Best way to digitise loads of old photos?

[teuchter]

So, I've got stacks of old 35mm photos sitting around in boxes (I haven't counted them but there are probably at least a thousand) and I've been thinking that maybe I'd like to get them turned into digital images.

Can anyone offer any advice on the best way to do this?

Would I be right in assuming it's best to scan from the negatives rather than the prints?

Is it worth buying/borrowing a scanner and doing it myself or should I just send them off to one of the various companies that seem to offer this as a service - if so, can anyone give me any recommendations?

The cheapskate in me wants to find a negative scanner on ebay, get it, and do it all my self but I suspect that will end up taking hours and hours to do. So I don't mind paying someone else to do it unless it's much more expensive - and as long as I can be confident that they will do a good job of it.

Any advice gratefully received....

 

[spanglechick]

scannin from the print - assuming the print is in good nick - is going to be good enough quality for snaps. But man is it time consuming!

I'm a little interested to do this with all my parent's pics from way back when - but it's a huge task. I'd guess a pro company's prices would reflect that - plus, i wouldn't want to send them in the post.

 

[Hocus Eye.]

Good enough for snaps is not good enough for the pictures of your life. If the camera you used to take the originals was good those negatives will worth working from. Get the negs scanned or buy a scanner and do it yourself. You want the highest resolution you can afford.

 

[teuchter]

Most of them were taken with a fairly decent camera so I will look to getting the negs scanned. If anyone can recommend a company that does this, that would be very helpful.

 

[Stanley Edwards]

Not sure there's a great deal of point in scanning at high res. You already have a negative and if you ever want a high quality enlargement you can work from the original negative - a high res scan isn't going to give you better results.

I've had everything I've shot on film for the past 10 years plus scanned to CD at time of processing. It's the only cost effective way to do it. However, for existing negatives I'd suggest somewhere like Snappy Snaps. Low and medium res scans to CD. Perfect for screen use and adequate for A4 prints to the average eye.

If you're looking to be able to print copies of your old photos on your desk top then this will be fine also, but a semi pro service (I only have experience of Panther Imaging in London - they're a pretty good pro/am higher end service) will possibly put more effort into getting colour profiles right etc.

Neg scanners are getting cheaper, but they're not great and they're slow. The time involved wouldn't be worth the hassle. Drop them off at Snappy Snaps and pick-up the CD's a few days later would be my advice.

The only time I waste time, effort and money on high res scans of 35mm negs is magazine/agency submissions.


e2a; A quick glance at Snappy Snaps website suggest they may no longer offer the service.

Metro will I'm sure, but you'll waste money on packaging and a bit of trendy bollocks

http://www.metroimaging.co.uk/digitalservices/index.asp


Panther: http://www.panther-imaging.co.uk/

There are plenty of other pro services in London still. Personally, I'd go for the cheapest option. There may be online services, but that involves risky postal services.

 

[teuchter]

Online services seem to charge something in the region of 25p-50p per image to scan from a print or from the negative. (something like this)

I'm not too bothered about the resolution- as long as it's good enough to view reasonably large on screen that's fine.

I would have thought the main reason to scan from the negative would just be the principle of working from the original information? So that the image is as sharp and the colours as good as is possible?

 

[Stanley Edwards]

I currently pay €15 for a quality process and scan service of 36 exposure film without prints. 25p/scan sounds a good price to me.

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

I know this sounds fucking thick, but if you scan from the negatives, won't they look kind of odd?

 

[untethered]

You could use a document scanner with a sheet feeder to scan the prints. They might not be as good quality as if you scanned the negatives but they'd be more than good enough for viewing on screen.

I've got one of these:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/130183

on which I've scanned hundreds of prints. One bonus was that many of them were captioned on the back and as it's a double-sided scanner, I got scans of the captions too.

 

[untethered]

I know this sounds f- thick, but if you scan from the negatives, won't they look kind of odd?

Yes, they come out really small and the colours are all wrong.

But it's better than nothing.

 

[teuchter]

Well, in the end I got one of these:

off ebay for about £100, and I'm doing the first scans now. They seem to be pretty decent, and it takes about 10-15 mins to scan a strip of 4 negs at 1410dpi.

Not that fast, it has to be said, but perhaps that will force me to be a bit selective.