best scanner for mass photo scanning?

[jcmuse]

hi,
i have about 1k pictures im going to be scanning to my comp. I need a scanner that works w/ software that will allow me to do it in the fastest way possible. I'm thinking something along the lines of, 1. i put the pic in 2. i click SCAN and it automatically scans crops, and saves to destination. THX

 

[Zepper]

Most folks with that many photos to scan would find it much cheaper and less aggravating to farm it out to a professional conversion service. If this is gonna be a one-time deal, then you might be stuck with a narrow-gauge (IOW, specialized) scanner. Unless you're planning to do the job and then return the scanner to where you bought it. If that's the plan, then I want no part of it...

If speed is the primary value in your specification and you are scanning all loose sheets, then look at the Fujitsu bin-type scanners. They are about as fast as you can get for reasonable money.

.bh.

 

[Lemon law]

To Jcmuse,

I agree in many ways with Zepper---Zepper is very knowlegeable and is up on technology. But you don't providre much information to any to narrow your options down.

1. We know nothing about how you value the quality of the scan--or what you need the scanned information to do.

2. We know little about the size of the prints you are scanning--or if its B/W or color. But in general, when you are dealing with very small objects like 35mm slides, you are going to need a fairly good scanner. Go up to over 2 inch by 2 inch scans of a photo, you can get by with much less money. But the other thing that kites the scanner price is finding a scanner with automatic document feeding. --and with software that is versatile enough to adapt to your specific needs.

3. Farming the job out may be a good idea---or finding a scanner that will do the job now and into the future may also make sense. But until you can peg the quality price time tradeoff, you are almost nowhere.

 

[pkme2]

Fujitsu ScanPartner 620C Color Workgroup ADF Scanner
20 ppm, 600dpi-Scan in color at sizes up to legal-NR

 

[jcmuse]

sorry for late reply. Thx for replies..
Actually, i am looking for quality over speed. What i am tryign to minimze is the amount of time i have to be involved. I dont mind waiting a few for a good scanner to do a nice scan, but i just dont want to have to click a bunch of stuff afterwards. They're primarily 5x7. Right now i have an hp printer+scanner. Do you think the quality on this is acceptable? Otherwise im just looking for a standalone that is reasonable (dont need anything bin or "workgroup" -- consumer grade is probably what im after.

 

[Zepper]

You'll probably want to get one with an auto sheet feeder at least because that for sure should have software that will scan and store to disk automatically in the file type of your choice w/o user intervention. You will need to chose a file type and quality depending on what you may want to do with them once stored - definitely in a lossless file format if you will ever want to edit them. So you're talking in the vicinity of 20GB of disk space to store them - or you could scan 4GB or so worth at a session and then burn them off onto DVD for long-term storage.

.bh.