The short answer: For a few photos to share today, a phone app is fine. For a small pile, a home flatbed does a good job if you set at least 600 dpi. A lab pays off with volume, glued albums, slides and negatives, or prints that are already fading. With us a photo costs 0.89 shekels (0.79 from 1,000 photos), a glued album page 5.5, and the minimum order is 150.
A box of albums from your parents' home, a few hundred loose prints, two boxes of slides from 1978. Can you do it yourself? Some of it, yes; some of it, honestly, no.
When is a phone app enough?
When the goal is to share today: one photo for a birthday, a few for the family group. A scanning app straightens the picture and removes some glare, and it looks fine on a phone. What it does not give you is an archive file: resolution depends on distance and lighting, colour on the lamp in the room, and glossy prints keep their reflections. AI tools work better from a real scan; see our AI-era photo scanning guide.
What can a home flatbed do?
A simple flatbed is a good tool for a small pile. The setting that matters is resolution: for prints we work at 600 dpi minimum. Do not expect speed: a hundred photos become an evening. A home sheet-feeder saves time but jams on old cardboard prints, and glued albums do not go in at all. Slides and negatives need 1,200–2,400 dpi and scanning through the transparency, which few home scanners handle.
When is a lab worth it?
Four situations. Volume: hundreds of photos and up. Glued albums: scanned whole, nothing dismantled. Slides and negatives: 2,400 dpi. And fading: colour prints from the 1960s to 1980s are the weak link, and NARA notes that colour materials fade within decades at room temperature even in a closed album, because dark fading depends on heat and humidity, not light.
| Route | Real resolution | Time and albums | Slides, negatives and cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Phone app | Depends on distance and light | Seconds; album pages with reflections | No; free, your time only |
| Home flatbed | Good if set to 600 dpi | Minutes per photo; album only if it fits | Only with a transparency unit |
| Home sheet-feeder | Depends on the setting | Fast, but jams on old cardboard prints | No; albums do not fit |
| Lab, prints and albums | 600 dpi minimum | Done for you; glued albums intact | 0.89 shekels per photo (0.79 from 1,000), 5.5 per album page |
| Lab, slides and negatives | 1,200–2,400 dpi | Manual, frame by frame | Yes; see the price list |
How do you store the originals?
A scan freezes a photo's condition but does not heal it. The Library of Congress recommends 30–50 percent relative humidity, no more than 21°C, and stable conditions: not the attic, the basement or an exterior wall. Sticky "magnetic" albums and PVC sleeves are harmful; use acid-free sleeves. Black-and-white silver-gelatin prints are the most stable, a century and more according to the Library of Congress. Which slides fade is covered in our slide scanning guide.
How do we scan at Studio HanaBi?
Prints are scanned on a FastFoto FF-640 and an Epson V850 at 600 dpi minimum; old cardboard prints jam feeders, so they go by hand on the glass. A glued album is scanned as a full page without dismantling, cut into separate files, and the pages with their captions are kept too. Slides and negatives go manually only on the Epson V850 Pro: 6,400 dpi optical, dual lens, Digital ICE; on Kodachrome we switch ICE off deliberately, because its silver layer confuses the infrared. From 1,000 photos pickup is free. Details on our photo, slide and negative scanning page and in photo and album scanning cost. That is how more than 5,000,000 frames and photos have passed through our hands.
Once the files are yours, keep them safe: the 3-2-1 backup and family sharing guide covers three copies, two kinds of media and one copy off-site.
A box of prints, glued albums or slides? Send us a photo of the pile and we will tell you what to scan at home and what to bring to us.
We send couriers to your door anywhere in Israel, in both directions. Small jobs are usually ready within about seven working days, large ones within about 21, and the first minute is on us — you see how your material comes out before you decide. You can also drop off in person: our studio at 9 HaMa'ayan St., Rishon LeZion, 5 Lisin St. in Tel Aviv, or Mitzpe Hararit in the Galilee. Call 03-5610368 or leave your details on the contact page. What each service includes is listed on the price list (Hebrew).
Frequently asked questions
What resolution should I scan photos at home?
At least 600 dpi for prints. Slides need 2,400 dpi and negatives 1,200–2,400, with a transparency unit.
Do I have to dismantle a glued album to scan it?
No. We scan the page intact, cut each photo into its own file, and keep the captions. 5.5 shekels per page.
What is the minimum order, and is pickup free?
150 shekels. From 1,000 photos pickup is free; return is by paid delivery or self-pickup.
Why not use Digital ICE on Kodachrome?
The silver layer in Kodachrome confuses the infrared that ICE relies on, so we switch it off deliberately.
Still deciding whether a lab is worth it? Scan one reel together with us and see on screen what happens to your film.
