I have tons of old photos that I’ve been meaning to digitize.  Having them in a digital format means they can easily backed up and shared with the rest of my family.  It’ll be much easier for my family to go through them on the computer/tablet/phone/web rather than flip through physical albums.

I have a flatbed scanner but the thought of scanning with it seems laborious.   I was hoping for scanners with an auto-feed of some kind, however most of them are primary designed for documents and not photos.  Also my photos ranges in sizes all the way up to 6×4.  (Note, the P460 can’t scan 5×7 or larger photos)  So finding a auto-feeder to accommodate all the sizes would be tough.

I also wanted to take the computer out of the loop.  Kodak has a small scanner that scans directly to an SD memory card.  It looks like it would work.  You still have to manually load each photo but you don’t need a computer.

What I do is take a box of photos at a time and as I’m watching TV, I’ll feed them into the scanner.  Over the course a weekend I’ve scanned all my photos with little effort.  The quality isn’t bad either.  It scans them at 600dpi and compresses them in JPEG format.  A typical 6×4 takes about 12 sec to scan and then another 5 sec to write to the SD card.  Much faster than using a flatbed scanner, opening lid, closing, hit preview, scan, wait.  You know the drill.  I scanned about 1500 photos in a weekend comfortably at my couch.

Here are examples from the Kodak P460 and my Brother all-in-one scanner.  Both are 600dpi.   I think the P460 picked up more details.  The original photo doesn’t have a lot of details to begin with because it’s a point and shoot from the 80’s.  But you can see more details in the little girl’s hair and the stone.

In this superman photo, again it picks up more details compared to another flatbed scanner.  Look at the siding on the house in the background.  These samples have all been resampled, and still gives you a good idea of what it looks like.  The original resolution of each photo is over 3000×2000 pixels.

The Kodak P460 is very easy to use.  Teaching my parents to use a flatbed scanner, who are non-techy, is impossible.  With the P460, it couldn’t be any easier.  All they have to do is plug in the power and feed the photo into the slot and that’s it.  When done, they plug the SD card into their computer and view the photos.

The scan quality of the P460 isn’t bad.  And you can argue that you can probably get better results from a higher quality flatbed scanner.  For the amount of time I saved and the low cost I think it’s worth it.  Also… in the future when technology advances as always I can rescan with my original photos.  At this point the quality I get from the Kodak P460 is good enough for me.  The P460 is also user friendly for you non-techy loved ones.

From Kodak’s website:

The KODAK P460 Personal Photo Scanner makes it easy to scan your printed photos, from wallet size to 4 × 6 in., and save them instantly to the included memory card or your computer. Your favorite moments can now be shared online, in a digital photo book, on a digital frame—wherever! The P460 is so compact, you’ll want to take it to your friends and relatives to copy their pictures too! Turn the shoebox of pictures into the shoebox of possibilities. The real KODAK MOMENT happens when you share.

Scan and share photos and negatives in seconds

• Just turn it on and scan any printed photo, from wallet sized to 4 × 6 in., directly to a memory card—no setup required
• Scan 35 mm photographic negatives to transform them into crisp, clear positive images
• Your new digital pictures are ready for all the benefits of the digital world—uploading to photo sharing sites like FACEBOOK and KODAK Gallery, emailing, printing, viewing on a digital picture frame and more—how you share your memories is up to you
• Includes a 2 GB MICROSD memory card and SD adapter to make sure that you have plenty of space to hold your precious photos as you scan

Do more with your new digital picture

• Includes KODAK EASYSHARE Software to help you organize, share and print your scanned pictures
• Easily copy to your computer with the included USB cable

The quality you need

• Selectable resolution for photo scanning allows you to choose between 300 dpi and 600 dpi resolutions
• Scans negatives at 1200 dpi for sharp, clear results

Ultra portable design

Take and use your scanner just about anywhere—at home, in the office, at a friend’s or relative’s house, even take it to a reunion to scan those fun pictures from the past.