Don't Let Your Memories Fade Away. Preserve Them Digitally Forever. Digitize Your Slides Today!
Your old photo slides are in jeopardy. Minute by minute, even in the dark, they are changing color, scratching, and possibly developing fungal stains. But you don't have to let them degrade in this way. We can help you convert your slides to digital photos at ScanCafe and save the memories stored in them.
Simply send us your cherished slides. We begin the important task of scanning and converting them into high-quality digital images. Your memories are in expert hands from the moment we receive them.
Your slides are converted and corrected with our proprietary technology, which blends artificial intelligence with meticulous human oversight for superior quality. Your slides will be processed at our lab in Indiana within 3-4 weeks.
Relive and share your beautifully restored memories. Once digitized and corrected, they are available for digital download, USB drive, or external hard drive, ready to be cherished and shared for generations.
At ScanCafe, we go above and beyond to ensure the safety of your slides. From 60 high definition surveillance cameras covering the entire property, we ensure that the entire scanning process is captured and retained via surveillance video. From the moment your package arrives we weigh your package to the gram and take a video of the package being opened. Prior to returning your order, we weigh the products to the gram and compare to the arrival weight. We know how important your slides are to you, and that is why we take pride in the safety measures we have put in place to protect your memories.
Your old slides are treasures, capturing priceless memories that deserve the utmost care. When you entrust them to a scanning service, it's important that they are handled with precision and care. At ScanCafe, we understand that. We don't just run slides through an automated correction process, where a piece of outdated software processes a batch of your most important memories. Yet with most other services, this is exactly what happens.
We believe in giving each slide the TLC it deserves. Slides that have been boxed and stored for a long time are fragile and prone to scratches. If they haven’t been stored in a dry environment, they may even have mold buildup on them. In short, we go to great lengths to make sure that your slides are handled and prepped carefully to yield the best possible scans.
To yield the best results, we combine the power of sophisticated AI technology with the discerning eye of a highly trained technician. In our experience this blend of technology and human touch is the best way to deliver the exceptional results you expect and deserve.
Converting slides to digital images is just one part of our slide scanning service at ScanCafe. The other key part of the process involves digital photo restoration and editing.
We've meticulously crafted our service to harness the perfect blend of human expertise and AI technology, ensuring that your slides are restored to their original glory with unmatched precision. Over time, color slides are prone to color shifts and scratches—common issues unless they're stored in archival-quality, subzero conditions. To address these challenges and revitalize your cherished memories, we perform the following enhancements on each digitized slide:
At our standard level of service, we confidently address all the issues listed above - and more. With years of experience scanning millions of slides, we've honed our process to perfection, delivering outstanding quality at an incredible value. Most slides are revitalized with our standard service; however, for those rare cases requiring deeper attention, our robust restoration service is readily available.
We believe that you shouldn’t have to scrutinize every slide in your collection in order to decide if it's worth digitizing. Since we give you the option of discarding a portion of your scans (up to 20% of them), it’s ok if the stray duplicate or blurred image shows up in your scans. You won’t end up paying for them.
So, you don't have to make a hard choice between affordability and quality when it comes to preserving your memories. At ScanCafe, you can get both!
Most people think that if they have a slide scanner, they can tackle the job themselves. While that’s true to a certain extent, it ignores the cost of spending many precious weekend hours on the project. You also have to be aware that non-standard slide formats require a different type of handling from 35mm slides. And slides with debris and dust on them (a common problem with slides that have been kept in storage for a while) need to be cleaned and prepped before they are ready for scanning.
So, you don't have to make a hard choice between affordability and quality when you have a large collection of slides. It makes sense to use a professional slide scanning service like ScanCafe with both the equipment and expertise to get the job done - quickly and painlessly.
Yes. We scan 120/220 medium format slides. We also scan 35mm, 110, 126, 127 slides.
If you have mold build up or crusted dust that is difficult to get off with a jet of air, we will use a special film cleaner such as "Rexton Anti-Static Film Cleaner for Black & White and Color Film". A lint free cloth will then be used and we will wipe gently along the length of the slide. We will not apply the cleaner in a swirling motion because this will scratch the surface. In certain cases, the mold build up will be so extreme that we will need to do advanced photo restoration.
ScanCafe's service is unique because we provide free, manual color correction and restoration for each slide although a small number of slides require more advanced restoration work. It works the same way as our photo restoration, but the image comes from the slide. Color restoration can be done during the scanning process using the scanner hardware or after the scanning process using an image editing software like Adobe Photoshop. At ScanCafe, we do both. We use Kodak Digital ICE which is built into our Nikon scanners, and we use Photoshop photo editing software after the image is scanned.
For purposes of comparing technical aspects of scans, we often use the measure "dpi", which stands "dots per inch". While not precisely accurate, it does enable you to begin to understand two important things about your scanned image: 1) how sharp it will look when printed, and 2) how large it can be printed before it begins to look a bit fuzzy. It is not true, however, that a higher resolution is always the best solution--sometimes a more finely detailed scan can pick up the grain of the underlying material and give results that are inferior to a scan at a lower dpi. So in general we recommend scanning 35mm slides and negatives at approximately 10 megapixels ("MP"), which should give you a very nice print up to about 13" x 9". If you plan to print larger than that, then you may want to think about our Pro Resolution feature, which will enable you to print even larger, up to 16" x 20" and beyond.
Please only use secure and sturdy boxes to ship your precious images. DON’T use flimsy department store boxes (e.g. Macy's or Nordstrom), Kleenex boxes, thin paper/cardboard boxes, moving boxes, or shoeboxes. In addition, you should never use bubble mailers because the contents will likely be damaged. Always be careful to fully tape up the box on the top and bottom. The UPS store or your local post office has appropriate shipping materials. Here are UPS guidelines for proper packaging: