I'm taking on the project of converting some family photos in various slide, negative and print forms to digital and thought I'd share the information I found so far...
A quick reminder to back up your digital photos and keep them in a separate place from your computer. A fire could destroy your computer and all your photos. Make additional CDs for a family member or safety deposit box.
I'm looking at purchasing one of the less expensive slide/negative scanners. I can't afford the pros. :)
Slide conversion method comparison
http://www.andromeda.com/people/ddyer/photo/slide-transfer.htmlhttp://www.andromeda.com/people/ddyer/photo/slide-transfer.html
Getting photos and slides into digital form
http://aroundcny.com/Technofile/texts/tec030704.html
Count the photos, slides and negatives separately. = digital photos.
Count the video tapes you'd like to convert. They'll become video DVDs.
8 mm movies probably ought to be taken to a shop that specializes in video transfers, but you can convert them to VHS tape and then to DVDs yourself with a little practice -- as long as you have a working 8 mm projector.
Digitized photos and videos can last virtually forever, and your family's descendants will have a record of their family's history they would not have had otherwise.
1. Scanning photos. You need a flatbed scanner, the kind with a lid and a glass surface. Many brand-name scanners are actually made by the same original-equipment manufacturer, so the brand is less important than it seems. Make sure the scanner you choose works with your operating system. (Ask at the store before you buy, and immediately return it for a refund if it won't work with your version of Windows or your Macintosh operating system.) Scan at 300 dots per inch. (Going higher usually doesn't pay off for family archives.)
2. Scanning slides and negatives. You can sometimes get away with using a dual-purpose scanner (one that does both photos and slides), but for technical reasons this is not a good idea. Buy a separate slide and negative scanner instead. Prices start at about $160. Scan at 1,800 dots per inch or higher, but don't exceed the optical dots-per-inch rating of your scanner. (If it has more than one number in the rating, the low one is the optical rating.)
3. Software. Don't waste time with bad software. All the software that comes free with scanners is suspect. (They give it away, and that should be telling you something.) Get Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 ($50 with a rebate, $80 otherwise). Nothing else works as well. (Both the Windows version and the Mac version come in the same box, on the same installation CD.) Every scan will need to be touched up in your software. Make sure you set aside time to edit you images after they're scanned. (I've also read there is a program called ICE that automatically corrects dust and things of that nature)
4. Computer power. You don't need the newest and fanciest Windows PC or Apple Macintosh for scanning and editing. Any Windows PC, Apple Mac or Linux PC made in the last three or four years should be fine, and most older computers will be OK, too. But your computer needs a lot of free disk space and a fair amount of memory. Your main disk drive ought to have 800 megabytes of free space as a no-nonsense minimum for scanning small photos. Better yet would be 3 or 4 gigabytes of free space as a minimum. (Large drives are cheap, but check with the manufacturer of your computer or with knowledgeable store personnel before buying a new drive if you have a computer that's more than two years old. Older computers usually can't handle monster drives.)
Commercial conversion Price spreadsheet
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=phRG-JoD0f6N8DrY8b8ZGLw
There are several places that offer around 25 cents a slide if you do a google search for slides to digital
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