I'm assuming there are two approaches here:

1 - Buy a photo scanner and do the work yourself
2 - Use the services of someone who has nice equipment and let them do the work


I'm leaning towards 1 but have no idea on what scanner to buy. Any advice on the hardware, software, or process would be appreciated. Or if you know someone who does this locally that'll work too.

3/10/2011 11:01:13 AM

I bought a Canon CanoScan LIDE (some-number) about 4 years ago and it has worked absolutely great. I think they are into a new model/revision by now, so I'd just check reviews on them and pick one that is in your price range.

If you have the time to go in and correct smudges and colors, it's definitely cheaper than a service.

I used Google Picasa to do all the scanning/fixing ... worked like a charm on all my mom's old photos and I highly suggest it.

By the way: I seem to recall the Canon software (maybe it's Picasa, can't remember) has a way of auto-splitting the scan into multiple pictures to reduce your total time spent scanning. In other words, you can put multiple photos on the scanner separated by at least a half-inch of space and it should detect them and create individual files for you. Pretty neat, I thought.


[Edited on March 10, 2011 at 11:14 AM. Reason : .]

3/10/2011 11:11:25 AM

See I was thinking I would avoid a flatbed scanner and use something designed for 4X6's and smaller photos...something with a feeder. But from what you're saying I could probably just use a flatbed and not spend *that* much more time...

3/10/2011 11:21:48 AM

http://www.superwarehouse.com/p.cfm?p=1530138&CMP=KAC-GoogleShopping&sourcecode=SW09W002

We have one of these at the office (we scan A LOT of pictures.) It's pretty much the heat. Nothing, anywhere is better than this sucker at pulling in data. 600x600dpi, and with 4x6 photos it does about 50-60/minute. Plus it has big hopper; stick in like 100 at a time. No sorting or aligning either. Stack 4x6 on top of an 8x10 on top of some 3x5's and it figures everything out as it rips through.

I might be able to stay late one night and take care of a small batch if you have your own device to store data to. How many are we talking?

Before this beast was released we used Fujitsu scan snap scanners. There are two or three S1500's attached to a machine in the back. 300x300 dpi, about 15-20 pictures per minute. It's rollers are different from the kodak though; it tends to attempt to consume photos that are creased or warped badly.

3/10/2011 11:24:16 AM

i have a fujitsu scansnap and love it (forget the model, can post it later) its the portable white one that is compatible with macs

i took my whole home office digital with this sucker. it scans documents like a champ (front and back or just one sided, you pick) and put them into a pdf

i scanned about 700 pics recently and it put them all into iphoto for me

its not 100% perfect. the tray can't take a ton at a time so you kind of have to be there to keep feeding more in to make it go quickly and if the pics stick together you have to re run them but for me, the trouble was worth the savings of paying a service

i think it took me about 3-4 hours to scan the 700 photos and that included the time it took to put them into folders in iphoto

i also bought my scansnap on ebay for about half of the retail cost. it was new in box, the retail price was crazy but the ebay price was just right

3/11/2011 7:25:14 PM