Anyone out there digitizing their old photos?

[GregW]

I needed to scan a bunch of old prints from the past 15 years and on a whim started playing with the negative adapter that came with my scanner.

Wow!

I can now see that scanning my old negs is the way to go, but it's taking forever having to load two strips into the holder, running the scanner, saving the files, etc. The results are however, very good.

Some questions:

Anyone have a dedicated film scanner? If so, what, how much, satisfied?

Format to save pics? I am using TIFF to remove any JPG artifacts.

Resolution? I was thinking 2400 dpi - but then most of my negs are 100 ASA and at that resolution grain size is becoming apparent. The files are also huge. I was thinking 1200 dpi which gives me a final pic of ~ 1600x1050 ... OK for a 5x7 but not much larger.

Post/pre-processing? I am just letting my scanner do a 1.8 gamma adjustment - I will clean up from there when I print them.

Management? I was thinking of using Jasc Photo Album and tagging each scan with keywords for later retrieval. I could also do this in Windows, but couldn't find any way to retrieve the information.

[Wickerman]

1. I use pre-click for organization

http://www.preclick.com/

Lots of features and free unless you upgrade to Gold (services I don't need).

Here is some of the stuff I have found useful:

# Fast Search using keywords - any words used in folders or placed into the PhotoBack™
# SmartPhotos™ - All the information that you enter on the PhotoBack™ (caption, subjects, event, place, and date) is embedded in the photo
# Download photos from a camera, memory card or CD (Learn more)
# Batch labeling your photos by event and place on import
# Batch labeling of photos already on your computer
# Fast, intuitive interface that allows you to scroll through hundreds of photos in seconds

[TreasonousBastard]

2. I've got a Pacific Image 1800U...

that is fantastic:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?A=search&Q=&b=999&a=0&shs=&ci=1151&ac=&Submit.x=11&Submit.y=9

It scans beautifully, and has presets for film types. The good news about Pacific Image, Nikon, Agfa and a few others is that they spent the money on developing drivers that are optimized for professional output. Mechanically and optically, a scanner is simple but the software that understands gamma, adjacency, and other film stuff that Kodak and others have researched for years isn't so simple. Side-by-side, you can easily tell the difference between scans on these machines and the cheap do-it-all scanners.

The problem with film scanners is that you still have to do one at a time unless you get a motorized one for bigger bucks. They are set up to do it more easily, though, without having to deal with that lid and cutting the film the way my HP scanner with the film adapter does.

As far as resolution goes, that gets complicated. Hi-res scans do take longer and the files are huge, but the results are startlingly good. Much of the info will be lost on 5x7's though, so it's best to experiment with the results on each printer you might use.

The easy answer is to not scan everything, or at least not scan them right away.

Properly stored, modern color film and negs will last at least 50 years, maybe a hundred. I've got chromes from back in the 60s that still look good, and most were stored in hellish conditions.

On edit... rereading the original post, I don't understand why grain should be a problem with EI 100 film. I've done scans of EI 1000 film at hi-res with few problems. Maybe it goes back to the driver and how the interpolation works.

[NV Whino]

3. Just bought a Nikon film strip/transparency scanner with a friend

I have tons of my own slides and all of my father's negs and slides. I test scanned one slide with great results. So far my friend has use of it first.

I'll get to it in a week or so. But I think the Nikon scanner is terrific.