ScrapgirlCindy Posted March 30, 2016 Share Posted March 30, 2016 I am ready to earnestly tackle the thousands of old photos I have. Where or how do I get them scanned inexpensively? I live in a small rural area so I don't think there is anything local. Help. How does one go about this. I would like to have them scanned and put on a disk and then, gulp, get rid of the originals. Would love recommendations. tyvm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheri T Posted March 31, 2016 Share Posted March 31, 2016 How far away are you from a decent-sized town? My hesitation on mailing out one-of-a-kind photos or even allowing them to go by courier to a scanning service is - if they are lost, they are lost. My recommendation is to call around to the towns around you and see if any copy shops or photofinishers (photo printers) have this service available in house. I had TONS done locally years ago, and have since found TONS more at relative's homes so need to get this done again. I own a scanner, but it's just such a humongous job to do them all myself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MariJ Posted March 31, 2016 Share Posted March 31, 2016 I know someone that mailed all of theirs away, but not sure I'd be that brave, either. I know places like Walgreens, Costco, Sams and BJs will do it but I don't know anyone who has done it. I've been very pleased with any photo work I've done at Costco, but I'm not sure you'd have a store nearby and you'd have to be a member or know someone who is. You might want to check Staples if you have one around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barb Eugene Posted March 31, 2016 Share Posted March 31, 2016 I, too, had thousands of photos that I wanted to digitize. I first organized the photos, then set up my laptop and scanner in the living room during football season and scanned away. It surprised me how many photos I could scan during one game! By doing the project myself, I was able to dust off the prints that were dusty and was able to scan the photos to folders that were organized in a way that made the most sense to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ande43 Posted March 31, 2016 Share Posted March 31, 2016 I have scanned Thousands of photos too.... I have a Flip Pal mobile scanner....very easy to use and scans to a Memory card, uses batteries and I bought 3 sets of rechargeable batteries. http://flip-pal.com/......It does a really good job and is only $149 I think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A-M Posted March 31, 2016 Share Posted March 31, 2016 I scan my own but have never sat down and had to do thousands. I do have lots of my mothers I still need to scan. You may not need to scan them all.... just choose the ones you really need to keep for memories. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CRS Posted April 1, 2016 Share Posted April 1, 2016 I, too, had thousands of photos that I wanted to digitize. I first organized the photos, then set up my laptop and scanner in the living room during football season and scanned away. It surprised me how many photos I could scan during one game! By doing the project myself, I was able to dust off the prints that were dusty and was able to scan the photos to folders that were organized in a way that made the most sense to me. I should do this while watching baseball this season! Thanks for the suggestion. I maybe scanning kids' school work so I don't have to move the originals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smiles Posted April 1, 2016 Share Posted April 1, 2016 I would really think hard about destroying the originals, especially the precious ones. digital formats have been known to go obsolete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chattycat89 Posted May 17, 2016 Share Posted May 17, 2016 I'm late to the party, but I second the Flip-Pal suggestion. I've got >45 or so photo albums that are in chronological order since my 1st was born and with my 2nd's upcoming graduation, I was hesitant about taking originals out of order to have displayed at the party because I would NEVER get them put back back in order. With the Flip-Pal, I was able to take the photo albums to any part of the house (while watching boring TV, etc.) or anywhere else and scan my favorite photos while keeping them in their proper place/album. It's super fast scanning & makes a pretty good scan. It doesn't need a computer...you scan to an SD Card which is nice because you can literally scan anywhere & don't have to be tethered by any kind of cord. My only complaint is that it doesn't crop the pictures so if you scan a wallet size picture, you get all the white space with it...not a big deal if you're only trying to digitize & preserve them but would be time consuming to edit all of them if you have a lot & don't want to see all that white space. Also, I'm with those who are of the "don't toss the originals" mindset. Tech will always change & by digitizing you will always be able to back-up your originals to whatever is latest, but if one fails & you can't access one of your other back-up method any longer (remember, everything will eventually go the way of the floppy disc) then you're sadly out of luck. Plus, there's just something about passing an old family photo around the table & chatting that you just don't get by viewing it on a screen... Once we get through graduation season, I plan to go through all my albums & do the same as you. Throwback Thursdays will never be the same once I've digitized every photo I've got! Haha! Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenrou Posted June 21, 2016 Share Posted June 21, 2016 I would really think hard about destroying the originals, especially the precious ones. digital formats have been known to go obsolete Me too. I could never destroy the originals. Put them in a safety deposit box if nothing else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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