Scanner for family photographs
May 3, 2010 12:25 PM Subscribe
Help me pick the right scanner for scanning family photos.
I have almost 2,000 photographs my mother's family has been storing that I want to scan. I did this for my father's family back in 2002, but I no longer have the scanner I used then (and I wasn't thrilled by its ridiculously unfriendly proprietary software anyway). The scans will be for various purposes -- I want high res for archiving and printing out, and lower res for easy viewing on a website. (I'll probably just upload them all to a Flickr account, frankly, since I am sometimes lazy.)
The photographs are mostly standard sizes, all 8x10 or smaller. I'm not looking to scan any negatives (which I don't have) or any slides or film.
I am using a MacBook running OSX 10.6.3 with 3 gigs of RAM. If the scanner also worked on ~3 yr old middle-of-the-road PCs running Windows Vista and Windows XP (the other two computers in my household), that would be great, but it's not required.
I'd prefer to spend less than 200USD, but if there's a great scanner that costs a little more, my budget can stretch.
I have almost 2,000 photographs my mother's family has been storing that I want to scan. I did this for my father's family back in 2002, but I no longer have the scanner I used then (and I wasn't thrilled by its ridiculously unfriendly proprietary software anyway). The scans will be for various purposes -- I want high res for archiving and printing out, and lower res for easy viewing on a website. (I'll probably just upload them all to a Flickr account, frankly, since I am sometimes lazy.)
The photographs are mostly standard sizes, all 8x10 or smaller. I'm not looking to scan any negatives (which I don't have) or any slides or film.
I am using a MacBook running OSX 10.6.3 with 3 gigs of RAM. If the scanner also worked on ~3 yr old middle-of-the-road PCs running Windows Vista and Windows XP (the other two computers in my household), that would be great, but it's not required.
I'd prefer to spend less than 200USD, but if there's a great scanner that costs a little more, my budget can stretch.
I've got an old Epson Perfection 1650 and it still works perfectly, except for a little bit of fogging on the inside of the glass (just too lazy to take the thing apart and clean the inside of the glass). I bought it on clearance from Fry's for $50 back around 2003-4. Mine also came w/ the backlight & film adapter w/ a tray for negs & slides. You might not think you need it, but it's worth having for those odd stray slides & negs for which there are no prints.
And now, looking at Newegg, it appears that this new Epson even handles medium-format (120) film. [drooool] $130!
posted by Lukenlogs at 7:17 PM on May 3, 2010
And now, looking at Newegg, it appears that this new Epson even handles medium-format (120) film. [drooool] $130!
posted by Lukenlogs at 7:17 PM on May 3, 2010
Response by poster: Thanks for the suggestions, folks. I will definitely be getting VueScan, and I'm going to give CanoScan Lide a shot. It seems perfect for what I'm looking for.
posted by shamash at 5:37 AM on May 4, 2010
posted by shamash at 5:37 AM on May 4, 2010
Must give full props to scruss here, who switched me on to VueScan. It really is an astounding bit of software.
posted by davemee at 5:38 AM on May 5, 2010
posted by davemee at 5:38 AM on May 5, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
You will find it comes with software straight out of windows 95. Skip it and invest in a copy of VueScan, which someone here recommended to me. It is a great, OSX/Windows scanning system, which will handle 24 bit colour and very high resolutions, despite it being a little clunky round the edged.
Lide 700f is listed at around £120, VueScan $40-$80, depending on versions. I think you may be able to wangle that for around $200 in total, if you hunt around. Froogle has some stockist sellng it for $110, and I vaguely remember ours coming it at less than £100.
posted by davemee at 12:46 PM on May 3, 2010