<p>Has anyone every used a photo scanning service? I place to send out hard copies of pictures to be converted to digital media? I’m looking for recommendations or advice.</p>
<p>thanks.</p>
<p>The two people that I know of that wanted to do this bought bulk photo scanners instead and hooked them up to their computer for automated scanning. I think that I would pick this approach instead because you’re putting your photo library in the hands of someone else and they could save all of your images. Something that I’d rather not do.</p>
<p>It depends on how many you need to have converted. Today you can find very good scanners at a reasonable price and scan the images yourself. There are a few trade offs. Time: It does take time to scan each image properly on high quality settings. Safety: Your images never leave your home, so cherished photos are not lost/damaged. Quality: This can still be better with commercial scanners.</p>
<p>So, if you have a few images that are heirlooms you may want to invest in a scanner. If you have shoeboxes full, having them done professionally may be a better bet. I have used my local Target (but I use the caution I love my Target photo center…I wouldn’t let the Target 5mi from here touch my images). To a greater extent I have used Ritz, but again I love my local Ritz so this may be regional. At no time did my images ever leave the premises so I was never worried about loss.</p>
<p>Once on CDs make sure you also save your images to an external hard drive that is ideally kept out of the home in the case of natural disaster. CDs will deteriorate over time. Many people use the ‘cloud’ approach. I simply like having the images available to me with no other connection.</p>
<p>NOTE: I crossed posts with BCE… I would never have thought of the privacy issues, but then all of my images were scanned pre-facebook era.</p>