I've been putting off digitizing all my pictures from over the years for too long.

Took the plunge today, and ordered a scanner: Epson V750.

Reviews here:

http://www.photo-i.co.uk/Reviews/interactive/Epson%20V750/page_1.htm

http://www.imaging-resource.com/SCAN/V700/V700.HTM

Came down to that or a Plustek 7600i Ai dedicated slide scanner.

Had figured on one of the Nikon Coolscans (5000 or 9000) but seems the 5000 has been discontinued, and the 9000 is out of stock and couldn't stomach the price ($2K, give or take)

I have a mix of slides (Kodachrome, Ekatachrome et al) and negative film from 40 odd years. I figure I can start doing a box a day (while doing other things) and in a couple of years, should have the whole shebang transferred over. From what I gather, saving them as TIFF's will preserve all the information. And here's where I need help:

The Epson comes with Silverfast Ai which I gather does some image correction. I don't want to do fancy stuff with my photos, just remove the dirt & scratches (digital ICE, we'll see if it works on Kodachrome) and restoring color balance.

So my questions are this: Does Silverfast do everything I need or do I have to go get Photoshop?

I have an old (5.0?) copy of Photoshop I never really played with, but will be doing this work on a new Win 7 (64 bit) machine, so if I need Photoshop I guess I'll have to bite the bullet and buy the current version. Also I will probably be upgrading to a Nikon D7000 (have almost used up all of my old film!) and maybe a pocketable smaller camera, Canon S95 or G12. Do they all have different formats? I keep hearing that RAW files aren't always the same.


Second question is how do I store the images? Back when I first thought about doing this, I was thinking CDR's, then DVD's, now TB drives are $50. What medium has the best longevity? Or do I just get a bunch of drives and store multiple copies, and keep transferring to newer & newer drives?

You might want to just cancel your order and go with http://www.scancafe.com/. They'll do it with better equipment and will most likely get you your photos done faster.

There are coupon codes out there. I believe there's one on photofocus.com since they're a sponsor of that blog/podcast.

As far as raw files, the raw is different from camera model to camera model, not just manufacture. Whenever a new camera comes out, it usually takes Adobe and the other software vendors several weeks to update their software to read that camera body's RAW file.

Archival storage? Stick with hard drives and keep them on multiple hard drives. I archive all my RAWs and keep them archived on hard drives in three separate physical locations. Forgot optical. I've got stuff on CD that I burned 5 years ago that my computers have problems reading, and those CDs have just been sitting in jewel cases in a closed cabinet.

I looked at the professional scanning options, but would prefer to do it myself. Plus I have a number of old prints which I'd also like to digitize.

I guess where I'm more unsure is what photo software (if any) I need beyond the Silverfast. Seems like there is quite a range from Corel Paintshop Photo to Adobe's Photoshop top of the line. I'm not sure what going from $60 to $600 gets me, and what I give up by going with a lesser program.

Many of the pictures are technical in nature, and I would like to clean them up.