Bulk scanning slides / photos - recommend a company

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ddustin

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Topic # 31128 5-Mar-2009 18:40

Hey all,

Between our family, my parents and the in-laws, we've probably got somewhere in the region of 4-5000 photos and slides, and we'd like to get them converted to digital, both for cataloging (before the old folk forget who is in each one) and for safetys sake.

Has anybody under taken a project like this before? Any recommendations on companies that are capable / suitable for it.

Cheers

Dave

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Reply # 199471 5-Mar-2009 20:15

I looked recently for companies that did film reels to DVD. The company that had a good quote and very good technology was this one. It also does slides. I will look at my quotes at work tomorrow and post some more suggestions.

http://www.bringiton.co.nz/

Under the convert section.

ToPGuNZ

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Reply # 199562 6-Mar-2009 08:16

Here are a couple more options. I am not sure on cataloging but I supect if you chat to them they will give you some ideas.

http://www.videomemories.co.nz/

Over 100 photos/slides 0.90c (ie. 100 slides = $90)

http://www.convertit.co.nz/

100 - 500 $1.20 Each DVD can hold approx 600 slide/photo images

scottjpalmer

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Reply # 354715 22-Jul-2010 02:27

Can anyone add to this 18 months on?

Am I better to have negatives scanned or 6x4 photos scanned? (I have both)

Looks like just over $1 per image is the going rate, ouch!

Balchy

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Reply # 354724 22-Jul-2010 07:40

Try a document scanning outfit like MRB (micro records beaurau, Auckland)

Or desktop imaging in wellington

For billions of years since the outset of time, every single one of your ancestors survived, every single person on your Mum and Dads side, successfully looked after and passed onto you life. What are the chances of that like?

sleemanj

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Reply # 354794 22-Jul-2010 10:45

Do them yourself, or teach your retired dad/mum how. It's not that hard, last Christmas I scanned a large box full of slides and a few negatives using a slide & negative scanner purchased from Jaycar for a hundred something dollars.

It does take time, but once you get the hang of it and accept that archival is better than perfection when it comes to getting the contrast etc tweaked, you can rattle through them pretty quickly. And the results are really good.

I developed a website where I put them all, loosely tagged them as best I could (most these were from before I was born, so some guess work) and then I invited my family to add tags.

The site is very simple, just a light-box style gallery with the ability to edit the description and insert descriptive tags which serve as categorisation, even my dad could work it.

You can private message me if you'd like to have a look at the results.

---
James Sleeman
I sell lots of stuff for electronic enthusiasts...

manta

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Reply # 355031 22-Jul-2010 17:15

My Dad (who is 77) wanted to do exactly this but having seen the prices quoted bought a professional grade slide / photo scanner and did his own - over 10,000 slides. That way they were catalogued properly at the time as well. Each scan did 12 slides so the process wasn't actually that long in the end and he saved a huge amounbt of money. If he can do it, anyone (and I mean ANYONE) can. The results are awesome and of course since he did the process himself he could re-touch, sharpen etc at will.

It was great project for him too, gave him and mum plenty to talk about, re-live old times etc.

nakedmolerat

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Reply # 355049 22-Jul-2010 17:58

manta: My Dad (who is 77) wanted to do exactly this but having seen the prices quoted bought a professional grade slide / photo scanner and did his own - over 10,000 slides. That way they were catalogued properly at the time as well. Each scan did 12 slides so the process wasn't actually that long in the end and he saved a huge amounbt of money. If he can do it, anyone (and I mean ANYONE) can. The results are awesome and of course since he did the process himself he could re-touch, sharpen etc at will.

It was great project for him too, gave him and mum plenty to talk about, re-live old times etc.

what did u use?

robbyp

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Reply # 355053 22-Jul-2010 18:11

nakedmolerat:
manta: My Dad (who is 77) wanted to do exactly this but having seen the prices quoted bought a professional grade slide / photo scanner and did his own - over 10,000 slides. That way they were catalogued properly at the time as well. Each scan did 12 slides so the process wasn't actually that long in the end and he saved a huge amounbt of money. If he can do it, anyone (and I mean ANYONE) can. The results are awesome and of course since he did the process himself he could re-touch, sharpen etc at will.

It was great project for him too, gave him and mum plenty to talk about, re-live old times etc.

what did u use?

My HP scanner has one of those slide and nagative scanners, and they work quite well. You are better to buy the equipment and DIY it, rather than get a company to do it, due to that volume, and after you have finished you will still have the equipment to use or sell.

tristanb

81 posts

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Reply # 355084 22-Jul-2010 19:59

Digitalmax used to have a service called "ScanPIX" that did this, but it's no longer around. DM became useless after HP Snapfish bought them out. (So yeah, I can't help with any alternatives)

manta

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Reply # 355219 23-Jul-2010 08:58

nakedmolerat:
manta: My Dad (who is 77) wanted to do exactly this but having seen the prices quoted bought a professional grade slide / photo scanner and did his own - over 10,000 slides. That way they were catalogued properly at the time as well. Each scan did 12 slides so the process wasn't actually that long in the end and he saved a huge amounbt of money. If he can do it, anyone (and I mean ANYONE) can. The results are awesome and of course since he did the process himself he could re-touch, sharpen etc at will.

It was great project for him too, gave him and mum plenty to talk about, re-live old times etc.

what did u use?

It was an Epson V700; this is a professional grade scanner but still does all the normal stuff, and as I said the results were frankly amazing. The scanner was expensive, but still way cheaper than going to a company.

If you PM me with your email address I can send you the results of scanning some slides taken over 45 years ago!

ddustin

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Reply # 355244 23-Jul-2010 09:54

Anybody in the auckland region got a good quality slide / negative scanner that I could hire for a while? :)

Cheers for resurecting this thread. I was actually thinking about the task last weekend

Balchy

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Reply # 355263 23-Jul-2010 10:40

USB slide scanner on firstin.co.nz for $90 today!

kiwipawl

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Reply # 355285 23-Jul-2010 11:41

I have scanned 10,000's of 35mm slides using the range of Nikon Coolscaners with bulk slide feeders. The feeder holds up to 50 slides at a time and physically moves each individual slide into the scanner. This has proved very successful, and you can walk away and let it do its thing unattended, but you can have problems with old and damaged slide mounts. The quality of the finished image is superb and using the ICE and GEM functions, which removes dust and scratches and also restores the colours in the slide saves ALOT of time in post production.

These scanners are expensive but if you want HQ images and unattended scanning, they are well worth the money.

I guess it comes done to what you want to do with the final image. If you only want web quality lower res then the cheaper scanner will do, but if want to HQ images for reproduction and large prints, the old adage applys, you only get what you pay for.

I know of a lot of people that use the Epson V500 scanner ($400-500) and rave about it and it has ICE and GEM functions which as I mentioned previously are well worth the extra money.

And then there is the issue of storage of your vaualbe images/files, but thats a other story.

Cheeers Paul.

ZollyMonsta

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Reply # 355289 23-Jul-2010 11:46

There's a slide scanner on firstin.co.nz today.. why not do it yourself :)

Check out my LPFM Radio Station at www.thecheese.co.nz

ddustin

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Reply # 355298 23-Jul-2010 11:57

The scanner on FirstIn has very varied reviews worldwide. some people like it, but a lot of people provide some very valid warnings. THe software apparently is not great, especially with negatives.

Might dig out my old Epson scanner and see if I can somehow make it work on Win7

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