I want to make everything digital

[PeterB]

I've been tempted to use one of these services, because I obviously now live in an area where there is a very serious risk of flooding, but...

1) I have a ton of negatives, not prints -- I would need someplace that does these VERY cheaply

2) I really hesitate to send off original, irreplaceable negatives.

Of course, as Pogue points out, there's a risk in NOT making them digital...

[davester]

PeterB, I think the point is that it is no more risky sending them off than keeping them in your house where they could degrade be subject to a house fire, etc. However, I think it is important to use a service that does not send them out of country. One thing you can do to reduce the risk is to put your photos into two separate batches, making the batches roughly equal in terms of content. That way if one of the batches gets lost/destroyed you haven't lost all of your priceless memories.

Negatives and slides are much more costly to scan than prints. There's no two ways about it. Last time I went through this digmypics was the cheapest. However that could have changed by now. You can get a high end flatbed scanner that can scan between 4 and 12 negs/slides per pass with decent (though not archival) quality, but that is still a very slow process.

[pinion]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I'll read through all this a little more thoroughly when I get off work tonight.