Biting the bullet and getting them all scanned...

[AllynD]

I just got an email coupon code for $.07 off each negative from ScanCafe and decided to ship them about twenty years of photos.

I have had a little break from my grad. school studies, and decided to resume my scanning project. My kids are 25 and 24, and we shot film-- lots of film-- all the years they were growing up. I kept all my photos and film well organized by year and roll number, so I thought this would not be so hard. Well, I have scanned a lot, but I just counted 153 rolls of film left to scan. With an average of about 22 images per roll (they never all turned out) I estimate that is over 3,300 pictures. I could scan every day until summer, and I still wouldn't be done. And I would have no life.

Since layouts like this one seem to take me a full two days each, I thought I better stop scanning and start scrapping!

So I just did it! I placed the order! Now I have to pack up 153 rolls of film, individually so I don't lose my mind when they are all done, and send them.

[DonnaNJ]

I feel your pain.. a couple of years ago Kodak had what they called their ScanVan traveling around the country and you could bring photos and they would scan them and put them up on your account. Well I sort of became a stalker and showed up at every location they were in the state for a month. In the end they had scanned more than 7,000 photos for me.. honestly it was the best thing I ever did.. expensive but worth it :-)

[annaaspnes]

Mine are being scanned as I type. I sent in about a 1000 photos. Excited to get them back and start putting them in some sort of semblance of order.

[iUma]

WOW, I'm impressed. What serious work this all is!!

[Netleigh]

I'm impressed too, I haven't heard of anyone offering these sort of deals over here in the UK. I am very slowly scanning old photos, slides and negatives but it is so very time consuming. I'd hate to attempt to count how many there are that we have taken, I have inherited a lot of prints and slides too.

[dugarner]

I've always wondered if I should take on this project. My dad has years and years and years of slides and probably at least a couple thousand negative strips. I still can't swing the cost of even 10 cents a frame, though. It might be worth it for me to buy a dedicated scanner with the adapter.

I've had a friend use Just8MM for her old Super 8 reels. She had a very sad childhood---her mother was terribly sick for Barbara's whole life, and died when Barbara was 16. Barbara was the only caregiver for the last 5 years of her mom's life, and it was ugly. It involved internal bleeding, sloughing of skin, that kind of thing. Her dad died just two years after her mom. A few years back, Barbara uncovered an old box with two movie reels in it. She didn't know what was on them, so we found Just8MM that had good prices. She sent them in, and they came back on a CD with a box of popcorn and a note to enjoy the movies. She played them on her computer, and found that they were videos of her mother, happy and healthy, before she got sick, when Barbara was just a tiny girl. My friend just cried and cried.

So all that to say, Lynn, I bet you have precious treasures on those film rolls! I think data preservation is a priority, especially for these old, fragile print media that will deteriorate.

Good for you for making the decision!

[Scrapbird]

Wow. I am jealous! All those photos ready to scrap...you're gonna love it!

[carollee]

I was so lucky, my brother's scanner does negatives, although it was a long laborious task and very slow, took a whole day.