I'm trying to do the same thing. The biggest obstacle is the tedious process of scanning on a flatbed. I've been trying to find a photo feeder scanner that automates the process but I keep finding old products or really expensive ones.
Anyone know of a good quality scanner with a photo feeder for less then $250? Something like this:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,115427-page,1/article.html (that one is from 2004)
I've read so many stories on various forums about how some poor soul spends months scanning all their old photos manually one at a time. Come on now, where is the automation?
I'm not trying to hijack this thread, so I'll add some advice too.
-Any resolution above 300dpi is good. The higher it is, the slower the scan and larger the file. I've read that saving as a .tiff file is best because it uses loss-less compression unlike jpeg. Burn the images to a dvd and then import/convert them to a jpeg so that they don't fill up your hard drive. That way you will always have the original scan backed-up. Make 2 copies if you really want to be secure.
-Scan the negatives if possible. Then will have higher quality then the printed photo. There are scanner attachments for this purpose.
-Backup your data often!
-As for the software application, most scanners come with their own. I need to do a little more research to find a better alternative.
