Scanners for film pictures and negatives

[MrSpectaculous]

Does anyone here have any experience converting pictures (hard copy) and negatives to a digital format. Are there any scanners that are good at this? My wife and Mother in law have thousands of photo's I would like to digitize for them.
Thanks
Bill

[Tree-Bone]

Epson flatbed scanners do a good job. Make sure they can do negatives and slides also.
The higher the cost and resolution ability the better the results.

V300 ($100) 4490 ($150) V500 ($200)

http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/Prod ... ?oid=-8172

[MrSpectaculous]

thanks for taking the time to reply. I'll let you know how it works out. There is alot to learn.
Bill

[Todd]

Bill-I bought a HP 8500 all in one scanner/copier/fax from Sams Club and it scans photos very well. It will not do negatives. The pricing on scanners is way out there. You can buy an all in one cheaper than just a photo scanner sometimes. If all that you are looking for is a photo scanner you can combine to an all in one for sometimes less price. If you want to do negatives also you will need to buy a photo scanner.

[pag_yaker]

Does anyone here have any experience converting pictures (hard copy) and negatives to a digital format. Are there any scanners that are good at this? My wife and Mother in law have thousands of photo's I would like to digitize for them.
Thanks
Bill

I have a canon that does negatives ... does a decent job as well. Lemme know if you'd like to borrow it ...

[Hornetbear]

You might want to use a service bureau. They will scan for a flat rate and put them on a cd for you. Since nobody is really shooting film anymore you could get them all done by a serious slide scanner and be done with it.

I find it takes forever to scan them yourself.

[Todd]

I find it takes forever to scan them yourself.

That is true, it is a PITA slow process.

[Rik]

You might want to use a service bureau. They will scan for a flat rate and put them on a cd for you. Since nobody is really shooting film anymore you could get them all done by a serious slide scanner and be done with it.

I find it takes forever to scan them yourself.

Do you know a good slide scanner?

[Tree-Bone]

Just how good of a slide scanner you need will depend on what you intend to do with the finished scan. Do you just want to see them on computor or TV , make small 4x6" prints, make large prints like 16x20".

Nikon makes 2 good slide scanners that give enough quality for large prints but they are expensive. The Epson flatbeds I mentioned above do a good job and you can get big prints IF you scan correctly.

You can have a service scan for you but if you have a lot of slides that will get expensive to get high res scans. As mentioned, scans are time consuming and you pay for time. here is link to lab I use
http://www.lakeshorecamera.com/slidescanning.html

[MrSpectaculous]

I'd like to get a good scanner for my bride as a 40th B-day present. She has a very large collection of family photo's unorganized in a chest. Also my Mother in law is a German refugee and has pics and film of Germany just before and during the time Hitler tried to take over the world. I doubt she would trust someone else (Service) with that history and we are talking about years worth of pictures.

Thanks for yalls help
Bill

[GO-Fish]

I got an Epson Scanner about a year ago and did a lot of negatives, yes it is a pain but you can do it yourself if you take in bits and peices.

Your may want to look for one that does two rows of negatives at a time, it will be a bit quicker. The lower the resolution the faster it will go.

He is an example of a couple of photos I scanned.

[Hornetbear]

You might want to use a service bureau. They will scan for a flat rate and put them on a cd for you. Since nobody is really shooting film anymore you could get them all done by a serious slide scanner and be done with it.

I find it takes forever to scan them yourself.

Do you know a good slide scanner?

I used to use Chrome in san diego.

Now, I'd go with a online service.

http://www.scancafe.com/

looks like a good one.

I think the technology is so good it makes sense to use somebody else. I hate to scan large amounts of anything.

[Rik]

Thanks Steve, that looks like a good one. I have a lot of slides. Boxes of slides. That $1.00 per slide at the other place posted is just too steep. Plus, Scancafe scans them and only charges you for the ones you keep. Not bad.