How do I transfer my 35mm pics to digital?

Question

I have literally thousands of 35mm photographs, shot over the last few decades. Nowadays of course, it would be much more practical to have those pictures available in a digital format, otherwise these images just sit in boxes.
I have a flat bed scanner, but I know there are much faster options available now.
Anyone have any experience using these?
Anyone have any recommendations?
I would appreciate suggestions and ideas before I purchase.
Thanks.

Answer 1

Katydid -



Are your billions of 35mm pics prints or slides? Or, do you want to convert negatives?



Your flatbed scanner will not work. Film and slide scans require specific types of scanners. Read up on the Epson Perfection V family - there are several of varying degrees of sophistication (& price!) in the line.



There are services that will do the slide/film conversions for a fee. Which probably makes more sense than you buying the specialized scanner and doing all those conversions yourself. But, be sure to read reviews of the place to which you might be sending your "memories" before parting with them...



I'm not vouching for these services, but they are examples of what you can track down:

http://www.slidescanning.com/

http://www.scanmyphotos.com/



Good luck!

Answer 2

Hi Katydid



Here are some factors on getting a good photo scanner (the Epson V700) that I use.



If you calculate the price of having a commercial service scan your images I doubt that you can get it for less than $ 0.20/image so you would break even on the purchase of something like the V700 after about 3,000 images (Not counting your time, of course). The V700 comes with an array of holders to handle negative strips, slides, sheet films, etc. It can handle up to 8 1/2 x11 originals, 35mm negatives in strips of 6 or fewer frames (up to 4 strips per scan) and mounted 2"x2" slides in batches of twelve. Mine came with several software utilities (including Digital ICE) which, notably, does not handle Kodachrome but other included software has done fine with my Kodachrome slides.



Here is a link to a number of options for buying this scanner ~



http://www.google.com/products/catalog?hl=en&q=epson+v700+scanner&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=718583525843547744&ei=CDRKTOuxMoGB8gbN1sQ0&sa=X&oi=product_catalog_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CFQQ8wIwAw#



My view is that I would much rather have the ability to directly control the conversion process myself. I feel that, because I can evaluate problems as they occur and make a decision about how much effort I want to put into recovering a particular shot, I will not waste time or $$$ for marginal results.



I set up a clean area for scanning and have a supply of cotton gloves to wear and canned air to blow dust off of the originals before scanning. I also have a few old film cleaning brushes and film cleaning chemicals from my darkroom days that I keep on hand for specific problems. (I recovered hundreds of my personal collection of slides and negatives plus some photo prints damaged by flooding from Hurricane Agnes in June of 1972, so I developed some skills in the area of film recovery).



Here is link to a few of my scanned 35mm images ~



http://www.flickr.com/photos/robs-photo-memory/sets/72157617690586928/



Hope that helps. Email me if you want more details.

Answer 3

http://www.diyphotography.net/scan-your-old-film-for-the-cost-of-a-happy-meal



This site has a good article that addresses your question. It also gives examples of different levels of sophistication in transferring those images, from quite affordable to break the bank.

Answer 4

I have not seen this in any store but it looks interesting http://www.kodak.com/global/en/business/retailPhoto/products/kiosks/rapidPrintScanner.jhtml?pq-path=12085/12329/13181