Photo scanning

lappir · December 18, 2022

It's time to decrease the number of photos I carry around all the time.

A number of years ago I had a "Flatbed Scanner" and I digitized a lot of photos. It was quite time consuming, but I still have the photos to enjoy from time to time in my PC in Picasa.

It was the early 2000's when I was introduced to Picasa at a Computer Class. It's been my go to storage place since even though Google no longer supports it and it won't play nice with Google photos any more. I'm sure there are other programs and I think my computer has copied all my Picasa photos over to it's "Photo" thing, but they are not easily accessed in my mind compared to Picasa.

I'm sure I have used in the past my Neat scanner to save a picture or two, but for some reason I cannot get anything other than a very fuzzy pdf file despite setting it at a good quality setting in the options.

I always think about this on a weekend and usually on a Sunday. The last time I thought about it I sent a message to a local photography shop that advertised digitalization of photos, but they didn't bother to reply. I know of a place in Iowa where I can take them to, but I forgot all last summer when I was there. I'm setting a reminder in my calendar for the time I plan to be there. I would like to do some this winter though so hence the post.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Rod

trailertraveler · December 18, 2022

I have an HP 2700 series printer/scanner that seems to do a decent job at scanning. It will produce pdf or jpg files. It is wireless so can be placed anywhere in the trailer not just within cable distance of the computer. I am still using a 2000's version of a software called Image Expert (came as part of Dell Picture Studio) to crop, size, and make color/brightness adjustments. It works on Windows 11. I did have to buy a DVD/CD reader to load older programs from disc onto the new Windows 11 computer. Years ago I bought an attachment for my Nikon camera that would take photos of slides. I converted hundreds of 35mm slides taken from the 50's through the 80's to digital.

Edited December 18, 2022 by trailertraveler

franco-bolli · December 20, 2022

You probably already know this, but some folks haven't...

Please DON'T use a USB thumb drive for your pictures, unless it's only to copy pictures to another computer.

The memory chips in those thumb drives are getting better, but they are still susceptible to surges and improper disconnects, that will make them unusable / unreadable / unrecoverable. You don't want that to happen with irreplaceable photos..

Buy a decent quality hard drive back up system ( either SSD or real HDD) for long term storage.

You may also already know that .jpg is a photo compression file type. The algorithm looks for commonalities of adjacent pixels and gets rid of some. When you open a jpg file and edit it and then save it again, it has just gotten rid of more of the pixels that make up your picture, reducing the overall quality. You may not notice it if you only view images on the screen, but you will when / if you print them.

TIFF, is a better format to save images in if you know you may wish to print them later.

RV_ · December 20, 2022

Printers are cheap these days and even if you don't need one you can buy one with the newest faster scanners and image quality then sell it when you are done. But you still have to sit there in front of it and feed one pic at a time on the flatbed scanner. I have found no auto sheet feeder that will feed multiple picture of different sizes reliably. It needs to be next to your computer so you can see the scan. I use a brother laser older model. It is like when I ripped all my 3k plus CDs from DJing to mp3 files ~380GB. Before anyone talks about FLAC or other higher quality or lossless music file types remember I kept all the original CDs which are stored in albums and numbered and databased for all 30k or so songs. They are also on two backup drives and both my main computers. But that took a month.

Advice. These days I use my Pixel 6 Pro (Soon to be a Pro 7) which takes much better pics than my Olympus 14MP SZ14 camera with 24X optical zoom. With Windows 10 and 11 I use the Windows phone link program to copy my pics from my Android Pixel 6 Pro phone to my computer's SSD. It is fast and I can edit and delete bad photos once. No more photo scanning. I also have a lot of photos to scan but the important ones I scanned a few years back.

Since you want to scan them a wireless scanner in another room would wear me out. I have to stand up aput the photo in about 4 feet away then sit down and set it up for where to save and the name, then scan, crop if needed, and then go take the photo out and put the next one in. When I do my next batch I am temporarily putting the printer scanner on my desk.

Realistically speaking I doubt my kids will look at our photos hard copy or digital. Same with the videos I digitized. But when I am older and have nothing else to do I can watch us all over the world.

Good luck.

RV_ · December 20, 2022

I agree to not use USB Flash drives for long term storage even though they have solved the disconnect ungracefully problem.

But SSDs are subject to the same vulnerabilities as USB drives and HDDs are wiped with magnets or EMP events. the same with Cloud storage. Fires or EMPs can wipe them as well.

The only generally accepted archival quality system is recording them to M-Discs.

What are they, here's a good article: https://www.freevideoworkshop.com/what-is-an-m-disc/

Edited December 20, 2022 by RV_

franco-bolli · December 20, 2022

Personally, I'd really like to find a reasonably priced negative and slide scanner. Most of the printed pictures for over 20 years ago, are fading and the colors are more yellow.

lappir · December 20, 2022

Thanks everyone for the advice, suggestions and such. I had not thought of many of the things.

I realized I had an old printer/scanner and didn't in fact use the Neat scanner the last time I scanned in a batch. Got tired of having dry ink cartridge's when I infrequently wanted to print so I went with a plain black on white laser without a scanner. Should have kept the old one for the scanner.

After the holidays I'll go out and see what's available as a left over.

Rod

justRich · December 20, 2022

$200. This one: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LZJH63M?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

It scans up to an 8 x 10
It scans legal size documents.
It saves to JPG or PDF
It's quick and it doesn't bind.

The only down side is that it doesn't come with a dust cover and it takes up space when not in use.
We accumulated huge binder photo albums and I'm quickly reducing their size and weight.
So, the purchase was probably a good buy.
You might check the Amazon Warehouse or Outlet for a better price deal.

lappir · December 20, 2022

8 hours ago, justRich said:

$200. This one: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LZJH63M?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

It scans up to an 8 x 10
It scans legal size documents.
It saves to JPG or PDF
It's quick and it doesn't bind.

The only down side is that it doesn't come with a dust cover and it takes up space when not in use.
We accumulated huge binder photo albums and I'm quickly reducing their size and weight.
So, the purchase was probably a good buy.
You might check the Amazon Warehouse or Outlet for a better price deal.

Thanks for the suggestion. I buy nothing from Amazon and will spend lots of time and money looking for something local where I happen to be at the time.

Rod

RV_ · December 21, 2022

Rod, sorry you sold your laser and now need a scanner. I got my Brother DCP-7065DN years ago brand new from Newegg for $79.99 shipped! They are more used now! Here is a listing just for a pic. DCP-7065DN It is an all in one printer that is too big for an RV but if you live in a Stix n Brix most of the time it's a great printer. It's laser and it lets me use aftermarket toner cartridges without a problem. Quality is still excellent and I bought six 2 pack boxes of Rosewill (No longer available) TN 450 high yield toner cartridges on sale for $14.99 2 packs. I still have three. I have seen lots of problems with wireless printers so bought this one new because it is a network laser with sheet feeding and flatbed. I had a 2019 Netgear Powerline 1000 set extra that sends Ethernet cable signals over the House electrical wiring. ( I also have a set of TP-Link powerline adapters)

In our last house we had my Internet, Modem, and Router coming in my office. Here it comes in downstairs. So I plugged one in there and connected it to the router, and the other up here in my office and run an Ethernet cable from it to my printer. Then I installed the full software package on all our computers and our Surface tablets. On setup I just chose network rather than USB connection - the only two choices, and then it finds that printer and I select it and it does the rest. Any computer that can connect to my router can print automatically from anywhere in the house. Every once in a while a Windows or other update makes it stops printing from one or another computer and I just download the full software package from the brother support download center for it and in less than five minutes I am up and printing. It supports Windows 11 too.

I just like having a network printer/scanner connected to the router and then using my home WiFi to print by.

Never have had a hiccup, and have a new drum for it waiting for the need. I am just surprised at how reliable this one has been. I went through a lot of inkjet before I realized I did not need color printing, when I could scan and send it in color.

If you have room for it and find one it been a compact beast of a network All in One.

docj · December 21, 2022

On 12/19/2022 at 8:18 PM, RV_ said:

Realistically speaking I doubt my kids will look at our photos hard copy or digital. Same with the videos I digitized. But when I am older and have nothing else to do I can watch us all over the world.

I have literally thousands of photos stored in one of the Cloud storage drives. Many of them were carefully sorted by child so that our children and grandchildren can find those of most interest o them. Until recently, I didn't think anyone had even bothered to look a them. However, in the past couple of months some of our grandchildren have commented on our long hair and clothes from the '70s. Maybe storing them online was worth it, after all! LOL

RV_ · December 21, 2022

I sorted ours that way as well. And by family of our siblings and their kids. I have a brother named Pete and have a file "Pete's Pics" etc.

I do nothing in the cloud but having them accessible to family malkes a lot of sense from a use perspective.

Thanks Joel, now that is a great reason to get some cheap online access for the rest of the family to our family pics.

justRich · March 17, 2023

I've been using the Plustek Photo Scanner - ephoto Z300 for a few months now and have done hundreds of photos.

The scanner will also copy documents to a single page PDF or a multipage PDF which has been very helpful and easy to do. Its faster than the flat bed scanner by far.
I think I like the ease and speed most.

Jaydrvr · March 17, 2023

My new go to for negative scanning is dslr scanning. For highest quality and definition down to the grain, fastest workflow speed, the ability to shoot in RAW to preserve every minute detail and the maximum bang for minimal buck, nothing beats it. Jay

https://www.negative.supply/

http://natephotographic.com/dslr-film-scanning-perfect-color-negatives/

lappir · March 18, 2023

Thanks for the recent replies. It turned out that my initial mobile "Neat" scanner was the scanner I used to scan into Picasa and it still works. I had upgraded to an autofeed Neat and it's a pain.

I'm still using Picasa for storage editing and such on my PC.

Rod