If you have boxes of photos or slides hiding away in closets, attics, and on shelves, now is the perfect time to find a reputable and reliable scanning service to get those thousands of wayward photos compiled and categorized into high-quality digital memories that will last a lifetime, if not more.

Images are like memories; each one holds a special place in the heart of the viewer. When those images become old and faded or incur damage from water, smoke, or time, the memories can begin to disappear in the mind’s eye. This is the pivotal time when it is imperative to find a scanning service that can restore the relics to their proper glory, enhancing memory and reviving history.

Is Now the Time for a D.I.Y. Project?

Once you’ve made the choice to renew your photos, there are many things to consider. You could do it yourself, finding the necessary software and programs on the internet. That’s the easy part. The more time-consuming part is the actual processing. You will find that, once you begin, the process of scanning, restoring, imaging, and transferring is a lengthy one, requiring hours of sitting in front of the computer and scanner.

Rather than trying to do it on your own, perhaps you could consider relying on the expertise of a professional image scanning service to restore and digitize your prizes, prints, and slides? Why spend hours sifting through years and years of images when you can find a service that can deliver a high-quality product in a fraction of the time it would take you to do the same thing.

There are so many scanning services and retailers in business today, it can be very difficult to choose the one that can consistently deliver professional quality, crisp digital files. Even when you do find a seemingly promising vendor, it’s hard to know just how reputable or reliable the vendor actually is.

The Creation of a Dream Team

In order to make things easier for you, we created a research and investigative team to sort through many photo scanning businesses and compare each one’s strengths and weaknesses. Our team consisted of two people from each side of the spectrum; Marcia, a woman in her late sixties who has a huge collection of slides, and Kerrick, a thirty-something-year-old who is interested in learning how to convert historic photographic slides into shareable digital files.

 The Heart of the Matter; A Comparison Primer

This comparison involved sending 50 standard 35mm slides of various quality and condition to each of the prolific image digitizing vendors in the market today. Our goal was transparency; we wanted to see if there were any hidden fees for the services provided, versus what was initially quoted. We also wanted to find out if there were any other factors that could be seen as potential pitfalls which could hinder efficiency, quality, and price.

In addition, the team was also interested in the actual process of sending the slides to the vendors. How easy was the interface? Was it simple, or were there many steps involved that could lead to confusion, especially if the client isn’t all that tech savvy?

Vendors Selected

For the purpose of a broad and wide-ranging study, we chose a number of vendors who operate a large-scale digital imaging business. The vendors selected were as follows;

• Costco
• DigMyPics
• DpsDave
• FotoBridge
• iMemories
• LarsenDigital
• ScanToDigital
• ScanCafe
• VistaPix Media

We then set the parameters, including;

• Initial offers versus actual cost of services rendered
• Level of customer service offered
• Standards of quality
• Surprises

There were, of course, many other factors to consider. But initially, we wanted to maintain a broad overview approach, so that we could establish a baseline of information. In short, we wanted to keep it simple. Each member of every team should share a vision and a common goal for the images being processed. There should be a deep appreciation for the process of collecting, restoring, and preserving memories, which means treating each image with respect, at every step of the way. We wanted to see if that level of professionalism and courtesy was present in all of the vendors we researched.

After sending out our sample of 50 slides to each vendor to be processed and digitized, choosing our criteria, waiting and asking questions when necessary, and then finally receiving the finished products, we created a table summarizing our experiences.

Vendor	Price	Quality	Service	Surprises
Costco		No fade fix		They send them out!  It took 56 days to process order
DigMyPics		Grainy and fuzzy		They got the return address wrong, so it took 51 days to process order
DpsDave				High quality at low price
FotoBridge		Splotchy		They process large batches and charge high price to process a few
iMemories		Low resolution, splotchy		Not the best quality at high price
LarsenDigital				High quality at moderate price
ScanCafe		Low resolution; blue fixes bad		They send orders to India! They also charged more per slide than promised.
ScanToDigital	No info	No info		After 4 months, because address was not verified, there are no digital files to view and the slides are in a US Postal facility somewhere
VistaPix Media		Colors off and no fade correction		They process large batches but didn’t charge for 50 slides

The Four Questions:
Now that we completed an initial overview, we wanted to get more detailed. The team created a series of four questions to help further discriminate between vendors:

1. Will my original slides be treated with respect and returned to me in good condition in a reasonable amount of time?
2. Will the quality of the digital image be high enough to make the whole undertaking worthwhile?
3. Will the cost be realistic and feasible?
4. What is the level of customer service, if I need help at any point in the process?

Our research team knows how important all of these questions are to the consumer. They understand what it means to send away your memories that exist only on paper for the time being and to look forward to the finished product. These four questions give voice to what many customers asked when they call for an initial consultation, so we wanted to acknowledge that and take some time to root out the facts.
For a more detailed approach, the team created a separate table for each of the questions, as follows.

Question 1 – Will my original slides be treated with respect and returned to me in good condition in a reasonable amount of time?

Question 2 – Will the quality of the digital images be high enough to make the whole undertaking worthwhile?

Question 3 – Will the cost be realistic and feasible?

Question 4 – What is the level of customer service, if I need help at any point in the process?