rather than scan negatives which can be more difficult to place into the holder for the scanner I located the prints themselves and used a Groupon deal to have them scanned in order and returned to me via CD. The scanning isn't perfect but I much prefer to edit what was scanned by someone else than both scan and edit!

You can have almost any media scanned by someone else (prints, slides, negatives, old video tapes etc.) but scanning negatives and slides tends to be more expensive than prints. Also watch what scanning places offer for extra services. Sometimes their auto-adjustments are okay; other times being mass applied only makes decent photos worse.

Most decent printers today scan as well as do regular printing. If you have any particularly precious old photos of relatives scan them first yourself before surrendering to anyone else for processing. Though I haven't ever lost one this way I have read horror stories! No amount of insurance can replace that photo once it's gone.

So, in summary think about: the quantity of photos/slides to be scanned; cost of a scanner; editing software and your skill using it and any other costs such as postage to mail photos somewhere for processing. I spent $26 dollars recently to mail 500+ photos for scanning.

Hope this helps a little; there are also excellent articles online about this topic.

 

[boBQuincy]

Rather than scan negatives which can be more difficult to place into the holder for the scanner I located the prints themselves and used a Groupon deal to have them scanned in order and returned to me via CD. The scanning isn't perfect but I much prefer to edit what was scanned by someone else than both scan and edit!

Scanning is no fun! I read that one easy way to do it is to find some school children who are out for the summer and pay them by the hour. You get a bargain and they make some $$$.

 

[manning]

Take a look at this. I have an older version and very happy with it. be sure to read the reviews.

I scanned slides and negatives and am very happy with it.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...ne_f2d20mighty_20_megapixels_7_in_1_film.html

 

[Pooh2]

I have the v600 and scanned thousands of prints this past winter while home recuperating from surgery.
I found the prints easier to handle than the negatives (and it was kind of fun going through prints and could determine more easily if they were worthy of scanning time than looking at each negative on a lightbox).
Good luck! It is very time consuming but worthwhile project!