Photo Scanning - ScanMyPhotos.com Review

This summer ScanMyPhotos.com offered a great deal; $99.00 for a postage paid box to hold 1,800 of my photos for scanning. Their website shows that they are still offering this deal. 

My family and I have used FotoBridge for slide scanning and were happy with their service. I wrote a review in 2011. This time I decided to try ScanMyPhotos.com and sent photos for scanning, so this is not an apples to apples comparison, but a review of the ScanMyPhotos.com service and scanning results. I am not being paid and was not asked for this review. I ordered my $99 box on 25 June 2014 and received it very quickly on 27 June. 

The $99 price was my incentive to go through my old magnetic albums and remove the stuck on photos from the yellow tinged pages. Before I removed the pictures from the pages, I snapped an iPhone photo of each page. 

 

ScanMyPhotos.com requires that photos be grouped by size. Because most of my photos were already organized chronologically (something I have been doing since the age of 9) I did not want to lose that organization to size grouping. ScanMyPhotos.com offers a scan in order option for an additional fee of $50. When I double checked this price today, I found some confusing links. One link reported that they no longer offer this option, while another indicated the price was $315. I contacted customer service and they do still offer it, but the price is now $55. 

This is a picture of a large group of mixed pictures being sorted by size. The smaller photos pictured, or wallet type photos, can not be scanned. Photos must be at least 3"x3". 

For the scan in order option, each group of photos must be clearly numbered. I used index cards before each group and included a additional information such as years. Only elastic bands can be used and not plastic bags. The directions indicate that if plastic bags are used, the photos will be returned unscanned. I did not like the sole use of rubber bands. When I sent the photos I was careful to put the elastic bands around the photos in one direction, the short way, or the way that all photos were the same. When returned all of the photo groups were bound in two directions causing some damage to the photo edges. I also did not love how the photos were repacked into the box. The groups were bent in several cases. Luckily none of the damage was too severe. 

The only other damage I found was that a corner of one photo was torn. I received the photo minus the small corner piece, but the piece is visible in the scan. The artifacts are part of the original photo and not caused by the scan. I cannot say for certain that there wasn't a weakness in the photo in that spot. 

Because of the elastic bands around the photos, the way they were packed back into the box and the fact that one of the groups, group 10 below, although scanned correctly was not regrouped correctly, I feel that my photos did not get super duper careful handling.  

 

Because we had a big family event, I added the $40 fee to rush my order. I did not write down how many days it took, but it was super fast. 

Conclusion

In conclusion, if you have a large number of photos to be scanned and they are not already in chronological order, ScanMyPhotos.com would be a good option. I feel that they do a better job with the photos grouped by exact size. They had difficulty keeping everything in order for the return. For the money, the $99 box for 1,800 photos is an exceptional value. 

Comparison to FotoBridge.com

Today's price on FotoBridge.com for 2,000 photos at 300dpi is $349.95, a significant difference. The package at FotoBridge.com includes 2 jpg sizes, one at 300dpi and one web ready for uploading to social media sites and sharing via email. The photo size allowed has a broader range from 2" x 2.5" to 8.5" x 12". Important to me for my next order is that FotoBridge.com requests that photo groups be grouped, if possible, by size and that the groups be sealed in plastic bags, no nasty rubber bands required! Scanning in order does not require an extra charge. An additional service they offer is text note archiving wherein they scan the reverse of each photo and link it by name to the front. This seems reasonable at a cost of $99.

Please remember, there is always a risk of loss or damage when sending photos away to any company. 

Jennifer Shoer aka Scrappy Gen

Reconnecting Relatives, LLC

Let's Remember!

Slide Scanning - FotoBridge Review

Got the goods, but first I must remind you that I am not being paid, nor was I asked to do this review. I am just really happy with my customer experience with FotoBridge and wanted to tell you about them. I did receive a discount for my first order.

Tonight I popped the FotoBridge CD into my computer. Two folders were available:

As I suspected it contained the JPEG and web ready images. The JPEG folder was 1.8 GB and the Web Images folder was 88.7 MB. 

Plugging in the hard drive, I found the TIFF Images folder, which contained 9.06 GB of data:

FotoBridge scanned a group of five slides at the three different dpi options they offer; 2000, 3000 and 4000 so that I could compare them here on The Scrappy Genealogist.

2000 dpi

3000 dpi

4000 dpi

This picture of me is one that I don't remember seeing before now, but it is significantly even cosmically sentimental to me. I started to tell you the story about this tree on the first day of my blog, but now I have photographic evidence that I got a few of those details wrong. More on that another day.

Here are closeups of each photo, cropped with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, to make the comparison a bit easier:

2000 dpi

3000 dpi

4000 dpi

All three scans are crisp and clean with great color. I blew them all way up on my computer screen and you can even see my freckles. The only difference I can really find between them is that I think it would be possible to make larger prints from the larger files. That said, you can print a good 8 by 10 from the 2000 dpi file. As I mentioned here, I ordered the 3000 dpi version and I am satisfied with that, but next time I would probably go with the 2000 dpi. It looks sufficient to me and FotoBridge says as much on their website. What do you think?

These 500 new images are going to keep me busy for a while. I want to get them filed, show them to my kids and my husband, send some to my sister and cousins and share some of them with all of you too! Meanwhile, I am already thinking about which other slides I want to get scanned. Plus, I will be filing the slides that have come back in storage sleeves. I am just not ready to purge them yet. 

Hope this review was helpful.

Scrappy Gen

Let's Remember!

Getting Ready for February 2011 Scanfest

Vacation! Time for my very own personal family history conference. Thankfully, most of you understand. People who don't know me well or who aren't into photos, memories or family history cannot fathom why I would want to spend my vacation immersed in genealogical activities. 

MJ and our kids are spending each day of this week skiing at different New Hampshire mountains. They love skiing, they live for it and they are already sad that spring will arrive in less than a month. I, on the other hand, have never understood the lure of standing on two skinny sticks and speeding down a steep, slippery hill. No, I don't get it, but they enjoy it and that is what matters. And after they witnessed me standing on those two sticks and screaming my way down a mountain, they get that I will probably never be a skier and can better spend my time doing something that is fun for me.

So, while they were packing up skis, boots, gloves and all of their necessary equipment, I was gathering old photo albums, unread genealogy journals, scanners, cameras and my computer for my personal genealogy conference. I have six whole days to immerse myself in whatever genealogical pursuits come to mind. The fire is hot, the coffee is brewing and I am ready to start. 

Today is day one and the main activities will be reorganizing my Dropbox folder and scanning pictures from these old and quite obviously not archival albums:

These are some of my earliest personal history photo albums, dating from thirty to thirty-five years ago. Scrapbooks would better describe some of them as they include things as mundane as fortune cookie fortunes, sugar packets and clothing tags. Yes, I am a saver. 

My scanning will be done this afternoon from 2 to 5PM Eastern time as part of the February 2011 Scanfest hosted by Miriam Robbins Kidmiff at AnceStories. This will be my second time participating and I learned a couple of things to make it go more smoothly this time. 

Choose your items to be scanned:

Decide ahead of time exactly which items you will be scanning. You won't want to leave your computer to go find things. 

Create a folder labeled 2011 Feb Scanfest:

It was too difficult to type, read, scan, label and save all at the same time. Create a folder labeled 2011 Feb Scanfest and save all of your new scans to that folder. It will be easier to go back later to rename and move your files. Also, the folder will be a reminder to you that these are new items that need your attention. 

Your Dropbox folder is listed under My Documents:

When I created my Dropbox folder, I placed it on my desktop. I access it by either finding it on my desktop or in this location:

Windows 7

When scanning and saving, the option above is not available, so I had always just scanned to my desktop and moved the files later. Last month at Scanfest I learned that the default location for Dropbox is in Documents. Even though I thought I created it on my desktop, what I see is just a short cut to the actual location in Documents. If you want to save directly to Dropbox, navigate to Libraries, Documents and My Dropbox. 

This isn't exactly how it looks when scanning, because as you see the Dropbox choice is still present under favorites, but let me assure you that it is not there when scanning. 

The folder for today's scans is ready and waiting. While creating the folder on your desktop keeps it front and center in your mind, I like creating the folder in Dropbox so that there will be no chance of losing my hard work. 

Scanning can be tricky and takes a lot of time. That's why it is helpful to attend Scanfest. There is camaraderie and help available. Head on over to Miriam's blog for more tips about scanning as well as information about how to participate in Scanfest. It's a lot of fun. Hope to see you there!

Happy Sunday!

Scrappy Gen

Let's Remember!

Cousins, cousins, everybody loves cousins!

We headed down to the homeland last night; Swampscott, Massachusetts, my husband's homeland, that is. The homeland encompasses the surrounding towns of Marblehead, Salem, Lynn, Danvers and Peabody as well. We had dinner at the old watering hole, Fantasy Island, where it was told that many a Bar Mitzvah party was held in the basement. 

The original goal was to scan some old Shoer and Brisk photos that a couple of the cousins had, but it turned into a mini reunion and a birthday party. Cousins born of four different offspring of Bubbie and Zayde were in attendance and we shared lots of stories and laughs over eggrolls and chicken teriyaki. I am still full this morning and missing everyone already. 

Here are a few goodies I scanned while reminiscing:

Everybody loves cousins! They are like siblings, without the rivalry. They have goodies tucked away in their attics, basements and spare rooms. Thank you cousins for sharing your memories and mementos!

Happy Sunday!

Scrappy Gen

Let's Remember!