BootsnAll Travel Community

Hi guys,
I'd love to buy a digital camera but I'm planning on travelling through Continental Europe on a shoestring and spending my cash on a new camera is not very economical, so I think taking my trusty old-school film camera is the cheapest option.
My question is What are the best ways to scan my pics whilst I'm traveling?
Do film processing stores offer this as a standard service? Do I need to find an internet cafe with a scanner??
Please help!

Some processors offer a CD at the time of processing which is probably a good option. You'll get a high quality digital from the CD. Scanning prints on a flatbed doesn't do the photo justice, trust me, I've done that plenty - and buying a film scanner is out of my budget at the moment! If you are going to go the flatbed route, use glossy photos, not matte the texture in a matte makes a scan look like you can't focus a camera! Professional drum scans are available but very costly. IF you can find an internet cafe with a film scanner that would work great. It's a tough situation.

Thanks very much, I agree that the situation is not ideal - especially when I have pictures that I'd like to email to friends as soon as they are processed, as opposed to waiting for 3 months before I return to some place.
I can only hope that there are enough processing labs around who will also be able to digitise the shots and burn them to CD.

Maybe you should do a little research and work out how to ask for that in the languages of the countries that you are going to?

Try plugging what you want to say into Babelfish and printing/writing the results.

If you have trouble, you can show them the piece of paper to avoid (possibly costly) confusion.

Just a thought...

--
Rob
http://www.robstravels.com

Zoilist, if getting pictures to friends home quickly is truly a priority, it might be a good idea to really consider getting a cheap digital camera. You might end up paying more in processing and digitizing fees than if you just had a digital camera in the first place.

e.

http://www.theglobaltrip.com

Here is another option to consider:

Shoot normal color film and then mail to Ofoto, they will put it up on the web where you can snag copies to add to Fotolog or your website or wherever.

If buying a digital camera right now is just out of the question, this is an inexpensive alternative.