If you are ready to clean out and organize those many shoe boxes of photos, slides and home movies, “there is an app for that.” Several companies stand ready to help you in the conversion of prints, negatives, slides, videos and reel-to-reel film to digital format . The only question is – do you have more time, or more money? Let’s start with the least labor-intensive (and most expensive!) of the three.
ScanDigital is a highly regarded digital scanning/organizing solution. Customers simply request a UPS label from the website and send a box of images to be scanned. The Best Package Offer will scan 500 photos, negatives or slides for $319.95 (or an average of $.68 per item scanned.) This service does allow you to choose a higher resolution, up to 600 dpi. Individual care per photo includes cropping, upright rotation, and color correction.
A less costly version is SaveMyPix.com, Inc. The price for 500 bulk scanned photos at 300 dpi is $99.95. Upright rotation is the only image manipulation included in this price. For a limited time, customers can fill a prepaid box of up to 1600 photos for $99.00.
Of course, there is always the do-it-yourself option (most labor-intensive and least expensive.) If you have a flatbed scanner, you can a scan all of your photos and remaster with photo editing software. Three well known choices are: Adobe Photoshop, Corel Paintshop Pro, and Serif Photoplus, ranging from $60-$100. Find the top ten products rated at http://photo-editing-software-review.toptenreviews.com/. Photoshop.esOftware is a nice option at a yearly subscription rate of $19.95 per year. Hopefully, you will persevere and be finished before the year is out. This becomes quite a frugal solution.
My husband opted to scan all of our old slides from the 1970′s with a product he found on line – the Digital Film Scanner FS-C1-VP made by VuPoint Solutions. Bless his heart, he is more than halfway done. He loves fiddling with computers anyway, so is more liable to stick with it than most.
Of course, the beauty of this process is that once in the digital format, the images can be categorized as desired. The compact CD or DVD is easily stored in a fireproof or safe deposit box to preserve memories for years to come. Or in the case of parents with grown children, the CD/DVD is ready to pass on to the ones who were once joyful participants and will keep the memories alive!
