# Best Way To Transfer Old Photographs To Digital Media ???



## BondandBigM (Apr 4, 2007)

Or maybe that should be cheapest :lol:

Any recomendations on scanners, I have seen the from 30 quid to hundreds and rightly or wrongly assume you get what you pay for. On my travels over the years I never had a camera out of my hands and have loads of photos that I would like to preserve.

B.


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## nursegladys (Aug 4, 2006)

Hi there B, you are mostly right about scanners and the cheaper the worse they are, however, one thing to remember, you will not get the resolution manipulation of the pure digital image, so.... any decent/cheap scanner will do the job if you just want to make copies of hard copy photos.

HTH


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## chris l (Aug 5, 2005)

I use an Epson 4990, which cost me about Â£125. The advantage is that it will also scan film from 35mm to 5x9cm, as well as prints.

I've been scanning loads of slides, black and white and colour negs, and I'm very, very impressed with it...

The problem with scanning a lot of older prints is if they have a textured surface, as many did.


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## Guest (Jun 1, 2008)

Depending on how good your current printer is, rather than spending out on a new scanner - have you considered an all in one machine, printer, scanner, copier, fax.

They're available for next to nothing, but watch out for the costs of replacement cartridges, and also check if the chips can be reset.


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## MarkF (Jul 5, 2003)

Have you got the negatives? How about one of these?

I'd love to hear any user experience of one of these gadgets and I'd be happy to pay more for a better machine.


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## chris l (Aug 5, 2005)

MarkF said:


> Have you got the negatives? How about one of these?
> 
> I'd love to hear any user experience of one of these gadgets and I'd be happy to pay more for a better machine.


These were tested by, I think, AP, and performed very poorly; unsharp, with colour fringing and poor shadow detail. Shame really. The Plustek is considered the best of the less expensive film only scanners at around Â£150. 35mm only though.

Try the Epson, it scans 35mm and 120 well, and it's an A4 flatbed as well. Not as good as a film only scanner, but less expensive!


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## limey (Aug 24, 2006)

We have a Nikon negative/slide scanner on the shelf at work. It's so old that it has a SCSI interface but it worked GREAT!! Way better than scanning a photo. The Nikon software really made a difference too. Digital ICE.

Don't forget once you have them scanned in keep a copy off-site. That is one of the worst (and most frequent) comments to hear after a devastating fire, "All my pictures (kids paintings, etc.) are gone!".

I back my computer up using JungleDisk to Amazon's S3 web service. Amazingly cheap, it's like insurance but a lot, lot cheaper.


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## BondandBigM (Apr 4, 2007)

Thanks

I'll have a look at the weekend, I have some negatives but not all as the previous "M" used to just sling them randomly back in the packets and into a big box so It will be easier just to scan the pictures.

Might save it for the dark nights coming in as it will take a while 

B.


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## Boxbrownie (Aug 11, 2005)

We used to use the Nikon SCSI film scanners, but now I use the Minolta 5400 scanner.....unfortunately no longer available!

But.....just before crimble I bought the 710 a digital frame for our kiddy and family pics....I have thousands so didn't relish the idea of scanning each one on the minolta at around 10 minutes a pop (with ICS on....scratch and dust removal) so I slapped the negs in an old enlarger neg holder I had left over....put it on the light box and proceeded to copy the negs on one of my Nikon D100's...the results were bloody perfect....well perfect for the digital frames.....they looks great, and took me as long as it used to take copying old negs and slides but without the processing....I was chuffed, and the 710 thought I had slaved for days copying hundreds of pictures from neg.....only took half a day or so.

Don't give up on the olde technology just yet, if you have a decent camera that can fill the frame with 24mm x 36mm and a mask for holding the neg/slide...just try it...I was amazed at the quality.....


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