DavidInTX Loc: Dallas, TX

I have 5 1/2 large (like reams of paper comes in) boxes of old(er) photographs, slides and negatives. Getting them scanned has been on my honey-do list for a long time. Hunting season is getting close and this may be some of my lowest hanging fruit. I currently have an Epson Perfection V500 scanner which does a great job on photographs but I've just got too many of them to do one at a time. Looking for something I can load 40-50 into push a button and do something else while they are being scanned to .JPG's. Not so important for the auto feeding of slides and negatives (don't have so many of them).

Anyone have any experience to share? Not interested in breaking the bank with this - looking for something in the $500 range that's reliable and delivers good results?!?!

Thanks!
(Hopefully I put this in the correct section - sorry in advance if not).

DebAnn Loc: Toronto

Not sure there is such a thing. You'd probably be better looking for a commercial service that offers bulk scanning. There are several businesses out there, probably one in your area.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I think you're looking for a magic wand. With thousands of photos, there is no quick, easy, inexpensive way to scan them all. Take a look at scancafe.com. They do good work, but they charge for each scan, depending on what it is.

http://www.scancafe.com/

chaprick

My Canoscan 9000F scanner will scan as many as 6 pictures at a time and separate them into individual files. I have a similar situation as you with lots of old pictures. I plan to spend much of the winter scanning maybe an hour or two at a time. It will eventually get done. My bigger issue is how to catalogue all these old pictures and how much memory it will use.

Picdude Loc: Ohio

If I understand your question, you're looking for something that you can load up like a copier, press start, and it will pull each picture one-at-a-time, scan it, save it, then move on to the next.

Sorry, if only things could be that simple. If there is such a thing, it's not available for average consumer use, and definitely not for $500.00 or less. But it sure would be cool!! :D :D

mrtobin Loc: North East Ohio

Epson makes a document feeder for the V500. You can find it at amazon.com. I am not sure how well this will work with photos. I find that each photo or negative needs to be dusted, resolution chosen, and levels or curve adjusted individually.

Just think how long it would take you if you had to go into your darkroom to make reprints, makes the V500 seem super fast:)

So don't be such a baby, start doing a few "quality" scans each night, you will be done before you know it.

It also helps if you enjoy doing photo restoration I know that I do:)

AzPicLady Loc: Behind the camera!

Kodak used to make a slide scanner that worked on a carousel tray basis where it put in a slide off the carousel, scanned it, then inserted the next slide. There was no tweaking available and what you saw was what you got. The lab I used to use had one. It was pretty much self-working. All they had to do was load the slides in the carousel. I don't know if any of those machines would still be available or not, and modern scanners don't offer that capability, to my knowledge.

daveboy9582

I am an office-machine technician and I work on some pretty awesome scanners. They have auto-feeders on them, just like copiers do. And, they will scan multiple documents and put them all in the same file folder, or separate them...your choice. And, the resolution is awesome. However, all the documents must be the same width and they must be in great condition....no jagged edges, no wrinkles, no creases, etc.. Otherwise, they will do nothing but jam on you.

Zonker Loc: Leesburg, FL

I have a 500. If you separate (leave a space) between the pix (three to four) the scanner will create a separate file for each one. Did close to 1K of pix that way.

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

In the early days of my career, I had occasion to use one of those old sorters that would very quickly sort computer cards .... but the least damage to a card and the machine would jam, turning a dozen or more of them into accordians, so from our point-of-view the main purpose of the machine was to mutilate cards.

From what I've seen of old prints, I would be afraid that almost any automated feed would have the same effect on them. Frankly, I would never risk prints I valued by putting them through a system like that.