Not too long ago, there existed a world of darkrooms, negative reels, and chemical development of pictures. A frightening place where pictures and memories were developed in dark closets filled with chemical baths, just to be left on the bookshelf to gather dust. But somehow, people endured this difficult age. Through determination and innovation, people were able to break away from these dark times and into the golden era of digital photography- an age where no picture would grow dust on the bookshelf, or so they thought.

Unbeknown to the people of the golden age, photographs of the past continued to hide on bookshelves, in shoeboxes, and within picture albums. Oblivious to this, the memories of the people’s past continued to fade. But one day, a ray of hope entered the old bookshelves, the hidden shoeboxes, and the forgotten picture albums.  There came an entrepreneur, a young innovator, who would take up the quest to save these people’s memories. ScanDigital would convert people’s pictures to digital form.

ScanDigital, an LA area based company started in 2007, does exactly that: they scan old printed photos, optimize them, upload them onto an online gallery, and deliver them back as a CD / DVD. The ScanDigital idea is definitely a useful one. As Anderson Schoenrock (CEO) explains, it could take the average person hours, if not days, to digitally convert her old photos. Essentially anyone who is currently shopping around the internet still has countless old photographs just hidden away somewhere. Unfortunately, the vast majority of these people just do not have the time to start scanning every picture since Uncle Ernie’s 3rd wedding. And that is where ScanDigital comes in.

The ScanDigital service focuses on doing as much as possible, so that the user doesn’t have to. In fact, ScanDigital offers an option in which all the customer needs to do is send the photos in a box; no need to count, pre-sort, or organize images. Once the photos are received, ScanDigital will scan the photos and then touch them up through cropping and color correction in order to get the photos looking as close to the original quality as possible. After this, ScanDigital uploads the refined images onto a custom online gallery. Here, users can share images with friends and family, organize the photos, upload other digital images, and order reprints and other print products using the now well-organized digital images. Finally, ScanDigital puts all the user’s photos onto a CD/DVD and delivers it back at no additional cost. 

In addition to scanning traditional photos, ScanDigital also accepts entire photo albums, slides in carousels, magazines and protective slide display pages, negatives, and video film. Through the film option, ScanDigital will convert old home movies to digital format and put them onto a DVD.

However, the true selling point of the ScanDigital service is its simplicity. With user-friendly interface and a well-communicated tracking system for transactions, ScanDigital attempts to help customers by simply allowing them to understand what they are paying for.

Overall, the ScanDigital concept is both convenient and appealing. Although the world of non-digital photography will soon be forgotten, in the meantime, ScanDigital will continue to help the people in their transition from the old dark times to the golden age.