What's the best way to scan a boatload of photos?

philmar wrote in post #3365153
Thanks for the suggestion....the price of copy stands seem rather high to me. Not sure if the savings of this route is a good compromise considering the work involved and the resultant lack of quality.

The copy stand could be just your tripod and some table lamps on each side -- or just ambient room light, as in my test shots. (My copy stand is just a piece of wood sticking out from my bookcase, attached by C-clamps, over my desk.)

The lack of quality is subjective. I wouldn't rule it out until you've taken a few test shots.

I think your chance of finding a reliable auto-feeding flatbed scanner that doesn't require constant unjamming and glass cleaning is nill.

archi wrote in post #3370815
The copy stand could be just your tripod and some table lamps on each side -- or just ambient room light, as in my test shots. (My copy stand is just a piece of wood sticking out from my bookcase, attached by C-clamps, over my desk.)

The lack of quality is subjective. I wouldn't rule it out until you've taken a few test shots.

I think your chance of finding a reliable auto-feeding flatbed scanner that doesn't require constant unjamming and glass cleaning is nill.

then I'd rather wait for the scanner solution to be invented. My photos are glossy covered - there'd be the possibility of reflections or highlights as the photos are not completely flat.
The copystand makes sense to me for maybe 500 photos, but for 5000 I think I'll wait.
I just don't have the time to commit to this right now. Rather, I don't have the will. I just spent the last month processing a backlog of RAWs on my new PC, trying to figure out the best way to use ACR and CS2. I need to be outdoors behind my lens. I have all next winter if I don't find a scanner solution. I am Canadian - need to enjoy the summer. Thanks for the suggestion though!
I did hear rumours of an imminent Kodak scanning service with Qualex. They have rediculously expensive scanners that are up to the task - someone just needs to pony up the $50,000+ and use it for photo scanning.
Knowing my luck, I'd slave all summer scanning negs, or photographing prints only to find the next day someone decided to use one of these super scanners for photos at $0.10 each!!