Hi, Lisa: I've used DigMyPics with good results. They are not all that expensive (I think 39 cents/pic, plus shipping). They sent 1 high res. and one low res. CD. I had 90 slides I needed done quickly, so used their service. I admit to being somewhat nervous about sending my slides thru the mail, but all went well, & I rec'd my CDs and slides in about 10 days.

However, when I don't need so many done at one time, I use my Epson Perfection 4490 (there might be a newer model). It does films, slides, photos and negatives very well. Because it's linked to your computer, you can tweak things yourself then save directly to computer or CD.

Thank you so very much for mentioning that. I want to make copies of family pictures, and my father having been a photographer ........ there are boxes and boxes of them. I am sure there are many negatives with the prints long given away. Priceless family heirlooms and I knew there must be SOMETHING to copy directly off a negative without having to have prints made of each one. I shall definitely look into a unit like that. It would make an worthwhile winter project for me.

I decided to go with Scan Cafe. Mainly because they were considerably cheaper and they allowed me to toss up to half of the scans. Since I am scanning 1000 negatives to start with, I decided I liked the option of not having to accept every one of them. The price is going to be between $100.00 and $200.00 depending on how many I accept. The turnaround is about 4 to 6 weeks.

I'll let you know how it comes out :)

Suzy, if you have that many, you might want to research scanners. i found several articles out there talking about the pros and cons of some higher end scanners.

Lisa

wolf camera is $16.00 first 10 photos and then .70 a photo (.50) if you are a member.

Thanks, Lisa. Yes, I'll definitely be doing them with a scanner and all the editing, etc. I've used the various scanners I have here, and although they do well digitally from prints to copying on other digital files like disks, I need one with great transparency capacity for the negs. After I have done them all digitally then I can make decisions about how I want them copied to prints, or likely will let the recipients deal with that. And what few I need to make prints for myself, will just take the disks in to a self processor and do the deed myself.

I have my father's dark room equipment and supplies, and I can do B/W and that is what many of these priceless heirlooms are, but I don't have the time to "relearn" that skill in the near future.

I'm thinking about the slides I've got. When my brother & I were going through my parents stuff after they died there were literally thousands of them chronically our childhoods through high school & even some during our college years. We divvied them up & they've been sitting in boxes here for about 4 years. There's a place here in town that will put them on DVD's - 1000 slides/DVD. The cost here is 29-cents each for less than 1000 & 25-cents each for 1001 & up.

I know there's probably a cheaper alternative, but I really don't have thew time or energy to either investigate or learn yet another technology. I think I'm just going to save up & let them do it.

Check them now and again, Andie. The last "secret" project my father did back in the family room was transferring those same types of slides onto VCR tapes, with music and narratives. He told me he was going to do it, but I didn't know he had. The reason was that slide film is a gelatin base and he said that if exposed to humidity, they'll eventually get mold on them and that can't be repaired.

Years later, to entertain my mother, I went in to his VCR stash and found some labeled family pictures. I thought they were the old movies he'd transposed, but they weren't. It was the slide shows. Four VCR tapes worth. I nearly broke down, as he never told us, even on his deathbed he'd finished it and he left them there for us to find down the road. It was as if he came back from the other side and ws sitting in the room with us as we watched them. I got to the third tape and had to stop to recuperate. It was so emotional. I haven't seen it yet, and now need to go through that whole library of tapes to find it again.

There were some slides he transferred already with their quality highly compromised from mold. He got to them just in the nick of time. I suppose he knew if he didn't do it, they'd never get done. Now, with VCR media about antiquated, I need to get my son to transfer them over to DVDs so I can send a set to all my family. If one wants to keep family heirloom pictures into the future, the best way to do it is to make sure they are spread around in the form of copies all across a family. All's it takes is one generation who don't care, and they are lost to the descendants forever.

Oh they're in great shape. and I'm not putting this off forever. They'll get transferred this year, if only to let loose of storage space.

My FIL transferred all the old home movies from when DH was a kid to VHS years ago & a couple of years ago I transferred that to DVD because I know from sad experience that VHS tapes can go bad with great frequency.

I absolutely agree about keeping up with the pictures. There's nothing sadder than throwing out photos because, while still in good shape, you have no idea who anyone is.