How to scan 1,000 photos in 1 hour – for FREE!
This article was contributed by a local member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The views expressed may not represent the views and positions of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. For the Church's official site, visit churchofjesuschrist.org.
Who doesn’t have a stack of old photos just waiting to be scanned and digitized?
I do, so I decided to head down to the Mesa Temple Visitors’ Center at 455 E. Main St. in downtown Mesa, and check out their new FREE scanning equipment.
I called a couple of hours early to reserve the fast photo scanner and booked the time I wanted. You can just show up too, but an appointment will assure you get the scanner you need and not have to wait.
A very friendly volunteer, Elder Finn, came right over to assist us. We had brought our photos in a box, separated by portrait (vertical) or landscape (horizontal). This makes it much easier than having to turn the photos later on your computer.
In just a couple of minutes, and with our thumb drive plugged in and ready to go, we put a stack of photos in the Epson FastFoto Smart Scan (be sure they go in top first, forward facing – and if you’re confused, just ask). And, yes, the scanner is fast!
We tried to keep similar sizes together and adjusted the feeder, and the photos just flew through the scanner. We were done in about an hour with nearly 1,000 photos all backed up on our flash drive. I had a stack of my own photos and hubby had a stack too, so when it came time to do his, we simply created a different file to automatically back up to and on we went.
We were done with no problems, and we took the digitized photos home on the thumb drive, uploaded them to our computers, picked out some to add to FamilySearch, threw a bunch of the printed ones away, and kept some special ones. We also backed up to Google Photos and an external hard drive.
We plan to come back and scan some more. We eventually want to back up all the family photos on a thumb drive and give each of our kids one for Christmas.
The Visitors’ Center also has a variety of scanners that have the capability of not only digitizing photos, but negatives, slides, audio cassettes, VHS, 8mm, and Super 8 film as well! There are also oversized flatbed scanners to use. Oh, and did I mention all of these are FREE?!
Come in and volunteers can assist you in using this equipment. Call ahead to reserve your scanner and time at 480-964-7164. You’ll be glad you did!
