digitizing 35mm film

Hi,

What is the best way for me to scan a lot of 35mm film into my pc? I have
about 300 rolls of negatives and 4x6 prints. these are old family photos and
i don't want to lose them. Should i use a film scanning serivce? know of
one off hand? should i buy myself a film scanner? know of one off hand?
Also, once i get them into the computer, whats the best way to store them
forever? i have heard DVD's degrade over time, is there a better method? How
many bytes will the scanned film photos take up?

James

James wrote:
> Hi,
>
> What is the best way for me to scan a lot of 35mm film into my pc?

It depends on how much time/money you have to spend and what kind of
result you want.

> I have
> about 300 rolls of negatives and 4x6 prints. these are old family photos and
> i don't want to lose them. Should i use a film scanning serivce? know of
> one off hand? should i buy myself a film scanner? know of one off hand?

Other than suggesting that you keep the negatives as a backup, I'll let
those with actual scanning experience offer advice here.

> Also, once i get them into the computer, whats the best way to store them
> forever? i have heard DVD's degrade over time, is there a better method? How
> many bytes will the scanned film photos take up?

First, no digital storage method is "forever". Once you commit your
images to digital, you're in the archiving business forever. That means
keeping multiple copies in different locations, migrating your data
forward onto new media and new technology on a schedule, etc. My
experience has been that CD-R's are 100% readable after 10 years. If
I were archiving valuable data, I'd be migrating to new media on a
shorter schedule than that.

If you've got about 7200 images and we assume a nice round 10Mb per
image, you need about ten dual-layer DVD's for one copy. At today's
prices, two copies of the archive would cost about $100 for media and
$40 for the drive to burn them. Depending on resolution and format,
the estimate for media could be way off. Prices for DVD-R media are
falling, but by the time you're ready to do your first migration in
five years or so there will likely be something new at some new price
point.

Good luck!

Paul Allen