I recall seeing some discussion about this over on original DataHoarder. I’m looking to begin the process of archiving a daily large number of 8x10 prints of family photos.
Anyone have recommendations on scanners / tools to make this process go smoother?
I don’t really want to send these photos to a company, as they’re just too sentimental to risk loosing.
If you don’t need to scan transparencies (slides and negatives) then an Epson Perfection V39 (or any in that series) is pretty good. If you do need transparencies then the Perfection V850 Pro (or any in that series) is best. The former is a lot cheaper than the latter!
On the software side of things, there are many options. I use XSane on Linux, but there’s lots of other ones. A general rule of thumb for 8x10 prints is to scan at 900dpi 16bit colour (even black and white) to TIFF or PNG. There are plenty of archival institutions who publish their rules for digitization, e.g. the NAA.
Seconded. Xsane on Linux, or NAPS2 on Windows; unsure for Mac.
And yes, splurge for a used (or new) Epson Perfection, even a 600 is fine.
I recommend 1200DPI 8-bit to TIFF but that’s me. 600DPI is probably fine for photos like that and will speed things up a bit.
This! I wanted to digitalize postcards from the end of the 1800s and everyone suggested me either perfection V600 or V850. I postponed buying one because I only had less than 50 cards back then. I will look into V39 for sure too. It looks like a perfectly valid alternative.
FYI, the V600 is CCX (excellent quality but very expensive) while the V39 is CIS (okay quality but much cheaper).
I have the Epson FastFoto FF-680W which does a pretty good job imo. I’m not expert and just have family photos / documents, but it works.
Edit to add it is a little pricey but it can scann at 1200 dpi if you want a super high res scan. This higher dpi does take quite a bit longer than the quick scan that does 300 dpi.
I don’t have a specific model recommendation, but there’s a specific feature I’d look for when buying a flatbed scanner and that is the ability to scan multiple photos with a single pass.
Provided you keep the photos apart/separated on the scanner, the software can automatically crop and save multiple images files from separate photos. It saves a ton of time.
Pretty much any flatbed scanner can be used to scan multiple at once, into separate files — it’s down to what the software supports, rather than the hardware.