Quality Picture Scanning Needed

[Furbie]

Dear All,

I am looking for someplace that can do some real quality scans from old pictures into a digital format. Some touch-up work would be nice as well. I am aware of some places back in the US that specialize in this, and am hoping to find a similar service in Bangkok, preferably in the downtown areas.

Please let me know if you know of a place and more importantly, have had some positive experiences.

Thanks!

[howto]

Hi Furbie,

I am sure those whom are 'into' photography will have valuable suggestions.

To that end...

Photography and the Arts Forum

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/forum/84-photography-and-the-arts/

(for more results, you can ask a mod to move your post there)

Here is my 25 satang...

Recently I had a similar need to yours.

Difference is I have a 20 year old 700 page

loose bound book of sheet music (guitar/piano).

The local shops want to charge 10 baht per page for only scan.

(I had the wife check as not avoid farang pricing)

Wwwaaayyy too expensive.

Well, having lived here for many many years, I simply deaded

the thought of having one of these shops do the work

and holding my valuable materials in the meantime.

Notwithstanding the resultant output quality concerns.

I know what scanners those shops are using

and I knew I could easily buy a newer, better scanner.

I chose to purchase a scanner, in the end

I saved 60% AND own a scanner AND have high quality images.

Now while your situation is different than mine,

(you need photos scanned and perhaps photoshopped)

your concerns are likely the same as mine

- protection of valuable documents

- quality output.

So my advice is to buy a scanner.

Do the scans yourself, and see if you really need the

advanced services of a professional graphics expert.

If you do, be aware that since you now have digital format,

you can use anybody, in any country, to do the work.

Local university students often do free-lance work.

Prints and enlargements can be done at a local shop.

I did not want to pay a lot for a decent scanner.

I have a old HP Scanjet from the early 90's,

huge, heavy, very expensive and limited in functionality.

Common cheap consumer scanners of today are

magnitudes of scale beyond older scanners.

After a bit of research I choose

the Epson Perfection V33 Color Photo Scanner over

the Canon CanoScan LiDE-210 Color Photo Scanner.

I don't need the ability to scan film or slides.

Either unit will produce outstanding quality scans

and are very easy to use.

They both cost under 3,000 baht and are commonly available,

both from shops and on-line mechants,

and InvadeIT shows it on their website

(I seem to recall they will discount to thaivisa members?)

I bought the Epson Perfection V33 from IT-City Zeer Rangsit.

It was on sale, cost 2,490 baht.

Both units claim...

* 4800 x 9600 dpi 'optical' resolution

* Beautiful enlargements up to 13 x 19

* Advanced Digital Dust Correction

* One-touch photo restoration

Both units use LED light sources which offers

- very good color redention

- very fast warmup/scan times (3 seconds from power on to scanning).

- long life and low power requirements

Both units are about the same size and weight (small and light).

Neither are capable of film or slides,

- one should choose the next model up for that need.

Both units do hard photo's very well.

The Epson drivers supports Windows 2000 to Win-7

The Canon drivers supports XP to Win-7 (no w2k)

The Epson uses

- mini-USB 2.0 for data

- a Universal AC brick, 50~60 HZ 100~240 VAC and outputs 13VDC 0.5A

The power connector end plug is not proprietary.

The Canon uses mini-USB 2.0 for both data and power.

The Canon's limitation is the design of the top cover,

I deem the hinge to be frail, and that coupled with

the lid cannot be laid back to be completely out of the way

seems a certainty for breakage.

Furthur, the scanning ability would be limited in regards to

large docs, newspapers, magazines and books.

That, in and of itself, killed the Canon from my consideration.

The Epson does not have that drawback.

Hope this helps, let us know how this turns out.

I'm sure many here on TV could use the info.

[BangkokImages]

Quality scans come at different levels.

The highest quality scan is a drum scan, commonly used for making large prints for presentation. The people who operate these can make a heck of a difference in the scan, and usually (at least in the states) the community knows who is who.

Then you have the dedicated film scanners like the Nikon LS system.. these are expensive and take a decent amount of knowledge to operate properly. Even at this intermediate level you'll easily spend more than the cost of the average new DSLR. Photo clubs often maintain a few of these to check out to their members.

Then you have flatbed scanners like the other posted talked about. These used to be terrible, but these days they're actually quite good and with care you can achieve professional results with them. The advantage of a flatbed, other than a low price ($75-$800 depending on scanner and included software), is that it can take any size film. So, from 110 to 8x10, it can do it all. And the ones more geared towards photos will also come with strip/slide holders for popular film sizes allowing you to scan 4-24 images in one pass (it then breaks them out automatically into separate files).. The software that comes with the better ones will probably do most of your scratch/dust/exposure corrections automatically if you set it up this way.

I've owned and used both the dedicated and flatbed scanners in my business.. Back when I had A LOT of scan work to do, the dedicated models were worth the cost and hassle of learning. These days, I use an Epson photo flat bed.. It's fast, easy, and cheap..

[Furbie]

Thank you for your suggestions. However, I really don’t want to buy a scanner. It will just be one more thing cluttering up my home when I am done with it. Also, I don’t want to do the work myself.

What I am really interested in is a shop that does this very well, one could say this is an important part of their business.

Moderator – please move this to the Photography and the Arts forum for me please.

[4evermaat]

Thank you for your suggestions. However, I really don't want to buy a scanner. It will just be one more thing cluttering up my home when I am done with it. Also, I don't want to do the work myself.

What I am really interested in is a shop that does this very well, one could say this is an important part of their business.

Moderator – please move this to the Photography and the Arts forum for me please.

Well, that rules out my answer. I was going to suggest a Multifunction printer/scanner/copier/fax. Brother makes fairly solid models. I've owned 4 B/W laser models and currently have 1 color inkjet. Inkjets have come a long way from 10 years ago. You can get good value at $100. And you would have the ability to print when you want and not have to run to internet shop. For my needs, it was worth it.

Make sure you save photos in the .tif or .png for lossless quality. jpeg is "lossy".

I'm sure there are printing companies out there that may also be able to accomodate this request. Those companies that do design and print signs/brochures type of thing.

[ETatBKK]

I had exactly same demand a while ago, end up like others - buy a scanner and DIY.

there are OK quality digital labs and graphic production houses around, they charge THB300+/- per scan. way out of any budget.

if you have big quantity, then graphic design student could free lance with even a better quality. if need I could forward a contact.

don't trust any digital photo services or shops around, they just dump your photos on scanner.

Thank you for your suggestions. However, I really don't want to buy a scanner. It will just be one more thing cluttering up my home when I am done with it. Also, I don't want to do the work myself.

What I am really interested in is a shop that does this very well, one could say this is an important part of their business.

Moderator – please move this to the Photography and the Arts forum for me please.

[PattayaParent]

Thank you for your suggestions. However, I really don't want to buy a scanner. It will just be one more thing cluttering up my home when I am done with it. Also, I don't want to do the work myself.

What I am really interested in is a shop that does this very well, one could say this is an important part of their business.

Moderator – please move this to the Photography and the Arts forum for me please.

Buy a scanner, hire someone to do the scanning for you and sell the scanner when you've finished?