good 35mm negative scanner?

[anonymouse1]

Thought I'd follow up. If you go with DigMyPics, it will cost you about $250 for 500 negatives. So, if it takes you X time per negative, then here's how much you have to be earning to make it worthwhile to do it yourself:

1 minute/negative = $30 per hour

5 minutes/negative = $150 per hour

10 minutes/negative = $300 per hour.

I'm kind of stunned by these figures. I was ABSOLUTELY planning to scan my wedding negs myself, and now I'm not going to.

[Paul F.]

My mom got into a simillar project... 4 BIG boxes of family albums, pictures, slides, and negatvies dating back as far as 1900.. maybe a bit earlier.

Yes, she could have just "sent it out".... Would have been cheaper and easier.
However, her cousin on the east coast did the same thing with some irreplaceable family photo's... and yes, the extraordinarily unlikely event occured; UPS lost the box. Gone. Poof. 100+ years of photo's that have no replacements.

My mom chose NOT to send anything out... Extraordinarily unlikely or not, there IS some risk.
She bought an Epson flatbed scanner with Digital ICE "scratch and dent" removal, and is learning to use it.

Progress HAS been slow, but the results have been quite acceptable after some learning.

It's also giving my mom the chance to sort out the real "keepers" from the "who ARE these people, and why do we want their pictures in the first place?" pics.

I would recommend the Epson flat-bed scanner if I could remember the model number... It was under $350 as an Epson refurb.

As long as she's willing to spend the time, and has enough of an "eye" to get the most out of the scratch and dust removal software, I think it's a great project!

Hope this helps!

[clay]

thanks, all, for your helpful input.

My mom has asked for the scanner, so it's not coming as a gift/curse out of the blue. I would guess that she won't get through ALL of the negs. that she has, but it will certainly be a good way to sort through them and pick out ones that will be most valuable to her.

time spent scanning/editing will certainly be something to be considered, but I think it is something she'll be able to do as she has free time, and as she gets older and has more free time on her hands.

any more suggestions on specific scanners would be helpful, and I'll look into your suggestions soon.

Thanks!

[davester]

[quote clay]any more suggestions on specific scanners would be helpful, and I'll look into your suggestions soon.

Thanks!
If you go with a flatbed, get the epson 4990 I linked to (or its predecessor the 4870). Whatever you get, don't even think about getting something without digital ICE.

[raz]

[quote clay]any more suggestions on specific scanners would be helpful, and I'll look into your suggestions soon.
Thanks!
Minolta seems to have gone out of the scanner business along with their camera business, so I'm afraid I can't be of help there.

[ka jowct]

My mom chose NOT to send anything out... Extraordinarily unlikely or not, there IS some risk.

That's the most compelling argument for DIY, I think: the prospect of losing what cannot be replaced.

This is the scanner I'd get. It would probably have reasonable resale value in a year or so:



BTW, as someone pointed out, doing this kind of thing on a 14" iBook is going to be painful. She WILL run out of disk space very quickly. Keep in mind that you need a big chunk of free HD space just for Photoshop to operate effectively, in addition to the GB that will be occupied by all the images. You will need a decent-size FW drive or two to make this work. And working on scans using the iBook's tiny screen is not going to be any fun at all.

[Dennis S]

I had negatives transfered to a CD at Target. A whole CD filled was around $5, but I forgot how many pictures that was. It was quite a few and worth the money.

I believe the could only do ones that were still in a strip form.