People often ask me about my scanning setup. It’s tough to recommend what I use, because a) I am a wonk, and b) both my scanners have been discontinued by their respective manufacturers. Alas and alack! Both are excellent tools, and they are gone. I wish otherwise.
Disclaimer #1: if you are a cheapskate who’s not interested in producing high-quality digital copies of your priceless family heirlooms for posterity, please rethink your strategy. I urge you to reconsider your “good enough” approach, and picture your great grandchildrens’ looks of dissatisfaction with your crappy, low-res, color-shifted JPEGs.
Before I get into the nerdy details of what I use to scan artifacts and store the resulting files, here’s a generic look at what you’ll need to do it:
- A computer
- A scanner
- A place to store your scans
- A backup system
- A plan
So, How Do I Do This?
1. A Computer
For most people, computer speed isn’t a big issue any more, and the hardware makers have finally figured out no one cares about processor speed any more. Any modern computer will get your email and surf the web, as well as play a DVD. That covers about 85% of what most people do.
There are a few tasks that are best done with fast hardware, though. Anything related to creative arts, for example – video editing, graphic design, professional photography. Well, dear reader, welcome to the creative arts! Driving a scanner puts a sizable strain on a computer. And manipulating high-quality scans cries out for horsepower, too. If you have a sizable amount of scanning to get through, you will outgrow a low-end or aged computer pretty quickly.
Disclaimer #2: I am a long-time Mac user. I write from the perspective of a Mac user. If you prefer Windows, you will have to translate my world to yours. Please don’t flame me or try to start a platform war because I use Macs.
My computer: An Apple Mac Pro. It’s a couple years old, but it’s still wicked fast. It works great for scanning.
2. A Scanner
It seems these days there are as many scanner models as there are stars in the sky. This is great! The basic optics of a low-end scanner are pretty darn good. The software gets better and better, too. There has never been a better time to get into scanning.
The best way to choose a scanner is to start with what you want to scan. If you’re scanning photography, stay away from document scanners. If you have a lot of slides, negatives and transparencies, focus on scanners that do a good job with these. I have two scanners, because I’m working my way through two completely different collections. The models I chose reflect these specific needs.
If you’re drowning in options and features, search the Internet for sites that review scanners. This will help you narrow down your choices. If, for example, one model is noisy, maybe that’s not going to fit your needs if you like to watch movies while you scan. Or maybe another model comes with poor software. If you’re lucky enough to live near a retail store that sells scanners, maybe you can try before you buy. This is a specialty item, though. Be prepared to buy on the Internet – do your homework first.
My scanner 1: A UMAX PowerLook 2100XL. I got this model because it has a 12″ x 18″ scanning bed. I have a big stack of scrapbooks from my grandfather’s political career (he’s the Tagee in Ask Tagee), and the pages don’t fit on a typical desktop scanner. I had to go big. The PowerLook 2100XL is a powerhouse. It’s a bit aged, and noisy to boot, but it does a great job with large items.
My scanner 2: A Canon CanoScan 9950f. I got this CanoScan model because it’s built for scanning lots of slides and negatives. The CanoScan 9950f will handle an entire roll of 35mm negatives (36) or 20 slides in their mounts. Canon’s scanning software is exceptional for removing dust and scratches, color-balancing on the fly, and so on. Canon doesn’t make the 9950f any more, but the rest of the CanoScan line is still great, if limited to six negs or four slides at a time.
3. A Place to Store Your Scans
If you’re looking at scanning more than a few images, storage space is going to become an issue. Luckily, mass storage is ridiculously cheap these days. You’ll find that a 3TB (that’s terabyte) external USB hard drive can be had for under $150.00. Do your homework on hard drives though. Some are better than others. I am sold on models made by Western Digital.
4. A Backup System
Look, if you’re not already backing up your computer, you are operating on borrowed time. Eventually, everyone will fall victim to a hard drive failure. Everyone. You are not immune. You will get hammered. If you think somehow you’re different, or special, or you’re too cheap to invest in a backup system, you are being foolish. Your day of reckoning will come, regardless of your rationalization. And when it does, you will lose everything. If you don’t have a backup system in place, take care of that right now. Read on for my backup systems – I hope one or both will inspire you.
My backup #1: Time Machine & Time Capsule from Apple. David Pogue of the New York Times estimates as few as 4% of computer owners have any kind of backup plan. Considering that 100% of us will experience a hard drive failure at some point, 96% of us are not prepared for disaster. Apple’s Time Machine software, which is free on every Mac, makes this simple and routine. I sprung for a Time Capsule so I can back up my six Macs to one place. If you have one Mac, you can attach an external USB hard drive to it and stay backed up. And restoring from a Time Machine backup is nothing short of magic. Magic, I say. Apple does not get enough credit for how easy it is to stay backed up with Time Machine. I have no idea if there is something comparable on Windows. Probably not.
My backup #2: BackBlaze. I was feeling pretty self-assured after I got my Time Capsule and started backing up the six Macs in my home/office. Then one night I realized that if my house burned down, my backups would burn too. What to do? Well, luckily, my panic was soon salved by the introduction of several cloud-based backup services. These services are much like Apple’s Time Machine, but they back up your files into the cloud. Neat stuff – if you’re connected to the Internet, you are being backed up. When I was shopping for cloud-based backup services, only BackBlaze would back up an attached USB hard drive, so I went with BackBlaze. Other similar services are Carbonite and Mozy. These services are similar and are priced similarly. Do your own shopping and ask your friends what they use.
5. A Plan
Ah, yes. The plan. Or more accurately: The Plan. Or perhaps THE PLAN. This is where it gets interesting. I have split this part up into several other pages. This is the part where you give yourself a headache because you have to think about file naming conventions, a process for scanning, consistency, cleaning your artifacts, keeping track of where you are in the pile, and so on. Please see my separate page on Best Practices.