Assuming you'd rather spend time than money, you probably should buy a scanner, but it will take a LOT of time. Many flatbed scanners have lighted lids and special holders for slides, negatives, and other transparencies. Stick with major, reputable scanner manufacturers (Epson, Canon, HP) and find the scanners in the model lines that meet your specs. This is especially important if you need software. If not, any "twain" scanner will do.
I would recommend a dedicated slide scanner rather than a flatbed if all or most of your materials and 35mm slide or negative. Scanners are pretty cheap and you may want both. Look for ease of use features for mass scanning. If you also have transparencies and other materials, a multi-purpose scanner might be your preference. These will often have plastic holders for many different sizes of transparency.
For slides and negatives, you need very high resolution scanners. Remember, your original is very small and you want to squeeze as much detail as possible out of it if your intention is archival preservation. I would suggest a minimum of 4800x4800 dpi optical resolution. For professional work, it is not uncommon to scan negatives at 12,000x12,000 dpi and higher. Most flatbeds will max out in the 4800x4800 range but dedicated transparency scanners have much higher scan resolutions.
Cheers,
tod
On Apr 26, 2013, at 1:57 PM, Amanda Vtipil wrote:
> Happy Friday!
>
> I am currently researching options for digitizing negative film and slides and was hoping you all might have some helpful advice. We are a small repository which houses archaeological collections. I am about to embark on a inventory of all non-digital images housed here but I need to provide a rough estimate of how much digitization may cost.
>
> At first I was considering sending these objects out to be digitized but as I looked at prices I realized that it may be possible to acquire a decent scanner specifically manufactured for this purpose for the around the same amount. Does anyone have experience with sending their negatives off to be digitized and do you have a ball park figure on how much it cost (per image I suppose)? Or does anyone have recommendations for a scanner capable of scanning slides and negatives well? Any insight into which option has worked better (or not so well) for you would be greatly appreciated! Thank you in advance!
>
> Have a good weekend!
>
> Amanda
>
>
> Amanda Vtipil
> Curator, Regional Archaeological Curation Facility
> Contractor (Versar, Inc.)
> DPW-EMO, Fort Lee, VA
> 804.734.4436
> [log in to unmask]
> http://www.lee.army.mil/dpw/emd/cultural.resources.aspx
>
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