<p>I’m sorting out old photos and negatives this week. I hope to get the photos into albums in the future but I don’t know what to do with the negatives. Since these were pre digital, they’re aren’t on my computer. How does one scan negatives to store digitally? Or do I need to take them somewhere to have that done?</p>
<p>There are services who digitize media including negatives. Don’t know how pricey it will be.</p>
<p>My scanner has a slot in the top for scanning negatives. I have never used it but I assume the software deals with turning the negatives into digital images.</p>
<p>I have a cheap $100 slide “scanner” that basically takes a 3 MP jpeg of your negative or slide. I will say it does a poor job with slides, but a much better job with negatives. There are actual slide/negative scanners but they cost more than I can afford.</p>
<p>Don’t buy the device that MADad recommends - I did, and it was horrible. I returned it. Read the comments on Amazon for these things and you’ll see it’s not worth the money.</p>
<p>You have three options. You can look for a local business that converts negatives into digital files. These may be a little pricey, but they are local so you don’t have to put your negatives into the mail and risk them getting lost or damaged. </p>
<p>There are several businesses that do this nationally. It still costs a fair amount of money (I researched this several years ago and I don’t remember the pricing, but it would have cost me between $500-$1000 for my negatives, and I have thousands of negatives). One of the issues is that they scan in everything, and you may only want 50% or less of what you have. Some places have deals where they put your files online, and you get to pick which ones you want – but you still have to pay for a certain percent. The danger here is that you are mailing your negatives and hoping nothing goes wrong.</p>
<p>The third option is buying a good scanner that does film negatives. I went this route. The scanner I bought cost less than $150. It took me a year, but I eventually scanned all my negatives, organized them and Photoshopped them. They came out great, and I feel like my time was well spent.</p>
<p>I tossed all of the negatives. If anyone ever wants a copy…they can get one made from the actual photo.</p>
<p>fireandrain –</p>
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<p>My hats off to you! That was quite an endeavor.</p>
<p>fireandrain - which scanner did you get? I had a small one from Costco years ago and it was time consuming and not very good so my negatives have been collecting dust. I don’t mind the time spending as long as it’s worthwhile doing.</p>
<p>I just boxed up all the negatives and gave the box to my mom. Now if something happens to my house/pictures, they’re not in the same place.</p>
<p>The model I have is discontinued; according to Amazon this is the more recent one:
[Amazon.com:</a> Canon CanoScan 9000F Color Image Scanner: Electronics](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Canon-CanoScan-9000F-Color-Scanner/dp/B003JQLHEA/ref=dp_ob_title_ce]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/Canon-CanoScan-9000F-Color-Scanner/dp/B003JQLHEA/ref=dp_ob_title_ce)</p>
<p>Seems to have great reviews.</p>
<p>Negatives take a long time to scan. You can scan a bunch at a time, which can take as long as an hour. So you start the scanner and then go off and do something else. My advice is to come up with a good naming convention. I named each file by the year, and then what it was. Like 1998<em>graduation. If there was more than one photo of the event, then I’d use numbers (1998</em>graduation1, 1998_graduation2). I found this really helped with organizing them.</p>
<p>aquamarinesea: Yes, it was quite the project. The next year I digitalized all my video. But I haven’t done any editing of the videos – I enjoy editing photos, but not video, so I’m not sure if I’ll ever get around to that.</p>
<p>eightythree - GENIUS idea!</p>
<p>I stuck all our negatives in a safe deposit box on the same principle, if the pictures get destroyed the negatives are in a separate location.</p>
<p>When we moved (almost 10 years ago), I took my LARGE Rubbermaid box of negatives, swallowed hard and, like thumper1, tossed them. If I had to find a particular negative, it would have taken me forever or longer. I figured easier to scan a photo than try to scan negatives. I have had no regrets - nor have I even once wished that I had kept them.</p>
<p>fireandrain–</p>
<p>How do you get a RECOMMENDATION from my posting? I spelled out what I thought of the device, pros and cons. Gave my OPINION, did not RECOMMEND anything. Please, show some reading comprehension.</p>
<p>I did think long and hard about those negatives before I tossed them. In my life, I had never used a negative to get a reprint of a picture. I asked my SILs and none of them had either. I asked my parents and sisters. No one had ever used the pile of old negatives, not ever. So…out they went. I will only regret this if the house burns down and I lose my pictures. Of course, I would have needed to move them to a safety deposit box. That didn’t happen either.</p>
<p>I was recently looking thru some old photos I’d tossed aside as not being “photo album worthy” and I was surprised how many cute photos I’d overlooked over the years. I know it’s because our D is an adult now and I’m being sentimental but I’m wondering what else I tossed aside and I’m tempted to get all my negatives transferred to digital prints. But not if it’s expensive. I didn’t know it was possible, so thanks for this thread.</p>
<p>Well, if you are happy with the print you have, you probably don’t need to keep the negative. If the print is missing, you can simply lay the negative on the flatbed scanner, place white paper on top as a backing, and scan at, say, 600 dpi. Then you use a photo edit program to crop and “invert” the image. viola - a positive image!</p>
<p>Fireandrain, I use a date system for naming scanned images too, including the month and even day if possible e.g. 20130223-Party-001.jpg. Some of the stuff I am scanning is not dated. Then I use a name like Scan-OldblueAlbum-001 or similar.</p>
<p>I am not having luck with scanning slides. They always ‘popped’ into focus with projector heat, something that doesn’t happen with cool scanners.</p>
<p>All of my negatives are at the mother-in-laws. Each set is in an envelope with a contact print so as to make life a little easier if I ever needed them.</p>
<p>“I tossed all of the negatives. If anyone ever wants a copy…they can get one made from the actual photo.”</p>
<p>I’ve tossed all mine, too. And almost all the photo’s are piled up in drawers in various pieces of furniture waiting until I am dead to be gone through by my kid. I started a few photo albums years ago but it was a PITA.</p>