Scanners for geneology: required/desired features, SW and re

[Dave Bakken]

Hi,

I am new into genealogy, and as part of this my wife and I will scan
in decades of family photos. We will be getting a scanner very soon
as part of this. We hope to pay not more than about US $500, and
cheaper would be better if it is good enough. We hope to get it in
Norway (where we are for a year), but if a must-have model is
available only in the US we can get it (and then get the right power
adaptor for European power, or a voltage transformer).

What features are essential or at least desirable for such a scanner?

Having a photo feeder is essential here, so you can just put a stack
of photos in and let it work for hours. (Note that I do not think we
need to be able to scan negatives, cause we have prints of everything,
but if a scanner came with negative capability then I may pay a bit
more for it cause you never know when you might need it later.)

Optical resolution is obviously important. Some recent scanners
support 4800 dpi optical, but how much is really needed? What depth
of color (how many bits) is essential or useful?

What scanners should we consider? Part of this answer might be not
just meeting features from the above discussion but also maybe having
great scanning software. (But maybe that is not necessary … I have
PhotoShop 7 and am [LINK] also getting genealogy software that may
handle scanning (but maybe good SW with the scanner or PhotoShop is
better that a given genealogy SW's import capabilities, than you just
import .jpg or whatnot??). Or maybe scanning software is all good
enough that this is a non-issue… Software that greatly automated the
process with some kind of batch processing capabities may be helpful
(or maybe it comes with any scanner with a photo feeder?). Is
retouching software (such as Cannon't FARE Level 3) useful, or
can/should this be better or adequately done with PhotoShop 7?

HP's ScanJet 5500 seems ideal here, but there may be others, and there
may be problems with it that I do not know of. (Probably not, HP
makes good scanners.)

Thanks greatly for any help!

Dave

[Terry Hollis]

Dave Bakken wrote:

Hi,

I am new into genealogy, and as part of this my wife and I will scan
in decades of family photos. We will be getting a scanner very soon
as part of this. We hope to pay not more than about US $500, and
cheaper would be better if it is good enough. We hope to get it in
Norway (where we are for a year), but if a must-have model is
available only in the US we can get it (and then get the right power
adaptor for European power, or a voltage transformer).

What features are essential or at least desirable for such a scanner?

Having a photo feeder is essential here, so you can just put a stack
of photos in and let it work for hours. (Note that I do not think we
need to be able to scan negatives, cause we have prints of everything,
but if a scanner came with negative capability then I may pay a bit
more for it cause you never know when you might need it later.)

I have been scanning family photos for about a year and so far I have
completed about 4000 photos. By far the biggest part of the job is the
naming, editing and backup of the photos. I tend to do the research for the
names while the scanner is doing the next one.

The information that I like to include with the names is date, negative#
peoples names, place, film scan or print scan (most of my scans are from
film) film size and which camera was used. A typical file name is...

1969 02 02 (02-12) Tanya Carl Shane Hollis & Natalie & Anita May @
TeAtatu-nf120L.jpg

.... I use the format "yyyy mm dd" for the dates so that they sort in the
right order, in brackets the (film# & frame#), negative film and size
"-nf120" and Camera type "L" If I am not sure of the date I guess the year
or decade like 193x.

From the file name I can find the film or print that was scanned.

I scan the film at 2400 dpi, and prints vary a lot depending on the size of
print and the quality of the picture. File sizes using lossless jpg are
averaging 15,000 mByte for film and 2,000 to 7,000 dpi for prints.

On average the end result from the film is much better than for the print
scans (ps).

Optical resolution is obviously important. Some recent scanners
support 4800 dpi optical, but how much is really needed? What depth
of color (how many bits) is essential or useful?

It depends on what you plan to do with your scans; if you are going to make
CDRom's for display on your TV, 1600 x 1200 pixels with 75% compression will
give you file sizes of about 400 mBytes and will give TV pics as good as you
can get.

If you want to print super A3, the bigger the better.

What scanners should we consider? Part of this answer might be not
just meeting features from the above discussion but also maybe having
great scanning software. (But maybe that is not necessary . I have
PhotoShop 7 and am [LINK] also getting genealogy software that may
handle scanning (but maybe good SW with the scanner or PhotoShop is
better that a given genealogy SW's import capabilities, than you just
import .jpg or whatnot??). Or maybe scanning software is all good
enough that this is a non-issue. Software that greatly automated the
process with some kind of batch processing capabities may be helpful
(or maybe it comes with any scanner with a photo feeder?). Is
retouching software (such as Cannon't FARE Level 3) useful, or
can/should this be better or adequately done with PhotoShop 7?

HP's ScanJet 5500 seems ideal here, but there may be others, and there
may be problems with it that I do not know of. (Probably not, HP
makes good scanners.)

I am using an Epson Perfection 2450 Photo scanner; it is getting old so I
would suggest a later version with ICE software to help get rid of the dust
and other imperfections.

As for a feeder, I don't think it would be practical; the Epson can scan 10
35mm negatives in one pass and give a separate exposure for each negative.

With all the work associated with each picture, the speed of scanning seems
to be a small issue, not really a consideration.

Thanks greatly for any help!

Dave

--
Regards - Terry Hollis, Auckland, New Zealand

replace "nospam" with "terry.hollis" to reply

[Ron Parsons]

In article <[email protected]>,
[email protected] (Dave Bakken) wrote:

Hi,

I am new into genealogy, and as part of this my wife and I will scan
in decades of family photos. We will be getting a scanner very soon
as part of this. We hope to pay not more than about US $500, and
cheaper would be better if it is good enough. We hope to get it in
Norway (where we are for a year), but if a must-have model is
available only in the US we can get it (and then get the right power
adaptor for European power, or a voltage transformer).

What features are essential or at least desirable for such a scanner?

Having a photo feeder is essential here, so you can just put a stack
of photos in and let it work for hours. (Note that I do not think we
need to be able to scan negatives, cause we have prints of everything,
but if a scanner came with negative capability then I may pay a bit
more for it cause you never know when you might need it later.)

Optical resolution is obviously important. Some recent scanners
support 4800 dpi optical, but how much is really needed? What depth
of color (how many bits) is essential or useful?

What scanners should we consider? Part of this answer might be not
just meeting features from the above discussion but also maybe having
great scanning software. (But maybe that is not necessary … I have
PhotoShop 7 and am [LINK] also getting genealogy software that may
handle scanning (but maybe good SW with the scanner or PhotoShop is
better that a given genealogy SW's import capabilities, than you just
import .jpg or whatnot??). Or maybe scanning software is all good
enough that this is a non-issue… Software that greatly automated the
process with some kind of batch processing capabities may be helpful
(or maybe it comes with any scanner with a photo feeder?). Is
retouching software (such as Cannon't FARE Level 3) useful, or
can/should this be better or adequately done with PhotoShop 7?

HP's ScanJet 5500 seems ideal here, but there may be others, and there
may be problems with it that I do not know of. (Probably not, HP
makes good scanners.)

Thanks greatly for any help!

Dave

Since you are looking at HP, consider the vertical glass scanner since
it will do negatives as well and can be placed on top of a large book
and scan it in segments which PS will stitch together.

--
Ron Parsons

[Dave Hinz]

On 18 Oct 2004 03:41:25 -0700, Dave Bakken <[email protected]> wrote:

Hi,

I am new into genealogy, and as part of this my wife and I will scan
in decades of family photos. We will be getting a scanner very soon
as part of this. We hope to pay not more than about US $500, and
cheaper would be better if it is good enough.

You can buy a _very_ good scanner for $500.00, at least in the USA.

What features are essential or at least desirable for such a scanner?

I like being able to scan negatives. This way you can feed the strip
into the scanner, it does the whole strip (or roll if they're uncut)
before you have to interact with it again. Umax makes a nice negative
scanner that I'm quite happy with, but it doesn't do prints, just slides
and negatives.

Having a photo feeder is essential here, so you can just put a stack
of photos in and let it work for hours. (Note that I do not think we
need to be able to scan negatives, cause we have prints of everything,
but if a scanner came with negative capability then I may pay a bit
more for it cause you never know when you might need it later.)

Ah. Then you're getting closer to your price limit I'm afraid. Epson
makes great scanners, perhaps you can find something on their site. Their
software works equally well on Mac and Windows, and I've been buying
Epson hardware for 24 years now and never had a problem with it.

Optical resolution is obviously important. Some recent scanners
support 4800 dpi optical, but how much is really needed? What depth
of color (how many bits) is essential or useful?

For most general-purpose scanning, 1200 DPI is more than enough. The
scan times go up, and the file sizes go _way_ up when you get too much
resolution or depth. If it's a scan you want to do something with
(photoshop, blow it up, clean it up, or whatever) you may want to go
more, but I rarely scan over 3200 DPI - just takes too much memory to load
in and manipulate, for one thing. You'll probably want a DVD burner also,
unless you like buying CDs by the spindl.e

What scanners should we consider? Part of this answer might be not
just meeting features from the above discussion but also maybe having
great scanning software.

My Umax came with something called "Silverfast" which is a _fantastic_
piece of software for scanning. I'd buy any brand of scanner that came
with it and met your features requirements, it's that good.

Software that greatly automated the
process with some kind of batch processing capabities may be helpful
(or maybe it comes with any scanner with a photo feeder?).

Silverfast again, or EpsonScan has a batch mode as well. I don't use
Epson's batch mode as my Epson scanner doesn't have a feeder. Although,
I've used it to scan microfiche, queue up a few dozen pages on the film to
scan, go away for an hour or whatever, come back and they're all in.

Is
retouching software (such as Cannon't FARE Level 3) useful, or
can/should this be better or adequately done with PhotoShop 7?

You've got Photoshop - few if any OEM programs will come close to that
in features or usability. Most scan software can pipe the image right
into photoshop if you want.

HP's ScanJet 5500 seems ideal here, but there may be others, and there
may be problems with it that I do not know of. (Probably not, HP
makes good scanners.)

HP and Epson, sure. It's worth looking at Umax, if they have the features
you want. Might depend on what you can find in Norway.

Thanks greatly for any help!

Let us know what you go with, please, and how you came to your decision.
Will help for the next person with similar questions.

Dave Hinz

[Hugh Watkins]

"Dave Hinz" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...

On 18 Oct 2004 03:41:25 -0700, Dave Bakken <[email protected]> wrote:
Hi,

I am new into genealogy, and as part of this my wife and I will scan
in decades of family photos. We will be getting a scanner very soon
as part of this. We hope to pay not more than about US $500, and
cheaper would be better if it is good enough.

You can buy a _very_ good scanner for $500.00, at least in the USA.

What features are essential or at least desirable for such a scanner?

I like being able to scan negatives.

get as high a resolution as possible
European prices with sales tax may be double that in USA

so check it out carefully

Hugh W

[Mike Fry]

"Dave Bakken" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...

What features are essential or at least desirable for such a scanner?

Having a photo feeder is essential here, so you can just put a stack
of photos in and let it work for hours. (Note that I do not think we
need to be able to scan negatives, cause we have prints of everything,
but if a scanner came with negative capability then I may pay a bit
more for it cause you never know when you might need it later.)

Optical resolution is obviously important. Some recent scanners
support 4800 dpi optical, but how much is really needed? What depth
of color (how many bits) is essential or useful?

What scanners should we consider? Part of this answer might be not
just meeting features from the above discussion but also maybe having
great scanning software. (But maybe that is not necessary . I have
PhotoShop 7 and am [LINK] also getting genealogy software that may
handle scanning (but maybe good SW with the scanner or PhotoShop is
better that a given genealogy SW's import capabilities, than you just
import .jpg or whatnot??). Or maybe scanning software is all good
enough that this is a non-issue. Software that greatly automated the
process with some kind of batch processing capabities may be helpful
(or maybe it comes with any scanner with a photo feeder?). Is
retouching software (such as Cannon't FARE Level 3) useful, or
can/should this be better or adequately done with PhotoShop 7?

Thanks greatly for any help!

Suggest you take a look at http://www.scantips.com

The site has absolutely stacks and stacks of good information about
scanners and scanning in general.

[Gjest]

On 18 Oct 2004 03:41:25 -0700, [email protected] (Dave Bakken)
wrote:

... my wife and I will scan
in decades of family photos. We will be getting a scanner very soon
as part of this. We hope to pay not more than about US $500, and
cheaper would be better if it is good enough.

Depending on whether you have almost all prints, or if you have the
negatives or a substantial number of slides, you might want to
consider getting a dedicated film scanner as well as a flatbed. There
are many good ones out there, but there are also some terrible ones -
do your research first.

IF you can stretch a bit, you might consider the Nikon Coolscan V ED
(also known as the LS 50) - just over $500 itself, and in my opinion
worth ever dollar I spent. I've owned flat beds before, including
ones with slide adapters. We had an older HP with the little mirror
device you put on top of the glass, as well as our current Epson 1650
(relatively old, but quite good, especially for the price it was at
the time, and you can do much better price-wise with newer models
now).

It will take you forever to scan slides and negatives, if you try to
use the better flat bed scanners with adapters. But Nikon advertises
a 38 second scan time (after only 14 seconds for a preview) for slides
and negatives - at its full 4000 dpi. Those times are rather close to
my experience (as long as Digital Ice and the other enhancement
features are turned off). Even with every single one of the possible
enhancement features turned on, meaning a huge amount of processing,
the scan time still only goes to a little over 3 minutes (less with
fewer enhancement features used in a scan). Considering what all the
enhancements (including the built-in Digital Ice) will do, it's an
amazing little scanner, but still just dedicated to 35mm. Try getting
even a basic scan in 38 seconds using a flatbed, at 4000 dpi - not a
chance.

Then pick up a decent flat bed at a good price (after doing your
homework again, of course) - perhaps under $100. And as another
reader suggested, definitely become good and familiar with
http://www.scantips.com .

C.R.

[Kevin Davies]

Hi!
Sorry a little late to reply to this, but Family Historian I think can do
most of what you want with multimedia, check it out at
http://www.family-historian.co.uk/, I moved to it a couple of years ago
after getting frustrated with the dire media handling of FTM. I'd be
interested to hear how you get on with genbox as family-historians weakness
is the reporting is not all it might be and genbox looks good in that
respect.

It doesn't have links to online services, although I think that's probably a
good thing as wheneven I've done searches on services such as ancestry, it's
idea of a good match and mine are completely different!

I don't know about Norway, but in the uk ancestry.co.uk is becoming more
useful.

Regards

Kev