I am looking to digitally preserve family photos and documents for my extensive family. I am concerned about quality preservation when purchasing a scanner, but I don’t have a lot of money to put into it. Probably around the $300 range plus or minus based on what is the best choice. The reason I don’t want to use a service is because I know I don’t have all the photos across my extended family and I want to be able to either have them send me their photos or take the scanner to where they live to preserve the photos and documents they possess. Until I can convince them all to dig up all their saved photos and documents, I’d have to pay for many sessions of preservation with a service company.
I have delayed this decision for a couple of years now out of analysis paralysis of which scanner to buy and ultimately I end up backing out of decision and holding this project off longer because of some review that brings up a concern over quality.
I want to be my family’s advocate / historian to preserve all our history and make it available to them online, but I need guidance on this first step.
Any advice?