This post has been updated on 1/13/10
I've been interested in getting a photo scanner to transfer all of my old school paper photos to digital and I've actually already done a whole photo album. It took me a ton of time on my large HP 6100C antiquated flatbed scanner, which only works with a SCSI connection. It's a fabulous scanner, does legal size docs, but it is ancient, huge, scans to .bmp format only (can be converted to .jpeg later), etc. The point is, it is a slow process using a flatbed scanner (despite the scanner itself being quite a fast scanner with the high-speed SCSI interface and all).
HP Scanjet 6100C - a $1200 scanner at one time
I need something that doesn't require a lot of effort or mental focus to get through the 20 or 30 large photo albums I'll need to tackle. I was looking at this dedicated paper photo scanner, the PANSCN02 (see just below), which just might be the ticket. Reviewers say you can scan photos while watching movies and that it is literally one-touch with button controlled roller-feeder making it essentially a brainless and mindless effort. Contrast that to laying out the photos just right, adjusting the scan area, cropping the photos, etc. of my flatbed. One drawback to the PANSCN02, the quality of the scans is marginal. This wouldn't be a problem for a good number of my prints that were taken with sub-par cameras in the first place (in other words, the quality of those prints stinks to begin with).
Here's the commercial:
Pandigital PANSCN02 Photolink Scanner"The PhotoLink Print Scanner is literally the easiest way possible to turn print photos into digital images. The one-touch scanner simply requires customers to insert the photo into the feed and push the button to begin scanning.
(Grammy, you could put Sydney to good work, a work that she would probably absolutely love, scanning those shoe boxes of old photos in).
The PhotoLink Scanner can be used right out of the box. There is no software required, and the scanner even comes with a 512MB SD Card to store the photos. In addition, consumers can also use the USB cable included with the product to connect the Photolink One-Touch Scanner via its USB 2.0 port directly to a computer.
One nice feature, the Pandigital PANSCN02 is small
The device is incredibly portable, weighing only eight ounces and measuring only 6.15W x 1.8H x 1.5D inches. As a result, it's easy to take it anywhere to scan and share photos with friends and loved ones.
The Pandigital PANSCN03 - small too, but I do not recommend
The more cycles I've spent mulling this over, checking reviews and the opinions of others who have already blazed these trails, have put me on a different course. I first started looking at the sister offering, the PANSCN03. It got horrible reviews for the most part, poor quality and nowhere near the ease of use of the paper fed sibling, 2 good reasons to avoid that scanner. The biggest objection, it still requires time to line up each negative photo in the scan area, if that was somehow automatic (thus drastically reducing time), that would make all the difference in the world.
But scanning negatives does sound appealing. If only you could do mass scans (multiples at a time), not to mention the quality of the film vs. paper would likely be substantially better. My wife also pointed out that she has taken great care in organizing and preserving our large quantity of 35mm negatives that are stored with the photo albums (as usual her forethought was perfect). Being able to scan a strip of 6 negative photos at once sounds like productivity x 6 :) But what about x 12, how much would that be worth? x 24???
Epson Perfection V300 - a great low priced photo scannerThis lead me on a journey to a research "film" photo scanners. I was quite happy to stumble upon the $100 Epson Perfection V300, which does the 6 negative photos at once with exceptional quality to boot. The beauty here is that once the scan is complete, it puts stores the 6 digital photos in their own separate .jpeg files. In the old days, I'd have lay out a flatbed full of photos and make a single file scan. Then I'd have to go crop out each photo and save them into separate files.
I next was lead to the Epson V500 and the Epson V700. The V700 is $550 and really out of my price range. The biggest advantage, it does 24 negative photos at once, that's productivity! The software is supposedly very good, the image quality is superb but at the same time overkill since the human eye would not be able to detect any difference (the benefit of a higher quality scan comes into play when printing 8x10 and larger prints, my intent is merely to share them electronically).
Epson Perfection V700 - a great high priced photo scannerThe $200 V500 is intriguing, it can do 12 negative photos at a single scan (that's decent productivity, I thought 6 was good). It also benefits from what is called ICE, a component that removes 98% dust and scratches from the scan. You can accomplish this after the fact with photo editing software, but at the expense of investing time with each photo to do that (painful). The downside with ICE, it does slow the actual scan time down quite a bit. But from what I've read, it seems to be well worth it compared to the time you'll have to invest later. FYI, apparently ICE does nothing for dust/scratches on Black and White photos.
Epson Perfection V500 - this one is just right!So I'm leaning toward the V500 at this point. Need to discuss it with my wife, but from my days/hours invested in this research, I think this is the best solution. Perhaps the only other consideration would be to buy the V700 with the intention of selling it off once the project is complete. Don't think we want to lay out that money up front like that. By the time we're done with the project, the V700 will likely be old technology and not worth much...
A side thought, 35mm film cameras can be purchased for peanuts these days. People who were photography extremists spent thousands and thousands of their hard earned dollars on lenses and camera equipment which you know they took better care of than they did their children. Unfortunately today they will have a difficult time even giving that stuff away. Who really wants to store a bunch of obsolete useless relics from the past???
But, consider if you had a really decent/efficient way of getting your film converted to digital (the illustrious Epson Perfection V700), might be good justification to buy the V700 and to buy up some of those phenomenal film Canon and Nikon relics at fractions of pennies on the dollar costs... Granted you'd still have to buy film, you'd still have to go have your film developed, and worst yet, you'd have to wait (my least favorite thing in the world to do). The positive side of this argument is that it would undoubtedly make people be better photographers. First, you'd want to pour over the manuals and all the Internet postings to learn how to optimally use and get the most out of your technologically brilliant and economically wonderful new toys. More importantly, knowing each photo will cost you time and money, you'll make your shots count more, you'll be forced to be less lazy (like the old days), you'll have to work harder to focus on getting the perfect composition and/or exposure. It could then become more of an enthusiasts hobby thing again...
Right, like I've got time for that??? I guess I'll stick with my Nikon D40 bottom of the line digital SLR, the Epson V500 and be happy that I can snap gobs of photos and scan marginally large quantities of photos with a single button press, all without exercising too many brain cells.
Surely in the mountains of photos snapped I should be able to get at least one coincidentally good exposure worth sharing. And the other 200-500 out-takes, what of them? If you are unfortunate to be anything like me, throwing anything out is painful, even redundant digital photos of your kids that nobody in this world but you will ever care to look at... I can't shake the "more is better" mentality. Maybe living in Argentina among a people with very little ingrained that in me? But I think instead it is just genetics, defective Ronzonie dementia that causes me to hoard and store...
Wait a minute, a collection of old school film cameras with accompanying varieites of cool lenses, filters, flashes, shutter-release gadgets, etc. might be just the thing I need after all!
