My other half and I had a big problem! We both grew up in the 1960's and 70's when cameras were filled with films that had to be taken to the store and then processed. We would have to wait a week or so until we knew whether the pictures were any good or not. Most of the time we used our Kodak Brownie Cameras, as the better ones were way out of our price affordability. Even our parents took pictures with those cameras. Now what happened to all those pictures and were they memories that we wanted to keep or were they just garbage photos?
Well it's spring time and that means cleaning up, clearing out and donating lots of things to various charities.
But one box had us in a quandry! It was full of slides and negatives from who know when, where or how long they were in there.
Could these be long lost family pictures or just a bunch of scenic areas that we would not recognize without some obvious sign posts?
This is the mess that we were faced with. We were pretty sure there would be some pictures in there that we would like to keep. But, how do you do that without taking this mess to a dedicated service that will scan these? And at what cost to us?
Looking into a professional service, we found out that it would cost us .25 cents to 1.00 per slide to be digitized.
That was a cost that we just could not swallow. You would pay for each slide whether they were worth keeping or just junk shots. So this was not an option for us.
Thank goodness for the internet and Amazon! A quick search and you can find out just about anything.
For just under 15.00 you can get a PICSCANNER ! What, you may ask is a Picscanner? Well it's a small platform for your mobile phone. The platform is about 3 inches away from the bed of the scanner. This allows your phone to actually take a picture of your slide or negative. This is what the box looks like and you can see exactly how it works:
Upload it to your computer and voila, you have a digital copy of what was a slide or negative. Just like this one:
This is a digital copy of a negative film strip. With a few programs on the computer it is easy to turn this negative into a proper picture. Like this:
It works great! What I really like about this easy to use slide digitizer is, that it is inexpensive and it lets you see what is on that slide or negative without having to print it first. Once you see what's there, you just might decide that is is worth having it printed professionally! But, I bet that most of them will just go into a Picture file on your computer. You have not spent hundreds of dollars on getting worthless (to anyone but yourself) pictures digitized.
Today with our cell phone cameras and digital professional cameras, we can skip this step completely. But again if you were born in the 50's , 60's and 70's, I'm sure that this Picscanner will be a valuable tool for anyone who has boxes and boxes of negatives or slides kicking around. Just imagine being able to take all those slides and negatives, organize them and keep the great ones and discard all the rest. It's a job to do it, but, when it's done you will enjoy the fruits of your labors!
As an added bonus, this would make a great Father's Day Gift too! Most of the Dad's I know are the techy types that love to fiddle with a new toy!
Happy Photo Editing to all!
**These pictures are my own, the Cups in the Photos are "One of a Kind" handpainted and fired by my uncle!
Very nice cup, Olivia. And the Picscanner is a great idea. I actually have a group of slides from the 1960s that I keep meaning to do something with. This scanner is a perfect way to see if any are save-quality. Thanks so much for finding and reviewing this practical product.
ReplyDeleteThat's exactly what drove us to find a solution. My uncle, mom and I have lots of slides and negatives kicking around. Time to do something about the space they are taking up. So many lousy pictures got tossed! The rest we can enjoy on-line.
DeleteWell now, how cool is that! Being able to view & copy slides or negatives easily is truly awesome and for only $15 is amazing. We have a lot of negatives and no idea what they are pictures of since they are from our childhood days. This little scanner will sure make that easy now! Thank you for sharing the information and product review. Very exciting!
ReplyDeleteIt is well worth the price just to get this stuff cleaned up and indexed elsewhere. No more boxes of negatives and slides that no one wants.
DeleteWhat a helpful review, Olivia! My dad was an avid photographer and we have Kodak slide carousel upon Kodak slide carousel of photos he took in the 60s and 70s with no easy way to view them. Many of these are from our first trip to Europe as a family, when I was six, my sister was 11 and my brother was 16. I will definitely look into getting a Picscanner! Also, the cups your uncle handpainted are exquisite!
ReplyDeleteThank you Margaret. My uncle was a very talented artist and did many of the cups and plates for Bar /Bat mitzvahs. I'm sure keeping pics of you in younger years along with your sibs would be a great idea. It's easier to share them with your sibs too!
DeleteGreat gadget and so practical for those of us with slides!
ReplyDeleteIt is and it folds flat so it can sit in a drawer without taking up a lot of space.
DeleteThat is very handy! I love that idea! I've been looking for an affordable solution to take our old family videos on VHS and those little cassette like tapes onto computer - so far I haven't found anything - looks like this is a good start for slides and negatives though!
ReplyDeleteYou have to start somewhere Barbara and this is a great way to do just that. I don't have a solution for the VHS and little cassettes yet. If I do I will let you know.
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