DIGMYPICS.COM | THE LEADING PHOTO SCANNING AND VIDEO TRANSFER SERVICE

A little over a week ago I became fixated on finding out more about a set of photos I found in an Asheville thrift store. I began to carefully examine my photos in the privacy of my own home.

If you've never held a 2x2 slide, let me tell you they're really small. The entire side has 2 inch by 2 inch area and the 35mm subtractive Kodachrome photo is not much larger than an inch in landscape orientation width. It's small. Really small. Too small to really see the unique facial features that identify one of the millions of people in the US.

They're made to be projected on a large screen or wall; for showing off at a family get-together. These aren't meant to be viewed as is.

Since I passed up the broken projector at the thrift store, these were my options.

1. Buy a 2x2 slide projector from an online store or

2. Send the photos off to be professionally scanned or

3. Build a DIY slide photo scanning rig with my DSLR or

4. Buy a 2x2 slide scanner.

Here were my main goals.

1. Preserve the original slide images.

2. Enlarge the photos as much as possible to make out the faces and to recognize the landscape.

3. Meet goals 1-2 in the most cost effective way.

Decision

The slide projectors vary in price on shopping websites from around $20 to $200. I've never seen one in action, I don't know how to use one, and from the youtube videos, the photo quality depends on several variables from the screen material and color, the bulb color temperature, the projector lenses, and more. I x'd this one early on at the thrift store.

Sending the photos off to a place called digmypics.com sounded promising except for the fact that the website and videos seemed dated and I had never heard of this place before. It also risked goal #1 by mailing the original photos via carrier which terrified me.

Building a DIY slide scanner/projector seemed like the best choice. I have a pro DSLR, I can order the parts, easy! But then I began reading about the details that are located on the slide surface which could hinder facial details. That would hurt goal #2.

Finally, buying a slide projector was the best option for my goals. I could keep the photos at home and I could enlarge the photos quite a bit with a 2500 dpi slide scanner. But this bad boy was over $100 USD, hurting goal #3. I was skeptical of the results and who knew if I would ever run into more slides to scan.

I chose digmypics.com after reading reviews and learning about their 4000 dpi Nikon 9000 scanner. It was $0.69 for each 4000 2x2 35mm scan with a $25 minimum. I ended up paying for the $25 minimum; half charged when my photos arrive and the other half after they're scanned. I payed around $8 to ship these via USPS in a sturdy box. Total of around $33 - around the cost of a slide projector or a little more than the parts needed for my DIY slide scanner.

Today my photos are leaving and are in the hands of USPS. I know that they're OK and will make it to digmypics. However, this is a crucial step of the journey and it's either make it or break it here.