Photo scanner recommendations

irishmoss

Registered User
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337
Hi
I'm looking for a cheap scanner to scan old photos that can then be touched up in photoshop for printing.

This is for a once off family project so don't want to spend a lot

Have looked second hand but it needs to be compatible with windows 7

Would appreciate suggestions
 
If it's a once-off, why not borrow the use of a friend's?

Failing that, I recently bought a HP 3050A reduced to €49.99 in Tesco (including 2 cartridges). They've gone back up since but can still be had for under €45 delivered from Amazon.
 
I got this guy to scan about 400 photos for my about a year ago. Only cost about €50. He can scan at different resolutions if you require high quality scans. No affiliation, just a satisfied customer.

http://yourphotoscanned.com/
 
Thanks. Is the resolution good eneogh for getting them printed?
For ordinary family photos, sure. I'm guessing a lot of yours will be 6"x4" (or even smaller?); these can be laid on the glass four at a time, then get the scanner to save each of the images separately. You can also crop, correct colour balance and enhance the contrast and sharpness (to some extent), so the scanned result may actually look slightly better than the original. But don't expect miracles...

Set the quality/resolution settings to best/max., and put something like a heavy book on top of the lid to make sure the photos lie absolutely flat, and there's no light creeping in around the edges of the glass.

It's a time-consuming job, though — if other family members could be prevailed upon to chip in, it might be worth pricing a commercial service like the one Niallman mentions.
 
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