eddiem

The canon a510 may be cheap but it is not tough.

Our daughter's just fell off a bench 1.5 feet onto a concrete floor and it is now inoperable.

Anyone got one that is cheap and will survive such a drop test?

Paul,

Well, it's quite a while later and my project at least has not progressed.

I did notice the spec link wasn't working, and I fixed it, if you want to see what I was considering. I have yet to see something like a 'myphoto.net' or 'myphotosig' or 'myshutterfly' in an installable form as polished as BR's product. (photo.net is running on Oracle? I think, which immediately puts it out of the common man's hands...) The photoalbum approach being offered in several of the windows editor programs like photoshop elements, paintshop pro etc. isn't really it.

My uncle did finally get a new pc this spring and he may be coming around to buying a Supercoolscan.

I did get a suggestion of putting the keywords in the files themselves (custom exif tags?) and then building the indexes off of them that way. Any comments about that? It would keep the file and its metadata together.

Postgres can handle blobs and Pat and I looked at storing image files inside the postgres db in a very cursory fashion this spring, but that is all.

Note that the pgaccess project is up and running with a fairly active group of contributors now. I've heard pgadmin (windows only) is also worth a look, but haven't used it...

If you'd like some help critiquing functional or workflow requirements I'd be glad to take a look. I've been pondering this for a while, but the rest of my life (making money, raising family, uncle not really ready to do it) have put this on hold.

Hello all. Sorry I've been away from this for a little while. We're getting ready to buy the scanner.

Has anyone used the Super Coolscan 4000 from Nikon with the slide loader?

Can you load it up with 50 slides and walk away and it will scan and auto name/number each resulting image in the directory of your choice and with other default settings?

We want to get the scanning and storage moving and come back and import once we have the software.

We may end up using something that's already built, not building our own, but we're still researching a few products. I haven't updated the web site, but hope to this weekend.

I read in one review that slides in cardboard mounts may require some attention to keep the loader from grabbing two. Anyone with experience using the scanner and bulk feeder?

Thanks,

Ed

<p>Wow, Thanks to everyone who has responded so quickly. I'll have to incorporate more details on the project spec page in the coming week, as my friend Pat and I talk through it some more.

In the mean time, here are responses to some of your posts:</p>

<p>To Carl Smith, we are scanning all mounted 35mm Kodachrome and Ektachrome. We do want the bulk loader, so I guess we're looking at the 4000? An option we ruled out was to have someone put these down on a high end professional flatbed scanner and do a bunch at once like that--too expensive for the labor, given the numbers.<br> Can you tell me more about the low res tiffs? We want to get the file format right the first time... :-)</p>

<p>To Gene Wilburn and Bill Bingham, I'm glad to see others are home brewing their own solutions. Regarding name, we are not planning on a human readable filename at all, rather storing all of the information, including the path, in the database. The data will be text in a format that can be exported and imported as plain text. Bill, we aren't planning on storing the file itself in the database, just the metadata, with a pointer to the files. The files will remain in a filesystem. Hopefully, Linux will stay in a state that lets us move the files and data to an upgrade as needed. We are considering how to export the metadata into XML, the XML schema shouldn't be too complicated--but I'm still learning XML. As far as backup, we'll probably put the whole thing onto a mirrored RAID drive system of some kind, and for backup, maybe just copy the whole thing off to an external hard drive like you said. We plan on putting it up on the web for access, and maybe giving copies to family members who want them also on said external HardDrive(s). How many MB/GB does a DVD hold? We'd have to have an index that pointed to the CD or DVD number, something we haven't considered yet. Hmmm.</p>

<p>To Kelly Flanigan! Yes, we have run similar numbers, but thanks for pointing out for everyone what a huge effort it is. That's why we need to get started asap. My uncle is mostly retired from a pathology practice he helped found and barring any calamities plans to work on this maybe for the rest of his life. All of the slides are at his house. Obviously we need to automate as much as possible. The DB will contain a pointer back to the physical slide location based on box/tray number, so until the slides go bad, there's that, too. </p>

<p>To Tony Terlecki--We want something that can run today on Windows, Macintosh, and X Windows in Linux/Unix. Thus, we either have to write the front end to run in a browser that runs on all three (Mozilla), or we have to use something that has its own libraries that will run on all three. We don't know java, but we do know tcl, and could probably pick up PHP to run in a browser. So, it's not just where and how the data are stored, it's what OS OR cross OS application are they going to use to look at it. <br>Also there's eliminating all software license fees for the audience, which this solution does. So far, there are NO SOFTWARE COSTS (building nor running it) involved in this project.</p>

<p>Again, THANKS for the swift and helpful responses; please keep them coming. I'll try to add more details to the "official plan" as posted on my website and post an update message here when they're there. We hope to have the pilot running by the end of November.</p>

Greetings,

<p>I'm working with an uncle who's now 70 to create a searchable digital archive/database of his 20,000 plus family slides, created over the past 50 years. (He's 70 now). </p>

<p>We can't afford to have someone scan everything for us, and I haven't been able to find any software that really meets our requirements at a decent price. (see link to our requirements, below)</p>

<p>So, I'm probably going to get some friends to write a database for us, and get a Nikon SuperCoolscan and a hefty PC. I've posted the <a target="_blank" href="http://www.wematthews.com/photodb.html">initial project specifications</a> and invite you to take a look. </p>

<p>What are photo.net readers doing to archive their digital images, and how are you planning for a lifetime collection of them?</p>

<p>Brian M., have the Photo.net coders thought about selling a packaged stripped down photo.net archiving software product?</p>

<p>Note that I am aware of Portfolio Extensis, and also have found a very nice inexpensive indexer called BR Software. Neither is OS agnostic at this point, and at least BR isn't likely ever to be (written with a MS coding tool for Windows)</p>

Thanks<br/>

Ed Matthews, g8orade@Yahoo.com