 Converting
Negatives and Prints to
Digital: Good Reasons and Ideas
Kris Butler,
ACD Systems
Want to preserve and get more from your old film photo collection? Even if
you've been into digital photography for a few years, there are a few
compelling reasons why you might like to transfer your old film photos to
digital format. There are also several easy options for doing this. Here's
what you need to know:
Fun Memory Sharing: The first reason, of course, is the convenience
of digital and the ability to share your memories with out-of-town friends
and family, not to mention the options to enhance them, print them at home
and so on. Getting those old family photos onto your computer and sending
around a slide show that reminds everyone of good old times is a fun thing
to do, especially during the holidays.
Safer Archiving: Another good reason to transfer your photos is for
safe archiving purposes. While the lifespan of developed film negatives
may be extraordinary, some claim up to 100 years under ideal conditions,
negatives are still more susceptible than CDs to water and other kinds of
damage. Negatives also take up more space.
That isn't to say you'd ever get rid of your negatives after transferring
them to CD. Rather, if you did transfer even your entire collection onto a
set of CDs, they would likely fit comfortably into a regular-sized fire
box. So, in the event of a disaster, you'd be able to recover your entire
family history. Also, the lifespan of CDs is similar to that of film
negatives with claims running up to 100 years. So, while converting an
entire negative archive to CD might be costly, you'd only have to do it
once.
Conversion Options: What are the options for getting film images
into digital format? When talking about converting limited numbers of
photos from film to digital, say a few to several dozen of your absolute
favorites from the past 10 years, then scanning your prints is a viable
option. The process will take some time, but if you already have the
equipment it won't cost you anything but your time and the holidays might
be a good opportunity to do this. (See article on
Fast Photo Scanning.)
If there simply isn't enough time in your schedule there are a few other
options that are more convenient but have significant associated costs.
The first of these is to get your photo developer to convert your images
to digital and put them on CD for you. If you're taking film or memory
cards in to have prints developed, you may have been asked if you'd like
to take advantage of this service, which typically costs an additional
third to half the cost of developing the film.
Considering the benefits stated above and the fact that many digital
converts still carry a film camera for shooting in certain conditions,
this may be the best option despite the costs. For example, if you're a
photo enthusiast with a mid-range point-and-shoot digital camera, it is
not likely you're going to leave your film SLR camera with multiple lenses
at home on a trip to the tropics. But it is just as unlikely that you'll
be satisfied to keep all your best wildlife photos in film format.
Even if you are having your new film and digital photo archived on CD,
there is still the question of how to convert your entire collection to
digital and archive it. Plenty of services are available to help you do
this, but you will pay significantly more to have negatives converted to
digital files and put on CD than you will to have new undeveloped film
photos or digital photos printed and included on CD at the same.
Also, if the photo developer in your area doesn't provide the service and
you have to mail your negatives, you can add shipping to the costs as well
as the inherent risks of having your negatives lost or damaged in the
mail. Example prices we found on the Internet ranged from $0.50 to $1.00
US for each negative or print converted, plus $1.00 to $10.00 per CD, plus
shipping and handling.
Conclusion: Taking the time to scan old prints into your computer
and archive them to CD can be a very rewarding experience, especially
during the holiday season when old memories can be mixed in with new ones
for great slide shows and online albums.
If you have less time, there can still be an extraordinary amount of value
in paying a few hundred dollars to have the most precious images from your
collection converted to CD by professionals, so you can be sure they're
safe for posterity.
Copyright 2005 ACD Systems Ltd. All
rights reserved. Article used under license by Ipswitch, Inc.
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