A Word about Professional Slide Scanning Services
Scanning your old slides into digital files is the best option you have today of preserving them for a long time, practically forever. This method of preserving slides has become so popular that it has become an industry in itself. Virtually every nook and corner today has professional slide scanning services who offer to convert those slides into formats you want at cheap prices.
You no doubt want to convert all those slides that have been sitting in the attic gathering dust. Before you choose a slide scanning service however, you need to take care of a few things. Not all scanning services are equal. Not all of them are professional enough to give you the best possible images. Choose your scanning service only after doing proper research about them.
Formats
Before scanning your slides, there is something you should know about digital conversion. When you slides are scanned, they are converted into the photos that you see on your computer. Now these can be converted into a number of different formats such as JPEG, PNG or BMP. Most of the scanning services will convert into one of these three formats, since they can be viewed on any computer.
Some of the services however, might prefer to format the images into a different type, such as PSD file or any other thing. It may be because such images can only be opened and viewed using specialized software and you may have to pay for it. The above mentioned PSD format, for instance, can only be opened by Adobe Photoshop and related software, which can be quiet expensive.
Some slide scanning services may want to make some more money by storing your slides in these formats and then selling you the software that is necessary to view them. Beware of such money leeching services. Ask them specifically which format they convert their files into. Insist that they only give you the images in one of the three above mentioned image formats.
Storage
Most services will convert your 35mm slides into digital images and store them on to a CD or DVD. This service should be part of the scanning service and you shouldn’t be billed separately for this. If that is the case with your service, the people there are just trying to squeeze some extra bucks out of you. Make sure that that you are offered for free before you hand your slides over to them.
Although most of the professional scanning services use high end scanners which are capable of converting your slides into really high quality images, not all do. Some may just use cheap scanners and charge you big bucks for it. The only way to know if their service is good is to check out the forums on the internet for any complaints (or praises).
Hiring slide scanning services to scan thousands of your slides is a very expensive investment. If the digital images turn out well, your investment it well worth it. However, if they aren’t of the best quality, you may have to invest in a better service all over again. Hence it is better to always do proper research before zeroing in on any scanning service.
