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I acquired every photo taken by my dad, mom, etc. about 8000 photos iirc. Almost all of the post 1975 ones had negatives, so I started out looking for negative

I acquired every photo taken by my dad, mom, etc. about 8000 photos iirc. Almost all of the post 1975 ones had negatives, so I started out looking for negative scanners, as the negatives had probably been handled and scuffed less. I couldn't find anything with good reviews that was under $1000, so I settled with an Epson FastFoto FF-680W. After I did a couple of packs of prints, my wife took over. I think it took her about 6 hours over a weekend. I then set up a "photo website" using a static photo site generator, and then uploaded the output to a racked server we have. Afaik no family members I sent the link to even looked. Oh well. I also sent the tiffs to Amazon glacier where it costs something like $20/yr to keep there. Unless something has magically happened in the last six years, I'd still steer clear of negative scanners and flatbeds. The Epson is soooo fast!

JKCalhoun 2y ago
As I posted here, upload your photos to Ancestry, FindAGrave, etc. Your yet-to-be-born relatives may well appreciate it.
darknavi 2y ago
+1 to the FF-680W. It's janky. I had to try a few USB cables onces the original broke because a cat ate it, had to try specific USB ports, and the software is a bit rough. But the software allows you to scan both sides of photos, auto "enhance" while keeping originals, and do about 40 like-sized photos in an effortless batch. It's also good for doc scanning! I lend it to all my friends and family that have similar projects.
- genewitch 2y ago
  we didn't have any such issues, but i have a lot of the old style USB cables with the rounded square ends. They are used a lot in rugged devices and "equipment" or instrumentation, like ham radios, packet modems, ADC/DAC devices, scanners, printers. So i just collect them. I have noticed in the past 4 years or so that i am throwing away "broken" USB cables at about 10x the rate of the years prior, so maybe the overall quality of cables has gone down? Even extension cables - those are "breaking" at a very high rate - and i mostly use those for wired controllers!

JKCalhoun 2y ago

As I posted here, upload your photos to Ancestry, FindAGrave, etc. Your yet-to-be-born relatives may well appreciate it.

darknavi 2y ago

+1 to the FF-680W. It's janky. I had to try a few USB cables onces the original broke because a cat ate it, had to try specific USB ports, and the software is a bit rough. But the software allows you to scan both sides of photos, auto "enhance" while keeping originals, and do about 40 like-sized photos in an effortless batch. It's also good for doc scanning! I lend it to all my friends and family that have similar projects.

genewitch 2y ago
we didn't have any such issues, but i have a lot of the old style USB cables with the rounded square ends. They are used a lot in rugged devices and "equipment" or instrumentation, like ham radios, packet modems, ADC/DAC devices, scanners, printers. So i just collect them. I have noticed in the past 4 years or so that i am throwing away "broken" USB cables at about 10x the rate of the years prior, so maybe the overall quality of cables has gone down? Even extension cables - those are "breaking" at a very high rate - and i mostly use those for wired controllers!