Best way to get digital photos from 20+ disposable cameras?

March 17, 2008 11:06 AM

Whats the cheapest and easiest way to get high-quality digital photos from 20 disposable cameras?

At our recent wedding reception we set out disposable cameras on each table, so that the guests could snap some pictures. Now I have 20 cameras, each with 27 photos on them that I need to get developed. Since most of the pictures will likely be crap, I'd like to just get high-res digital copies (on a CD, most likely). That way, I can go through and only print the ones that are decent.

I know that Target photo lab will give me a photo CD, but I've heard that they're fairly low resolution pics (is this still true?) Scanning regular prints would work, but would be a pain in the butt for this many pictures.

I've also seen previous threads like this, but they're from 2005 and I know that the digital photo business has gotten much bigger since then.

So, what stores or services will do this for me inexpensively?

posted by chrisamiller to shopping (5 comments total)

Costco is pretty cheap. I just had half a dozen old rolls of film developed with photo CDs for about $7 (CDN) a roll, all in. You have to be a member though.
posted by GuyZero at 11:18 AM on March 17, 2008

Walgreens is $6.99/100 photos and the scans are pretty good.
posted by judith at 12:56 PM on March 17, 2008

Seconding Costco.. best service short of a pro-lab. They'll put your negatives in sleeves (something many places no longer do) and scan your photos at a fairly high resolution (2000+ pixels on the long-side).
posted by hobbes at 5:05 PM on March 17, 2008

I've always used Clark Color Labs for this. You can print out a mailer. Looks like they'll charge you $4.49 per roll for 3.5x5 single prints plus online photos, ot $6.49 for single prints plus a CD. Their "high-res" photos are 1612x1024 standard, but they may be able to to other resolutions or omit the prints. I'd email them.
posted by Caviar at 7:39 PM on March 17, 2008

Turns out Target will provide picture CDs at a halfway decent resoution (1200xsomething). It's relatively cheap too - only 2 or 3 bucks a roll, and you get the negatives back in case you want high-res prints later.

Thanks for the input everyone.
posted by chrisamiller at 3:33 PM on May 11, 2008