Photograph scanning??

[CEK40]

Good Morning

I have hundreds of photographs, some over 100 years old, that I would like to scan and copy to a disk for safety and to give one to each of my children so they will have family photographs for themselves to keep for their families.

So my question to you more experienced photographers...How is the best way to do so? Do I send them to one of the companies that do bulk scanning (not my favorite idea), or purchase a scanner and do it myself? Are there any other options for this type of work, and if that is the best choice what type of scanner is the best to get quality results?

I appreciate your help and advice in advance, it is greatly appreicated.

CK in VA

 

[Gianna'sPapa]

It really depends on the amount of time you wish to devote to the scanning. I have an Epson Perfection V500 which is a good consumer scanner. I think it runs about $150. The downside is that it isn't the fastest in the world. While I enjoy scanning some of my older photos, I don't know if I want to devote weeks/months of my time to a large project. As I see it, the question is cost vs time.

 

[topdog]

There are many way to handle this. It depends on quality of the originals and what quality of the output you expect.

As long as you don't expect the scan images look just like the original, then any scanner you can buy online or at store these day can do a decent job. Just prepare to have a lot of patience to scan, adjust, save and organize the images.

However, if you want the scan images look exactly or close to the original, then sent them to professional places is the only way to achieve the best result and also cost the most. If you can find any place that has a drum scanner, that's even better.

Or...you can scan the photos that has the best condition yourself and sent out the one that need digital restoration.

I have a few photos to scan that were from late 1800. They were left to us from DW's family. I was afraid to even touch them.

 

[klmall]

Over the years I have scanned many a picture and slide by hand using my Canon Pixma 800. It was a labor of love and because I had time to do meticulous post-scanning dust and scratch removal. Better scanners have ICE which do the hard work for you but I am one of the few who actually enjoys editing photos.

I have also had old video tapes and slides scanned and converted at Scan Digital (http://www.scandigital.com/) at very reasonable prices. Their web site has a lot of information about what they handle including bulk pricing.

Kudos for preserving your pictures! My Mom did this two years ago for the five of us. She gave each child his/her pictures and then had the family pictures made into a great slideshow on DVD.

 

[photo_chick]

I scan mine myself. I'm nitpicky and make print quality scans. It's tedious and time consuming and really took me a little bit of time to figure out the best way to get the files I wanted. But it's cheap.