Photo films into digital?

[inferno_gn]

Hi there,

Wow, I'm down to my last roll of films camera and that's that. I'm going fully digital. However, going to Phramaprix (SDM for the rest of Canada) to go print out my rolls, they gave me the option to put it on trasnfer CD for a 1$. Hey, that's sweet. However, it make me think, maybe I should do my entire photo films into digital.

Well, the thing is, where should I go do that or is it better I buy one of those scanning machines and do it myself? :) The thing is, these pictures are, well priceless and I wouldn't go somewhere that is, well, doa crappy job and might damaged the original films. I got old pictures of me being a cute baby (that's like over 25 years film) and I think I better start digitally archiving them as films do degrade over time.

Give me options!

Ju Leon...

[Gee]

Invest is a decent HP scanner and do it yourself. If you convert your entire library, it will cost you more than the scanner.

[akira1971]

When I was still using film (Canon Elan 7e) at the end of 2005, I had Black's develop the pictures as well as scan to a CD. Now that we have the Canon 30D, I realize how horrible the pictures on the cd actual look. What a waste of money. Unless Pharmapix has invested in superior equipment (unlikely) to Black's over the past year, I'd say don't bother.

To archive my negatives, I'll probably buy a decent scanner in 2-3 years. Either that, or I'll rent a high-end scanner for a weekend and go nuts. Vistek in Toronto has the Nikon Coolscan 8000 for $105/weekend. However, at a "fast" 38 secs/frame, that's a lot of hours of work.

[inferno_gn]

Hi there,

Well, if it's cheaper to do it at home, what model I should get and where? *lol* I presume I will have to get latex gloves and stuff, as films can't be clean without special cleaners. :D

Ju Leon...

[ah802]

Wow, I'm down to my last roll of films camera and that's that. I'm going fully digital. However, going to Phramaprix (SDM for the rest of Canada) to go print out my rolls, they gave me the option to put it on trasnfer CD for a 1$. Hey, that's sweet. However, it make me think, maybe I should do my entire photo films into digital.

Well, the thing is, where should I go do that or is it better I buy one of those scanning machines and do it myself? :) The thing is, these pictures are, well priceless and I wouldn't go somewhere that is, well, doa crappy job and might damaged the original films. I got old pictures of me being a cute baby (that's like over 25 years film) and I think I better start digitally archiving them as films do degrade over time.

Give me options!Taking in your rolls and having the CD made for a buck... hard to beat that. Unless you're picky... Kodak used to give you 4 resolutions on one photodisk, low (thumbnails), medium (video display), high (digital manipulation) and veryhigh (publishing, & duplication). Of course when I said 'yes' to this... I got a disk with one resolution that no one would be happy with.

Like you I have a multimedia family collection that spans decades, checked all the pro services... most offering to do it for a buck or more an image. I'm looking at thousands... next consideration was renting (not cost/time effective) or buying a scanner etc. The really good automated stuff is also in the thousands... back to reality. I picked up an HP scanner with transparency hood, worked my vacation (couple of weeks, about 100 images a day is pushing it) and have mostly scanned the critical material (a pain in the butt, fits on one DVD). All the images are not publication quality, you have to make compromises.. I focused in on HD widescreen levels, so res of 1920x1080x2 for the majority of images... with a few selected at x4 or x8 for photo reproduction.

As a hobby I waste time with digital improvements and restorations, make collages, cards and multimedia videos for family. I've handed out copies to all family members, now they got lazy and want me to do theirs!

[klam]

I recently bought a Canon 8600F flatbed scanner. It does a fairly good job at scanning film for me (negative, slide, etc.). I chose a flatbed because I have some other things aside from film that I'd like to scan, otherwise if you have tons of film then a dedicated film scanner like the Nikon Coolscan V ED would be ideal. You can get some pretty good scans from film (not prints).

[inferno_gn]

Hi there,

Well, I kinda want to take the best there is, you know. You can't price something on something that is priceless. I do want to keep it as max resolution possible, at least, maybe someday in the near future, there will be cheap and affordable service to fix those photos, no? I don't think you can go back in time and take pictures of me when I was a baby, huh? :D

Ju Leon...

[inferno_gn]

Hi there,

BUMP!

Ju Leon...

[hytong]

if you want the best quality, search around for labs that provides drum scan service