Best way to archive/reproduce old photos?

[MissEve]

My grandfather just had emergency surgery so my family was all in one place for the first time in forever. We took the opportunity to go through the boxes of family photos and I was elected to make copies for everyone. There are a couple hundred photos and I need to make about 10 copies of each one. Should I scan them all and try to print them myself? If so, what equipment should I buy? or should I scan them and send them somewhere to make the prints?

[Trev]

That’s going to be a pretty big job, do you have a Kodak lab near by?

Because it may work out cheaper and easier than buying new equipment and 1000's of sheets of photo grade copy paper?

But someone else may have a better answer :)

[MissEve]

Originally posted by Trev@Apr 16 2005, 01:23 PM
That’s going to be a pretty big job, do you have a Kodak lab near by?

Because it may work out cheaper and easier than buying new equipment and 1000's of sheets of photo grade copy paper?

But someone else may have a better answer :)
yeah, it seems like printing them would be a huge nightmare but I still have to scan them I think, unless there is a reasonable way to get that done too.

[Carded]

Originally posted by MissEve+Apr 16 2005, 10:35 AM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (MissEve @ Apr 16 2005, 10:35 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-Trev@Apr 16 2005, 01:23 PM
That’s going to be a pretty big job, do you have a Kodak lab near by?

Because it may work out cheaper and easier than buying new equipment and 1000's of sheets of photo grade copy paper?

But someone else may have a better answer :)
yeah, it seems like printing them would be a huge nightmare but I still have to scan them I think, unless there is a reasonable way to get that done too. [/b][/quote]
Klick and Kodac photo labs will scan and re-print old photographs plus they can drop them all onto a CD for you as well :)

[iknowalttl]

I would scan them then put them on CDs for everyone to do as they wish... anyone can have prints made from a CD if they don't have a printer of their own... also it could cost a bit for some good paper not to mention the ink and time involved.

[MissEve]

I think that Kodak charges .25 cents for each 4x6 so it might just be cheaper to buy photo paper and ink in bulk.

[iknowalttl]

If you want to take care of the printing also, I would take them somewhere for that on CDs... Walmart I think is pretty reasonable

[Rikk]

You got a bad deal here. if the stick has a shitty end then you grabbed it with both hands :(

Time alone will cost you a small fortune. I would ask the photo labs but I think you will be looking at couple of hundred dollars if not more.

[cj]

Miss Eve, put your hand behind your butt and spank yourself for taking on this job LOL

I've been stuck with this job many times in the past which is the price I pay for having all the equipment ;-(

My main suggestion would be to scan them all yourself (4 up fits on the scanner, crop in photoshop) then give each person who wants copies a CD to take and print their own. I'll bet most of those who put their hands up for copies don't *really* want them badly enough to get off their own butts!

OR ....

A cheaper option if you are determined to do them yourself would be to take them all to kinko's or somewhere with a giant a3 color laser printer, get them to do them on an a3 page and gillotine them. glossy paper turns out pretty good.

OR

you seem determine to print them at home on photo paper, so firstly go find a printer that you can buy cheap - the $99 photo printers do an amazing job, but they use a LOT of ink. calculate how many prints you need and calculate how many print cartridges that will be based on how many pages each prints. usually a bubble jet normal ink cartridge will do 20 - 40 pages which isn't much if you are doing 10 copies of each pic. Buy the printer with the view that its disposable - don't bother looking for a 'good' printer as they really all do a great job and the ink and paper is the most expensive bit anyway. I recommend a canon or an epson as their base models are all excellent.


OR

once you've calculated how much this is going to cost in ink/paper, have a look at the price of color laser printers in comparison. if I had a reason to spend $1000 on ink, i'd be buying a color laser printer immediately. especially if you ever do big runs of general color printing at home ....


re paper ... check out the discount bins and piles of damaged paper at your local office supply store ... often if 1 bit of the paper is damaged its 90% discounted ....

[cj]

Originally posted by MissEve@Apr 16 2005, 01:45 PM
I think that Kodak charges .25 cents for each 4x6 so it might just be cheaper to buy photo paper and ink in bulk.
the last batch I did myself cost me $2 per page ....

that's 50c per photo size ....



for 25c a print and less hassle doing it yourself, I'd be going that option for sure.

[iknowalttl]

Originally posted by cj@Apr 17 2005, 10:01 PM
My main suggestion would be to scan them all yourself (4 up fits on the scanner, crop in photoshop) then give each person who wants copies a CD to take and print their own. I'll bet most of those who put their hands up for copies don't *really* want them badly enough to get off their own butts!


Here is where my vote would go...

[DaddysGirl]

go to Target/Walgreens and use the kodak machine....you can make all diff sizes, even change to B&W if the color has faded...I love that machine...lol

[Grump]

Reproduction would depend on how much time and money you wish to spend on the project. You could provide prints or give them CDs and let them get their own prints made.

For archiving I would recomend videotape, or a magnetic backup tape. They are much less suceptible to degradation over time than either CDs or prints from most current computer printers.

One note, dye sublimation (spelling?) process printers are projected to last longer than ink jet produced prints. Not sure how accurate these projections are as most of these processes are fairly new so any projections are just that, projections.