Also the file size is something to consider and be aware of as well.
I’m trying out my friend’s Nikon Coolscan 5000 ED with VueScan. It does very well with slides and negatives. I was disappointed with prints, though. I’ll try upping the resolution as you’ve suggested.
$15k? Ouch! I was gonna go this way with some 126 negatives. Looks like that needs to be rethought.
1 Like
Depends on how many items you have. I have several thousand medium format items and over 8000 slides and negatives to scan.
I wish there was a service to just rent out a nice high quality scanner. Especially useful for negative scanners.
1 Like
I find that even after all the years I have been using a computer I don’t really have many files that don’t live in there own buckets.
I keep 2 folders in my documents folder, one for code and one for “documents” called actual documents, inside documents is a small collection of different projects which use whatever fold structures make sense for that project.
Receipts at the moment are stored in an S3 bucket broken up by year and I have a speadsheet to serve as a file index while I finish building a system of management for them.
I don’t like everything buckets, and so I don’t like treating my filesystem like one, most of my other documents live in there respective cloud services only
My paperless system began with scanning my file cabinet. So I created folders that mirrored my paper filing, and that’s worked pretty well for me. So I have for example:
📂Utilities
└📂Verizon
├📂2017
└📂2018
…and Hazel does most of the actual sorting for me.
Receipts are just in a big folder called Receipts.
Manuals are in a folder called Manuals, and I rename them to include the keywords I’d probably use when searching – usually what the thing is and the brand name, e.g. dishwasher_maytag.pdf or blender_immersion_kitchenaid.pdf
I browse all of thisl using an app called Leap (which actually feels more modern than the ugly screenshot on their site would suggest) which lets me search within individual folders, or across folders, etc. I could just as easily use Finder, but using Leap is just a mental hack that lets me think of that folder structure as a digital file cabinet separate from my other files. But since it’s still Finder-based, I can always move away from Leap to something else if I need to.
1 Like
Wow, I used Leap (and Yep, Fresh and Deep) a decade ago. I had no idea they were still alive.
Doesnt look that they have changed much in that time.
1 Like
I have individual folders one for each letter of the Alphabet (A-Z), I then have one sub-folder under that for storing my files e.g. F - Family Documents / Family Photos (different folders) or M - Music etc. This way you only have to look under the first letter of what you are looking for. After have a number of different systems, I find this a lot easier to find things.
I agree. Problem would be the shipping, good high end negative scanners are fiddly and can get out of whack easily. I can see that shipping them as a rental would be problematic. Actually I’d just like somone to come out with a GOOD negative scanner in the $1000 dollars or less range that handles all the various old film types/sizes and both B&W and Color. I’d buy one and when I am done with it donate it to our historical society. We are getting lots of donations of old film in more formats than I knew existed, including a lot of nitrate film that really needs to be scanned ASAP then destroyed lest it blow up the museum.
1 Like
@OogieM, you have just described the Nikon Coolscan. Still available on eBay in the price range you specified. Out of the box it can only do 35mm but there are hacks to do others.
Interesting. I thought that you could ONLY do 35mm in a CoolScan. I have lots of 2 1/4 x 2 1/4 negatives both color and B&W. Also a fair number of 127 film that is 2.5 x 1.6 inches. I just found an album of about 100 images that are 2 1/4 x 3 1/4 Kodak film dated from 1921-1928 that was buried in some other files.
CoolScan 9000ED. Available on eBay for astronomics prices. I should have bought 50 of them when they were available and make a huge profit. 
I settled on a flatbed scanner to get good previews of my film into my computer and only have the best ones scanned with an Imacon/FlexTight.
I have an Epson Perfection V800 scanner which handles negatives and prints with ease. The bundled Epson software is good but SilverFast is even better. The results are outstanding.
I am working through converting film and prints to digital, its time consuming but fun.
That’s the scanner that’s been on my radar, do you love it? Does it allow for a feeder for scanning prints?
No feeder, its a flatbed. It comes with holders for different size negatives.
And yes, I do love it
1 Like
Would you be willing to talk offline a bit on what holders are included? I have some questions as that’s one I have considered.
e-mail oogiem@ desertweyr.com
I organize everything with DevonThink now. I used to use Evernote but found that with the AI DevonThink provides coupled with hazel, I have a good way of storing all of my files and folders.
2 Likes
On IOS ? I’d love to use tags but if I say create a file on my phone it’s hard enough to rename the bloody thing let alone ad a tag. Closes thing is to use #sometagname in the actual file name. Storing it on a NAS also loses that tags I believe. The fact that on IOS we can’t save a file AND rename it at the same time is a right pain. I know this is a Mac thread but most folks also do some work on their IOS devices too.
Hi Jane,
This article from Asian Efficiency might be of help.
The Most Effective Way of Organizing Your Files, Folders and Documents
http://www.asianefficiency.com/organization/organizing-files-folders-documents/
2 Likes
Just wanted to throw a post I just made into here as it covers a similar topic How do you organize your files on your Mac, external HD, and/or NAS devices?