Large flatbed scanners

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GALE

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I am new here, and am looking for your opinions and experience with large photo flatbed scanners.

I have been given the job of digitizing a large amount of very old family photos and would like to do a good job. I need help determining which flatbed photo scanner to buy. Some of the photos are 10X12". Am I even heading in the correct direction by buying a flatbed or is there some newer technology on the market?

Thanks

Gale
 
A few years ago - before the advent of 10mp+ SLR's the way to go was to scan.

Nowadays I'm not so sure a copy stand and a good DSLR wouldn't be better.

Certainly quicker if my experience of flatbed scanners is anything to go by.

I suppose it really depends on how big the majority of your pictures are and how much detail you want from them.

HTH

David
 
I went out in the shop and took some shots with a D300. The result was not great. The camera picks up a lot of reflection off the shiney surface of the photo. ? Any other possibilities?

Gale
 
If you're going to go down the DSLR route in my experience you really need a proper copy stand and decent even lighting.

Of course it's budget dependant but going by the scanner threads on this forum the accepted and most reliable flatbed is the Epson 700/750, not cheap though.
 
I've been doing the same with an A4 Epson perfection 3490 which was just over £100 when new several years ago. It seems to do the job ok. It's not too slow when using vuescan and scanning about 800 dpi. It also has a built in transparency doodad so you can scan negatives too.

Something like this is probably an equivalent: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Epson-Perfection-Scanner-6400dpi-Density/dp/B000VYYSEE/ref=pd_cp_computers_0

If you use a camera everything has to be perfectly square and it can be a pain to make sure it is and keep it so consistently. Most scanner software has auto skew features so you can pop it on slightly wonky and it will straighten it out.

I'd probably scan all of them apart from the 10 x 12s. I'd either photograph those individually or have them scanned professionally if there aren't too many of them. If there are loads then an A3 scanner is probably the only sensible solution.
 
A camera is not the tool to use to copy prints, which is what you are talking about.
Negs maybe, it'd be worth a shot before splashing the cash on a neg scanner, but for prints only, any half decent flat bed will do just fine.
 
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