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.
