OddJobber Loc: Portland, OR

Sorry, but that's a really reasonable time for a quality can. If you can't do the time, then maybe cut down on how many you're scanning.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Depending on the size of the pics, you can put several on at once. The higher the resolution of the scan, the longer it will take. I scan at 300 dpi. I've used ScanCafe to scan slides, at about $0.28 each.

Capture48 Loc: Arizona

Scanning is your best bet. You can photograph, but the lighting has to be perfect, and it will be different for each one.

TomV Loc: Annapolis, Maryland

Try this site and see if it can help. The software is supposed to do multiple photos per scan, that should help out a lot unless you cannot take advantage of that (large photos or small scanner bed).

http://scanspeeder.com/

JonesGirl145 Loc: Greater Raleigh, NC

For a similar question someone posted that the Epson V550 is the best for copying and refurbishing old photos thru its special technology. I bought it last week but have not tried it. Maybe I will this morning.

Anyone else know this scanner.

pbriggs8 Loc: Lexington, KY

Msmith is correct - most scanners can scan multiple photos at the same time, especially if you use VueScan. On my Epson V600, I can scan 4 photos to separate files in 15 seconds at 400 dpi using VueScan. I've written an Instructable to show the details of the process.

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Scan-Four-Photos-at-Once/

authorizeduser Loc: Monroe, Michigan

I have a Fujitsu fi-5750C and have scanned 3x5 photos @ 300 dpi. Scans at 3 per second or 1 per second @ 600 dpi. I load 50 at a time.

OLDJIM Loc: N.London.UK

Hallo Makane
For copying those old slides I use one of my digital cameras, usually a Panasonic FZ7.
Tape a piece of milky white plastic sheet or Opal glass on a window that faces the sky. You can try tracing paper. Opal is best.
Tape a good slide on top of the Opal
Put your camera on close-up or Macro setting.
Place the camera on a sturdy object or tripod.
Bring the camera up a close as you can get and still be sharp.
Get the full area of the slide picture if you can. I use a 5 cm gap.
Just take a picture using the delayed action if you have it to stop shake.
Play around with settings, ie. White balance etc.
When I got mine working roughly I made a little box with a slot for the slide, another slot for the Opal or stick it on the end near the slide. You will have to be inventive to hold the box onto the camera.
On the Panasonic camera it has a parallel section you can use with a Plastic retaining screw to prevent scratching. If you can find a threaded ring with the right thread that's ok IF your camera has such a thread on the front end.
The results have been pretty fair, certainly OK for 4 by 6 prints.
PHOTOSHOP will help a lot to improve the image.
The total cost is nearly nil just to try it out.
If you make a little box fixed to the camera you will not have to worry about camera shake, just hold the whole gizmo up to a nice bright midday day sky.
Have fun,

OLD JIM

twowindsbear

Perhaps a scanner with a 'document feed' of some sort? This way you could put several - many - photos in the feeder and let the scanner do the work while you multi task doing other things? Good luck.

rfmaude41 Loc: Lancaster, Texas (DFW area)

450 pics per 180 mins = 24 secs per pic.

speters Loc: Grangeville/Idaho

ScanCafe has several sales a year and there is always time to get in on one of those (they're usually around $0.19 a slide and sometimes cheaper than that), still, the quality of their scan's is rather nice.

banjonut Loc: Southern Michigan

There is a deal at SAMs Club where you can take in a pile of photos and they will scan them to disc. I don't have the exact figures but I don't believe it is very expensive.

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

Actually, 30 seconds is very very fast for scanning a picture.
Are you assuming that your pictures are perfect, that you will like the scan exactly as it is?
My experience has been that I spend much more time in post-processing, in fixing imperfections in the original picture, than I spend in scanning.

davidheald1942 Loc: Mars (the planet)

I too have done the same thing. I even used my fridg and

taped photographs on it. I don't know why you advised

her to use f8 or f 11. You don't have a problem with DOF

so why not use your sharpest f stop which would be ~ 2 stops down.

ronny

Kuzano

Perhaps it would help if you told us the purpose in scanning them.

If you plan to do something productive with each of the pictures, you might be justified in scanning them all.

If you want to scan all of them to digitize them because you feel you are improving the archiving and storage properties, you would be ill advised to convert them.

Prints, slides and negatives are safer in their original format than converting to digital.

Furthermore, it is not possible to retain or capture the original quality of a print or negative in scanning. Scanning always takes something away. If you store them properly, you will have better quality to work with when you decide to do something with one or a few.

My slides, negatives and prints are stored using proper storage methods. When I began to scan them, I realized I was never going to accomplish the quality of the original media, and I was going to progress into a chain of migrating the images to newer media as that developed.

So why scan.... I don't. Especially after going through three scanners, four different softwares and hours of labor. No more scanning for me. And all that netted me was 250 - 300 scans, the quality of which I would never throw away even one of the originals.

When I look through my slides or prints for an image I want to use, I have a good drum scan made, and progress from there on one image, perhaps two.

In all the moves I have made over the past 40 years, I have always found time to pack the boxes, move them and store them in the new location. I recently moved into an RV full time, and there is a storage basement which is just great, and appropriate.

That's why I ask.... are you convinced they will be easier to track and store in digital format.... they won't. If you do, please don't throw away the originals. You'll be looking for one or more of them one day.

Save your time for shooting. That's why I photograph. For the sake of photography.... certainly not to be a lab technician or graphic artist. :mrgreen: