1. Use Your Smart Phone.
If you only have 10 or 15 photos, you could just use your phone. With a phone, it takes a while to get the lighting and angle just right on every shot, though. It requires a lot of effort and patience, but with that limited number of photos it shouldn't be too difficult. Working with any more than that would be too aggravating and take too long for most people. And, unless you have the latest expensive smart phone, the scans probably won't be high def.

2. Use An Entry Level Flatbed Scanner
You could buy an entry level flatbed scanner for around $100, which have their share of operating issues, aren't capable of doing slides or negatives, and the software is limited.

2a. The main issue with them, is speed.
Even scanning 3 4x6 photos at a time (only 2 5x7 can be done), you still have to place them just right, to avoid parts of the shots being cut off. Then, you must re-orient those that need it and individually crop the 3 (or however many), pictures out each time. After that, the photos need to be picked up, and the screen checked for spots/smudges and cleaned every three or four scans. The whole process takes on average about 5 minutes (counting the initial dusting of the photos).

Scanning 100 4x6 photos requires 33 separate batches, which takes about 2 hours and 45 minutes to complete. That is repeating the same process I described above 33 times!

The more photos you have, the longer the job will take you. For example, 500 requires 167 batches, which takes about 14 hours to do. Usually, people get tired of scanning after a couple of hours, so let's say 7 actual days of scanning, with a couple days off (we all take them), mixed in, which in reality adds up to 9 days total.

Applying the same metrics, 1000 photos can take you about 28 hours, in reality working 2 hours per day for 14 days, with 4 days off, for a grand total of 18 days!
Understandably, this is why photo digitizing projects get put off--they just take too long.

2.b People Have a Mix of Various Photo Types to Digitize.
Many people have some combination of loose photos, photo albums, slides and negatives they want to digitize. The entry level flatbed scanner, by itself, can't handle everything. This means either purchasing a decent dedicated slide scanner ($200+), as well as the entry level flatbed, or upgrading to a flatbed that has slide/film capabilities for around $360. But the dedicated slide scanners produce questionable results and the slide-capable flatbeds are still painfully slow.

3. For Best Speed, Capabilities and Resolution: Buy 3 Scanners and a DSLR Kit.
If speed and getting high resolution scans is important, as well as accommodating all of the photo types in your collection, you could buy 3 different scanners to get the job done for photos. This would include a fast, front-loading photo scanner, and at least 2 flatbed scanners for photo albums. With slides and film, your best bet is a DSLR scanning setup (camera, stand, macro lens, holder. etc.), or at least 2 flatbed scanners with slide/film capabilities.

Having all of these would allow you to match the proficiency of some professional setups. The big downside of securing equipment like this is it will cost you $1700 and up. And even that price is with taking more of a bargain route. That's a lot of money to spend on a bunch of equipment you probably only use once and will no longer need, taking up space around the house.

4. Pay One of the Online Companies To Do Your Digitizing.
Just like other tasks people choose to pay someone else to do for them, it's also a viable option for digitizing their photos. The main sticking points with this are: you'll most likely be paying a steeper price for the service, it's going to take longer (with shipping and normal turnaround times), and you'll be taking a risk with and losing control of your photos by shipping them, frequently out of state.

5. Let Archive Moments Handle Your Digitizing Project.
You'll be saving both time and money in every project scenario you may have, outside of a handful of photos using your phone, by using Archive Moments to curate your digitizing project. We're fast, inexpensive, and offer a no shipping option. We can come to you.

Please use the link below to check our services pricing and see a graphic comparing various projects for real world examples of this.