The genealogy princess, about 1977
In December I wrote about negotiating that one of my Christmas gifts be a Flip-Pal scanner. I wanted it before the holiday so I could use it when I visited my family in California. The goal was to scan family photos while I was at my parents house.
I am pleased to announce that I met that goal. To be more specific, I scanned the hell out of my Flip-Pal. I sat in my parents' family room, visited and watched tv with everyone. Then I did the same at the in-laws. The whole time I just scanned photos. The final tally on this trip: over 2,800 photos scanned!
This was the first time I used my Flip-Pal and it worked just fine. I have not yet used the software that allows users to stitch photos together. That time will come.
Here are the modifications I made for this marathon scanning session:
I bought a 10.2" netbook case at Target to hold my Flip-Pal for the trip. It is a pretty blue shade and has a zippered front pocket for all my scanner stuff like the USB stick and extra SD cards.
The Flip-Pal uses 4 AA batteries. I had 8 rechargables. When I was using 4, I'd recharge the other 4. On a good charge, I was able to scan 250 photos or more.
I used an extra SD card, larger than the one that came with the scanner. I knew I'd be a scanning fiend for a whole week and I wanted to make sure I had enough space.
The scanner held up in air travel. I took it out of it's case to go through security, but the rest of the time, it was in it's padded case in my padded backpack. It came out just fine.
Those 2,800 photos made but a dent in my family's pictures. I plan on taking the Flip-Pal next time I go out there and get some more. My goal is to have copies of all photos in two different locations for disaster prep purposes. Flip-Pal has helped me take significant steps toward that goal.
MY WORD! That is a lot of photos! Now what will you do with them?? Besides back up. Will you link to your data base?? Print?? Make scrapbooks??
ReplyDelete2,800!!! Amazing! You may hold the world record!
ReplyDeleteCarol, my top priority is to scan all the photos at my parents' house, so there is a copy of each offsite.
ReplyDeleteI've started to group and sort the first 2,800 on my computer. This is more for my own sanity, so I can find an image quickly if I want to use it on this blog.
Eventually, I will tag these photos with names, descriptions and approximate dates.
I'm not a scrapbooker, just compelled to get the family photos preserved.
Amy, this is wonderful! We did a similar project a few years back using a flatbed scanner - now all the siblings have sets of my mom's treasure trove of pictures dating back almost 100 years.
ReplyDeleteLately, we've just been taking new digital photos of the old photos and have liked the results. Does the Flip-Pal work better than that approach?
I am awesomized. Okay, that is not a word, but wow! I think it is awesome you can do that, I remember carting a big scanner to my mother in laws' and scanning her old pictures. Slow and cumbersome.
ReplyDeleteWelll... ya, a bit of a review - and a great one! And I love the princess photo. Too cute!
ReplyDeleteI don't know what is the best part of all this ... the photo or the review. Oh wait .. it wasn't a review. I'm confused actually I am very very envious and going to put Flip-Pal on my lust list.
ReplyDelete2,800 ... most definately the Flip-Pal Scan Queen!!
And now we know how you will be spending the rest of the new year - organizing 2,800 pictures. Wow.
ReplyDeleteOohh, I am dying to get my hands on one of these.. and since this is on my goal list for 2011, I am hoping I'll have one sooner than later!
ReplyDeleteNow I guess you will be tagging photos for a bit!!
I want to buy a new techie toy when I come to the US for Rootstech and this sounds like the gadget for me - thanaks for the non-review. I'll have to wear the same clothes every day and come with an empty suitcase!
ReplyDeleteBTW I moved from Photoshop Elements to Picasa for organising my pics - it copes with 87,000 inages onan external drive whereas poor old PS Elements didn't like such a big collection.
Do you think it's better than buying a proper scanner?
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, that depends on your definition of a "proper scanner."
ReplyDeleteMy Flip-Pal will not replace my printer/fax/scanner. I use that to scan all my papers and documents.
Flip-Pal is good for travel and places where you want to scan things, but can't bring a big scanner. It's also ideal for items that won't sit nicely on a flatbed scanner. You can take the lid off the Flip-Pal and turn it over to scan something, hence the name.
Geniaus, I would be surprised if Flip-Pal wasn't at RootsTech.
ReplyDeleteIf they are there, go early to the exhibit area and buy one. They sold out fast at the Atlanta Family History Expo in November.
Wow, that's amazing. I can't wait to put my Flip-Pal through it paces.
ReplyDeleteAmy, I believe the Genealogy Princess is now the Genealogy Queen of scanning - 2500 photos! That is impressive!
ReplyDeleteDid you scan the backside of photos that had info on them? What was your system for keeping track of all of them as you scanned?
Geniaus, I plan to get a Flip-Pal at Rootstech too.
I ordered mine today! Love the picture Amy!You are the Flip Pal scanning queen! Wowwwzza!
ReplyDeleteJoan, if a photo had writing on the back, I scanned it, too. Most of my family's photos did not have writing on them.
ReplyDeleteAll I can say is Wow! I am very impressed. Will you come over to my house and scan my several thousand family photos. I've gotten as far as schlepping them from parent's house to mine for the purpose of scanning. ha
ReplyDeleteBTW Is the Flip-Pal faster than a flatbed scanner?
If I didn't already have the majority of my family's photos I'd be rushing out to get one before our reunion in July! I've been hearing a lot about them.
ReplyDeleteI don't envy you the sorting through. I just do about 200 at a time before sorting and that's enough to drive me bonkers!
Go you! I've used mine "on the road" once, and love it. I didn't do but about 100 scans though - this is a very tough aunt I have, and I think she is going to piecemeal me to death...
ReplyDeleteI do find that the stitching software works better with photos than documents. But the scans of the sections of the documents are excellent quality.
I expect I'll break down and buy some document stitching software...
Amy, wow...you was a scanning nut!! I have many new toys that I have on my wish-list and this is one of them as well, primarily because I work off of my laptop I have so many photo albums that I work on that do not negotiate well on the flatbed.
ReplyDeleteOn a lighter note, the Genealogy Princess met the approval of the eight year old duo in my house, who both stated that "She's so cute."
Amy - What an undertaking! The sorting of the pics alone will take days :) What a great idea and I TOTALLY plan to have one of these very soon. The hints I dropped before Christmas were not 'heard' by Santa.. Having a complete set of everyone's photos in the family is a wonderful idea and I've already begun this task with my Grandmother's photos and a portion of my parents'. The flip pal will allow me to visit some elderly aunts and take copies right there at their kitchen table! - so jealous right now :) Happy New Year!
ReplyDeleteAmy, Thanks for the photo and the review. I received mine for Christmas and have started a project. Certainly not 2,800 scans, but what a great item to have "in the, research, bag".
ReplyDeleteMy first two project were to see how the Flip-Pal handled a hand sewn sampler, in the frame, followed by a much larger photo of my grandfather's high school graduation class. This required the use of the Easy Stitch feature, on the USB drive. The results were wonderful.
Having a 'not so great' experience trying to photograph some 1916 and earlier documents with a camera, I will scan those that didn't come out as they should. One in particular was a folded letter that has been that way for decades. Didn't have a 2nd set of hands, so the picture wasn't completely in focus. I know that the Flip-Pal will resolve that issue.
Now to find the time to go visit my cousins with those documents.
Thanks again for the review.
Russ
2800? Excellent work, Amy! And you were able to socialise at the same time :-) Jo
ReplyDelete2800? Excellent work, Amy! And you were able to socialise at the same time :-) Jo
ReplyDeleteAmy, looking at the video on their website, looks like it scans pretty quickly. So tell me, in a rough # of hours, how long did 2,800 take you.
ReplyDeleteIt looks impressive. I want one!
Holy Moly Amy, what a lot of scanning. I got my flip pal just before Christmas and the first thing I scanned was a hand written letter that took two scans. The stitching feature is a marvel and you cannot see where the two pieces merge. I bought a netbook case at Sam's Club today and it sounds a lot like yours with the zippered front. Now I just need to find some relatives with pictures for me to scan so I can become a scanning queen like you!
ReplyDeleteI'm excited to learn more! The main reason I'm getting mine is I'm disabled and usually just sit in my recliner. Obviously, this makes it hard to use a regular scanner.
ReplyDeleteWhat are you using to organize all these images? Photoshop Elements?
Looking forward to getting mine in the next couple weeks!
Darlene, I have no idea how long it took for 2,800 images. I did it in spurts between shopping and visiting. I will say Flip-Pal was way faster than my HP all-in-one.
ReplyDeleteBernard, I did most of my scanning in a big chair in the family room. The scanner was in my lap. Sometimes it was too tilted and the pic would fal out of the scanner, but you can adjust yourself so that doesn't happen. I can confirm you can use this scanner seated! :)
Bernard,
ReplyDeleteI did my scanning while watching one of the football games, (or 2 games). Not often that I can watch a game and get some genealogy stuff done at the same time.
I use Picasa for my Photo editing. Works well when using the images for a Blog or printing.
The scanning time per image is about 6 seconds. And while the scanner is returning to the start position a new object can be placed OR the scanner can be moved to the next position. I did a couple of large scans, using the Easy Stitch feature.
Russ
This sounds absolutely perfect for my trip to the UK. I will be staying with distant cousins who are happy to let me scan their old photos, letters, medals, books with family details inside the cover, etc. I tried to order it via the Amazon link in your sidebar, but unfortunately Amazon says they cannot ship it to my address in Australia. Very disappointing! As far as I can ascertain, no-one here stocks Flip-Pal.
ReplyDelete