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The original was posted on /r/datahoarder by /u/Adventurous-Pea-8119 on 2025-12-05 03:22:13+00:00.

I have 10 years worth of photos of my kids I would love to get digitized. I would estimate 5,000-6,000 physical prints based on the number of albums I have, but it could easily be more with random loose photos not in albums.

  • I have all of the 35mm negative strips, and they should be in almost perfect order, in their respective envelopes (Unless a shoebox of them got dropped or something.)
  • I have probably 90%-95% of those negatives printed, in order, in their albums. They were ALL printed at one time, but there are some holes due to mailing prints to grandparents, sending photos into school for projects, etc. The negatives are stored separately from my prints.

I don’t mind doing the scanning myself. This magnitude of a project doesn’t intimidate me too bad, I just want to make sure I do it in the easiest and most cost effective way.

  • Is scanning the prints going to be significantly faster and easier? Enough that it’ll be worth not having the ~5-10% that I’m missing? I’ve used the Plustek ePhoto Z300 scanner in the past and it worked like a breeze. I would probably get that again if I was going to scan prints only.
  • Or do I just need to go ahead and buck up and do the ultra tedious work of scanning the negatives so that I ensure that I get every photo? This just sounds sooo time consuming, and I can’t find a great scanner that is still in production and not $$$.

I do want to ensure that I’m getting high quality scans. They don’t have to be ultra-professional, but if I’m doing all of this work, I want their color and clarity to be preserved good enough to print as a 5x7 or 8x10.

I’m hoping to keep a scanner no more than $300ish. But if there is a scanner that is significantly faster or higher quality, I’m flexible!

I know I’m getting way ahead of myself here, but if it influences your scanner recommendation…

  • I plan to back these up in two places - A hard drive and Google Photos. With Google Photos, I’d ideally have them imported as their actual date. Easier way to do this than manually change them one by one? Do certain scanners/softwares do things to make this easier?