Photo Scanning Services

I scan prints myself at home, that's a small enough number to do yourself. My 40,000 slides are another matter though, a touch more time consuming. I have been reluctant to send them out for scanning, much of that is done overseas these days and I would be beyond upset at their loss.

wolfpuppies3 said:

I scan prints myself at home, that's a small enough number to do yourself. My 40,000 slides are another matter though, a touch more time consuming. I have been reluctant to send them out for scanning, much of that is done overseas these days and I would be beyond upset at their loss.

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There are plenty of companies that scan them in New York City and other major photography cities.

I was very happy with DiJiFi in Brooklyn. When I was searching for a service, I called the places I was considering. They were the most knowledgeable and professional sounding of all. Once you have mailed in your photos (I used trackable shipping), they keep you informed of the progress by email and you can check the project status online. Be aware that the estimated charge may change once the project is complete. In my case, it was due to an undercount on my part and also the size of some prints. I requested the standard resolution/complete service as it was adequate for my needs. I also sent in a USB thumb drive to store the completed scans which they returned along with the original prints. Very pleased.

If you are not necessarily looking for local, but open to all options within the US, ScanMyPhotos is a scanning company located in Irvine, CA. We scan 100% of customer orders here in Irvine and never outsource to any other location or county. We offer bulk scanning rates (right now we are offering our prepaid box for $165 with discount for about 1,800 scans) or just a pay-per-scan rate for photos with our special offer for as low as 9 cents per scan. Check us out, we may be able to help you out.

I use North Coast Photo here in San Diego for slide development and scanning. They do really good work. Here's a 35mm slide of Velvia 100, scanned at their high res level (about 5000 vertical pixels):



I've heard that they're pretty good with mail orders; Ken Rockwell recommends their mail service, so it'd probably be worth checking out. Link to their site: http://www.northcoastphoto.com/

dmax35 said:

Looking for suggestions or recommendations of any USA based companies who provide scanning services. I've got over 200 plus print photo's I would like scanned into a Digital format and don't have the time to do it myself.

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Prints are the easiest type of media to scan and don't require expensive scanners. Film is another matter. I use "Scancafe" They are based in San Francisco and will do the work locally for a higher fee but the bulk of their work is done in India. The quality is identical at either place but you get faster turn around from SF. One thing about this company is they offer a few minutes of manual correction and edits (dust and scratch busting plus color correction) with each scan.

If you are worried about the risk of loosing your photo in shipping it does not matter where they are scanned but it does matter if they are mailed or not. So if you are concerned with this pick a place near your house where yo can walk them in yourself (or buy a scanner)

Here is the link: http://www.scancafe.com

It you edlect to have to send the job to India it takes a few exctra weks because to wait until they have a full forklift pallet to ship and then they air fraught the whole pallet.

Whith any scanning service what you are paying for is the hand work. Ask if they have a real human look at and correct the scans. Most of the low cost US based companies use automation and the high end service use humans.

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milbournosphere said:

I use North Coast Photo here in San Diego for slide development and scanning. They do really good work. Here's a 35mm slide of Velvia 100, scanned at their high res level

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Nice image but posting a low res photo yes nothing about the quality if the scans. it is like doing a demo of a high end stereo over a cell phone.

Plus the REAL test of a service is NOT how nice scans for newly processed film come out but how well they do with 20 year old slides or prints that have dust and scratches and possibly faded color. Getting good scans from old media requires skills and time unlike that required for new film.

ChrisA said:

Whith any scanning service what you are paying for is the hand work. Ask if they have a real human look at and correct the scans. Most of the low cost US based companies use automation and the high end service use humans.

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Well, that and the low-end bulk-scan services are using epson & nikon desktop scanners, and high-end pro services use drum scanners, but of course the drum scan is going to cost you 20-30 times more per scan. Of course, the OP didn't say what sort of quality he was after or how much he was willing to spend. (ScanCafe may use humans, but they say they're doing 20 scans per hour, which would still require significant automation.)

I have been using DigMyPics to scan several hundred negatives and a few prints. I have been very happy with the results. They are in Arizona and do not send your scanning out to another country. They have a fairly quick turnaround time. Prior to starting I compared prices, services, and reviews for several companies.

MacCruiskeen said:

Well, that and the low-end bulk-scan services are using epson & nikon desktop scanners, and high-end pro services use drum scanners, but of course the drum scan is going to cost you 20-30 times more per scan. Of course, the OP didn't say what sort of quality he was after or how much he was willing to spend. (ScanCafe may use humans, but they say they're doing 20 scans per hour, which would still require significant automation.)

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No. They post their work flow on their web site. They claim NOT to use automatic feeders because they sometimes "smash" a photo when they jam. So they say they hand feed the equipment. They use Nikon scanners. The photo shows a sea of workstations where maybe 100 peole each have a scanner and computer.

I've done this mayself and after you get good at it you can do one image every five minutes and that includes scanning and some small aamount of Photoshot work. The trick is to do the photoshop stuff on the last image while the current mag is scanning. It is mind numbing monkey work if you do this hours after hour at the five minute per image rate. After a few hours you will be hapy to pay ANYTHING not to have to do this. But if you are a poor Indian you might be very happy to have a nice job working indoors in an air conditioned building.

Like was said above by others what you pay for is is the hand correction and dust and scratch busting. Many US based services will scan cheap, they use automation and don't do the value added corrections in Photoshop. but also there are higher-end US based service who will do quite a bit of custom hand edits for you and use drum scanners but you pay a lot for this kind o professional service.

The compromise is the overseas based companies who can offer hand edited scans done without automation for low cost but they don't have fast turnaround.

Bottom line is there are many options and price levels and you have to balance cost, turn around time and quality.

As for safety, they are all pretty good. The weak link is the last mile, the guy in the delivery truck and they ALL use the same UPS or FedEx drivers