What setup would you use to digitize old photos?
Aug 25, 2016 12:45:30 #
Like most people, we've got boxes and boxes of old photos.
What moderately priced setup would folks recommend to digitize these with my Canon T6i?
What moderately priced setup would folks recommend to digitize these with my Canon T6i?
Aug 25, 2016 12:56:34 #
mikenolan wrote:
Like most people, we've got boxes and boxes of old photos.
What moderately priced setup would folks recommend to digitize these with my Canon T6i?
What moderately priced setup would folks recommend to digitize these with my Canon T6i?
I would use a scanner.
Aug 25, 2016 12:59:02 #
Mike,
I'd use my Epson Perfection 3200 scanner. As for using a camera to do so, it'd be difficult. If all of my images were 35mm, I'd use my digital camera with a macro/slide copier. However, a good deal of my negatives are medium and large format. The Epson does quite a good job on negatives, slides, and prints.
--Bob
I'd use my Epson Perfection 3200 scanner. As for using a camera to do so, it'd be difficult. If all of my images were 35mm, I'd use my digital camera with a macro/slide copier. However, a good deal of my negatives are medium and large format. The Epson does quite a good job on negatives, slides, and prints.
--Bob
mikenolan wrote:
Like most people, we've got boxes and boxes of old photos.
What moderately priced setup would folks recommend to digitize these with my Canon T6i?
What moderately priced setup would folks recommend to digitize these with my Canon T6i?
Aug 25, 2016 13:04:03 #
Aug 25, 2016 13:09:52 #
Grandpa Pete
Loc: Western Finger Lakes (NY)
mikenolan wrote:
Like most people, we've got boxes and boxes of old photos.
What moderately priced setup would folks recommend to digitize these with my Canon T6i?
What moderately priced setup would folks recommend to digitize these with my Canon T6i?
I use an Epson V500 (Newer model is V550) bought as a refurb from Epson several years ago. Will do a good job with prints and an outstanding job with transparencies. I can easily make flawless 8 by 10 prints from fifty year old slides . You don't need to get anything more expensive.
Aug 25, 2016 13:13:44 #
OZMON wrote:
yes use a scanner, you can then upgrade the resolution.
The resolution of the print will likely be the limiting factor. You cannot change that regardless of what resolution you choose to scan at.
Aug 25, 2016 13:18:41 #
Gene E. Balch
Loc: Washington DC Area
A few years back I was tasked to digitize photos of our old graduating class for an upcoming class reunion. When I advised that all I had to work with was the old school annual, they made the task more difficult, asking that I also take photos of the class members on the activities pages, doing stupid things. They wanted all the class pictures on CDs so they could show them on the big screen during the reunion. So, out with the old school annual; placed on an easel; pages flattened with bag clips. I set my Nikon D7100 up on a steady tripod with the Nikkor-P Auto 10.5CM 105MM lens (focus to about 2 ft); a good lamp at the right angle, and used the ML-L3 remote shutter release to take the photos. To my surprise, even as an amateur, the pictures came out pretty good, and once on the computer it was easy to edit, crop, and record them to CD. As it turned out, everybody wanted a CD, so my task was again elevated.
There's probably a better way, especially if you have valuable prints ...... Let a professional do the job.
Good luck.
There's probably a better way, especially if you have valuable prints ...... Let a professional do the job.
Good luck.
Aug 25, 2016 14:14:09 #
what has the resolution of the print got to do with it, you will be working with the result of the scan,and you can greatly increase the resolution in the scanner.
Aug 25, 2016 14:49:50 #
OZMON wrote:
what has the resolution of the print got to do with it, you will be working with the result of the scan,and you can greatly increase the resolution in the scanner.
Because the resolution of the print is almost certainly lower than the resolution of your scanner. If the print has a resolution of say 300 dpi, then you can scan it at 300, 600 or 4800 dpi, but you can't create information by scanning at a higher resolution. The print will be the limiting factor. Make sense?
Aug 25, 2016 15:08:40 #
I use an old HP 4C bought from garage sale for $3. It requires Windows XP or older and a SCSI port on the PC but I have all those. I have an old HP XW6000 with dual Xeon processors circa 2004 just for this. It's a 600dpi max but as in the previous post pointed out you don't need anything above 300dpi for scanning prints.
Aug 25, 2016 15:20:09 #
You certainly can do it with a good camera, if you make or get a copy stand and some lighting. You can even get a reasonable workflow going. I did a fair bit of that to start. It is workable. After a while I bought a Canon Canoscan 9000F, which I found to be quicker and more than adequate for family photos, negatives and slides, and not expensive. Others prefer Epson, but I have always had good luck with Canon printers and now with the scanner. If I were duplicating works of art, or for a commercial purpose I would get a more sophisticated and expensive scanner.
Aug 25, 2016 17:57:09 #
mikenolan wrote:
Like most people, we've got boxes and boxes of old photos.
What moderately priced setup would folks recommend to digitize these with my Canon T6i?
What moderately priced setup would folks recommend to digitize these with my Canon T6i?
If you are digitizing prints, use a scanner.
If you are digitizing slides or negatives, you can use your camera and a flash. Recommend using radio triggers for convenience.
Negatives are tricky, and require post processing, but it can be done. See this article:
http://petapixel.com/2012/05/18/how-to-scan-film-negatives-with-a-dslr/
Aug 26, 2016 07:15:31 #
mikenolan wrote:
Like most people, we've got boxes and boxes of old photos.
What moderately priced setup would folks recommend to digitize these with my Canon T6i?
What moderately priced setup would folks recommend to digitize these with my Canon T6i?
There was a lengthy discussion about this a couple of days ago. I like ScanCafe. They clean and color-adjust the slides, and you can download them before the DVD arrives. On the downside, they're not cheap.
As someone showed yesterday, using a DSLR to photograph the slides or pictures gives better results than scanning. Maybe someone will post that link again. Lots online.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68f43NSZCh4
Aug 26, 2016 08:41:09 #
Belgrey
Loc: Nashua, NH
All great ideas. But here is something to consider. Saving 35mm of photo's to preserve your past is an important thing to do especially for the kids. If yo have the time to digitize all your pictures, great. But what if time is a factor? I had over 10,000 picture I wanted to convert. Some were good pictures, some great, and some not so great. Others were blurry and out of focus. The best thing you can do is go through all your pictures and separate the keepers from non keepers. Then decide which pictures are important to the family and which ones you can trash. Once you have that nailed down, the rest gets easier. Sure you can spend $100 to $300 on a scanner and do all your digitizing at home. However consider this. If you have a Costco near by, let them digitize your photo's for you. They will even put on a disc and return all your masters. This will surely save you a lot of headaches and frustrations. Oh did I mention, its not that expensive.
Good Luck
Belgrey
Good Luck
Belgrey
Aug 26, 2016 09:05:28 #
mikenolan wrote:
Like most people, we've got boxes and boxes of old photos.
What moderately priced setup would folks recommend to digitize these with my Canon T6i?
What moderately priced setup would folks recommend to digitize these with my Canon T6i?
Here's the link someone posted a day or two ago.
http://jasonepowell.com/essays/dslr-scan-testing-or-how-i-learned-to-stop-flatbed-scanning-120-and-love-my-wifes-dslr/
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