New Scanner suggestions

nam69 · April 7, 2012

I hope I am on the right group to post this, My son told me to look at The Fujitsu S1500 for scanning all my photos. Right now I just have a flat bed scanner and it takes for ever. I want to do all my photos and put them to a hard drive, All comments are welcome. I just dont want to buy a piece of scrap and have regrets later, Thanks, Pete

ziggy53 · April 7, 2012

I moved this to the Digital Darkroom, where you'll find other photographic scanner discussion.

What form are your images; prints, negatives, slides, ...?

What quantity of images to scan?

What is your approximate budget?

What is the condition of the originals? (Do you want automated dust and scratch removal?)

How automated to you want the process?

What level of quality are you expecting?

DavidTO · April 7, 2012

I would just send them out. I used digmypics.com and was very happy. They put the photos up and you choose which ones you want, and pay for only those.

I had done a couple hundred photos in a long weekend, then tried another (cheaper) service that I wasn't happy with before I tried digmypics. You just box them up and send them off.

If you want to see the print (and slides) scans, send me a PM.

MarkR · April 8, 2012

I assume you are scanning prints-- I didn't see where the Fujitsu scans negatives or slides.

Unfortunately, scanning-- or at least getting a good, high quality scan is going to take some time. Here are a few things to consider:

1. LED lamp-- scanners with an LED lamp will warm up much faster than those without.
2. Scan detail-- just because you can scan at 600/1200/ or more dpi doesn't mean that it's a good idea. Consider that your print was probably not made at those levels of resolution. In fact, by scanning at very high resolutions you not only increase scanning time, but you potentially reveal or enhance flaws in the print, without pulling out more detail.
3. Batch scanning-- software like Silverfast, Vuescan, and the Canon software that came with my 8800f allow you to scan multiple prints on a flatbed at once and save them to separate files.

pathfinder · April 8, 2012

I think David gave you good advice.

You have not mentioned your level of skill with digital image editing, but a reasonably understanding of Photoshop, digital editing basics, and your scanner software is required to get really good scans.

I don't know what your expectations are, either. Are these family snapshots, or professional quality images to be scanned. To get good scans require much more than just pushing a button and sitting back. That is why I agree with David, that for most folks, hiring a service will be more practical.

I digitized most of my father's color slides ( 1000s) and prints from the 1940's and 1950's, correcting the color balance, and restoring the images, but this is a labor of love that can take 10-15 minutes minimum for each image. Literally hours and hours ( day and days really ) of work. I used a Nikon CoolScan IV slide scanner and an Epson V700 flat scanner - both competent tools, but it is the software that really one must learn. I used VueScan, but SilverFast gets very good remarks as well. Lightroom 4 has really helped improve the quality of scans I did a decade ago too. Do you use Lightroom 4?

New Scanner suggestions

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