If it is not obvious from my recent string of questions, I am deeply
engaged in the process of cataloging my digital pictures.  I think I
pretty much have all of that done and figured out.  However, there is
a major issue I need help with.  I have been using digital photography
exclusively for several years now, but I still have TONS of pictures
from the pre-digital days that I would love to have digitized.  Now, I
have a regular flat bed scanner and photoshop, so I could take care of
it that way.  However, even if I scan 4 pictures at a time and have
Photoshop seperate them, it is incredibly time consuming, expecially
for the volume of pictures that I would like to do.  So, I am looking
for a way to get all of my old printed pictures onto my computer.

As far as I see it, there are 2 options (which I would like you to
find for me).  The options are as follows:
1.  Find a local service that can scan all of my pictures at a
reasonable price and deliver it to me on CD(s) or DVD(s).  Local would
be Lexington, KY.

2.  It would be very cool if there was a scanner that I could buy that
could automatically feed pictures through, scan them and batch name
them.  In other words, I could put 50 pictures into the feeder, set
the name in the computer as "1997 Pictures" and 10 minutes later,
fully automatically, I have 50 pictures in the folder I designated
named 1997 Pictures 001, 1997 Pictures 002, etc...

If there are any more options that don't involve me using every minute
of free time or spending a small fortune to get this done, I am more
than open to suggestions.

Thanks!!

Hi
What you need is a Xerox documate 510 for ~300$ you can feed all the
photos and it will scan and organize all the pictures for you
I have used this myself and its currently sitting on my desk so I knwo it works :)
Thanks
and enjoy

Also, if you're a photographer there's a small chance that you still
have the original rolls of film. If you do I believe you can bring the
film into your local WalMart (there must be a WalMart where you live,
there's WalMarts where life itself doesn't exist) and they can put
them to CD for you, in Canada it costs $5 per CD I believe.

Outsourcing overseas is a viable possibility if you can part with the
photos.  I have a relative who had thousands of photos scanned in the
Philippines.  Philippines, India, and China are the three major places
for outsourcing digitizing.  Philippines and India are preferred
because almost everyone speaks English there.

There's a good article on digital archiving that mentions outsourcing overseas.
http://chnm.gmu.edu/digitalhistory/digitizing/7.php

If you still have the negatives, you will find live a lot easier,
since negative scanners are cheaper, quicker, and generally give
higher results.

Scanners with an automatic document feeder (the name of the feature
that you are looking for) cost at least $300.  After everything is
done, (you go to the store, find one that you like, get talked to by a
salesperson into buying the next highest priced model...) you will end
up spending around $400 or so.

The next question that comes up is:  What do you mean by tons?  If you
have around 500-600 pictures, there are many services you can try

<a href="http://www.britepix.com/price-calculator.php">britepix</a>
offers photo scanning services that cost around 50 cents per photo for
high quality scans.  600 photos will cost you around $315, but at
least you don't have to do it yourself.

<a href="http://www.myspecialphotos.com/">my special photos</a> offers
scanning services at 35 cents per photo, which is quite a bit cheaper.
 1,000 photos would be only $350.

If you have more than a thousand photos though, I would say buy an
auto-feed scanner.

For reference, most scanner software should be able to automatically
name your files, but the software that comes bundled with scanners is
notoriously horrid.  The program <a
href="http://www.irfanview.com/">infranview</a> does excellent batch
renaming jobs.  (A batch job is a single job done over and over again,
such as adding the words "Family vacation 2002" to the beginning of
all of a selected group of files!)

For a decent consumer level photo scanner with sheet feeder, you can
investigate the <a href="http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping/product_detail.do?storeName=storefronts&landing=storefronts&category=scanners&orderflow=1&product_code=L1910A%23B1H&catLevel=1">
HP Scanjet 5590</a>