Photo scanning services?

Wrace wrote:

Gdetrailer wrote:

Bed scanner is part of your problem...

I can easily process 40 slides in 15 minutes with minor touch ups on each slide.. That is about 160 slides per hr.

The vendor they are using is YESVIDEO and you can contact them directly if you go to their website and get the phone number.. You can ask them what resolution they are using.. I would think it should be at least 4,200 DPI..

Yeah, there was no way I was able to get even remotely close to that rate of scan using the flatbed. It was very painful.

Looks like sams, costco, cvs, walmart and bartell are all using yesvideo. I will contact yesvideo and find out what resolution they are using. One advantage of using costco (in our case) is it's an easy drop off place. No need to mail them somewhere.

Legacy seems to get a good amount of positive reviews as well.

Separating the slides we want scanned vs the ones we don't is going to be a bit of task as well, given the quantity. Most of the slides are in metal cartridges (for lack of a better term) which are used in my fathers old projector and projected on a portable screen. As I recall there is a lever that moves in and out, and the cartridge moves forward (or backward) each time a new slide is needed. The projector and screen may very well still be in the attic at my sisters house.

I have been trying to review each slide using one of those handheld viewers but I can't get enough context to tell if it's a good image or not. It may be faster to set that screen up one afternoon and my sister and I can cycle through the cartridges, and pull out only the slides we want scanned. This process doesn't sound all that fun. It may take some beers to complete it.

Yeah, I would recommend setting up a projector, you don't need a screen just a white surface will do fine for previewing.

Even a sheet of white copier paper, white fridge door or white wall can work well enough to get the idea of what you want.

Actually, the process can be sort of fun, I started out being able to scan in then print thumbnail prints to show my Mom and Dad. put an album together and sat down one Sunday afternoon and My Mom and Dad was able to identify the people and places in the photos.

We made notes of each pix name with the names and places.

I was able to setup a word doc to overlay the names on the thumbnail prints..

Unfortunately, my Mom passed before I was able to scan them all in and my Dad's Dementia got too bad after my Mom passed to be of help so on the last thousand or so I had to figure out as best as I could.

I learned a lot of family history and and preserved the history that was lost when my Mom passed and Dementia took my Dads clarity of thought, that to me was well worth the time spent on this project.

My Mom showed me the importance of labeling photos, she had to toss thousands of photos that she could not identify the people after her parents passed.

You cannot put a price in money or time on history, once the knowledge is gone, it is over if no attempts are made to preserve it.

You are only going to want to do this once and that is why it is important to get as good of a transfer as possible the first time..