ScanCafe

I’ve used ScanCafe for negatives (including APS) slides and prints and am extremely satisfied with both the quality of work and with their customer service. When I first began using them, their only facility was in India. I realize that they now have a US ‘option’ but given the results on prior orders see no reason to change. I really like how they keep you up to date on where your order is in the process. I have not used their restoration services before but am doing so now and will report when I get the results.

They do a great job at a VERY reasonable price. I had wedding negatives scanned and they came out great. Also some video transferred. It can take a while so don’t expect speed, but I’d rather they spend the time to do it right than rush it.

I had a horrible experience having about 100 sets of negatives scanned. They were organized into numbered archival pages. The pages were destroyed by the technicians when removed to scan. After scanning, the negatives were refiled randomly rather than into the numbered pages. Most were filed emulsion side up, rather than down as instructed on the archive sheets themselves, potentially damaging them.
In the process of refilling and re sorting the negatives, I have discovered images that were scanned twice, many more that were not scanned at all, and some negative strips that were not returned.
For those interested, I paid extra for USA service. Confronted with my issues, they refunded this charge, which basically covers replacing the archive sleeves but not the over 30 hours it took to refile my negatives.
Scan quality is OK but not great.
I had a previous experience with a smaller set of negatives that was positive. Clearly they have a seriously uneven quality control/​training process.
Next time, read the wire utter review of scanning services.

This company has gone to dirt. I sent my photos in 4 months ago, and have not gotten a single one digitized yet.
How bad is it?
When I made inquiries in April, I was told that my scans would be ready on March 26, a whole 4 weeks before. Fantastic! The old photos get to travel through time once again.
In May, another support person offered $ 50, and asked when I absolutely needed them. I needed them 2 months ago, when you said they would be here! He told me they should be ready the first week of June. Now, the 4^th week, still nothing.
I am now very very concerned that they have lost my old photos.

Superb Customer Service! I recently moved and while going through my files I found 4 discs of old photos that I had sent to scancafé to be scanned. I had sent slides & prints — some going back 40 years. I looked at them on my TV but I never had uploaded them onto my computer. Now when I tried to do so my computer did this read the files. I then called customer service and spoke to Alan. From the start he was committed to making sure I would be able to read and upload my very valued files. I returned the original discs and Alan had them reformatted for my mac and sent them back promptly at no charge. For some reason they were still unable to be read on my computer. Here is where the words «outstanding customer service» begins to be played out. Alan called me to see and be sure that I could upload my files. When I told him there still was a problem he was committed to finding a solution. He put all the files on a link on the Internet so that I could download them to my computer– and it worked. Alan again followed up with me to be sure I was able to download all the files onto my computer! Alan is a real asset to Scancafé — and Scancafé is the place to go for scanning your memories and history. They are five-​star all the way!

The processing is very good considering I sent in 1000+ 35 mm negatives and some APS as well. I also sent in varying size wedding prints for which I do not have negatives. The customer service was very good. I had a question about turnaround time as the company moved its USA based processing to a new location. But the reps from Scancafe followed the order to completion.

I sent 914 of my father’s slides from the 1940’s through the 1960’s to Scan Café in early 2016. In a few weeks — I wasn’t in a hurry — I received my scans by email. It took me weeks to get through them all, but I ended up with some 860 to keep. I had questions along the way, and all my phoned-​in questions were answered politely and fully.
When I was finally ready for check out, I was surprised to find there was to be a hefty UPS charge for sending back my slides. I asked Scan Café’s Alan Baig to discard my slides, which ScanCafe does not recommend and which goes against their policies, but he was willing to do it, as I planned to never use a slide projector again. That saved me about $ 65.
Lastly, I goofed and checked out without requesting the free high-​resolution downloads to my computer. I called, and Alan Baig of ScanCafe facilitated the restoration of that service to me most swiftly and courteously.
The best thing about ScanCafe, besides their delivering what they promised, has been the great service I’ve received.

UPDATE: ScanCafe has worked very hard to make things right. I have my slide back, and they have followed up to make sure that I have good service this time around. Alan, in customer service, apologized profusely and is going to see the order through to completion this time.

For the past three years I have used Scan Café to digitize both film and slides. The quality of everything was always excellent. What was particularly nice for me, however, was the luxury of hand delivering every order and picking it up upon completion because I lived not far from their Hayward, CA offices. I was concerned that the move to Indianapolis would have a negative effect on the entire process: more complicated logistics, erratic communications, and perhaps confusion in the scanning of the slides. I am happy to say that none of that has happened. Subsequent to the move, I have sent ten orders to Indianapolis, and from beginning to end, the process has been seamless.

These guys are terrific! I have sent in several large batches of old family slides, and my whole experience has been positive. The scans have been very high quality, and the customer service has been great. I like being able to track the status of my order online and download the high resolution completed scans. If you wait for their sales, you can get some good deals, and I like one of the options which allows you to opt out of 20% of the scanned slides, so you are only obligated to 80% (Sometimes, the full size image is not what you thought it was). I would recommend this service without reservation

This place is great, unfortunately it is now permanently closed. They are professionals of the highest caliber, taking every form of media, unfortunately they are gone.

I used scan café to digitalize 650 slides of paintings and scenes I want to paint. I am an artist and graphic designer, and am extremely picky about the color in my slides, and as I’m an expert in photoshop I prefer to do the optimizing myself. (This is not their normal procedure, so already I’m onto a special order.) Some of my original slides were quite light. Scan Café worked with me to get them dark enough to work with, rescanned a lot of them, and in general went light years above and beyond what anyone would expect a company to do. I worked personally with Alan who called me twice (note: has any company EVER taken the time to call you?) to help complete the order.
I cannot recommend ScanCafe enough for professionalism, personal service and obviously their prices.
One thing to note, ScanCafe does their work in India, which has a very different concept of time than the west — things move at a slower pace. If you want this exceptional quality of service on a large scale order don’t be in a hurry. They will go above and beyond to make sure its done the way you want.
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I had a great experience with ScanCafe on multiple occasions. Folks need to understand that photography is an art and on that note, scans can take time and they don’t always come out perfect the first time. On a recent order I was not satisfied with some of my photo scans, but Alan, Alex and the team followed up regularly, did re-​scans as necessary, supplied me with previews and ultimately delivered a scanned product that I was extremely happy with. Thank you for that! Customer service was attentive. There may not be someone there ²⁴⁄₇ but an email reply always came with a 24-​hour window. The scanning process does take some time, but this is to be expected because as someone who owns their own Nikon scanner, I can attest that it does indeed take time to scan and filter these precious memories. Most awesome is the fact that we may preview online and delete up to 20% of the photos if they are blurry, dupes, or just no good. I look forward to using ScanCafe again in the future.

Just spreading the wealth. I just used ScanCafe in Hayward California to scan a couple hundred photos, many of them from the 1930s; many of them faded and worn. They did a great job, quickly. Their regular prices are low – I paid a bit extra to have them do a rush job and to do some more extensive restorations. Including rush, sales tax and overnight shipping I paid $ 140 for about 200 images. The results are fabulous. Check them out at
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I have used other scanning companies that were «okay» but none I would praise like these folk.

I used ScanCafe for 2 orders of Super 8. My requirements were a bit unusual, in that I wanted to do all the processing myself. Ideally I wanted the original uncompressed scans.
This is not their standard procedure but they did a great job. In particular, a manager there named Kevin Brown went way beyond what anyone should expect. He communicated with me every step of the way, provided sample scans, and even called me at one point. In short, if you have unusual requirements, you should feel confident they can handle it.
The second of the 2 orders was because a few months later, I found some reels that were missed in the first order. Even after all the work of the first order, they were willing to do the same procedure for the second.

ScanCafe is my go-​to choice for having photos or other media scanned or archived. A much –needed, reliable service that’s here to serve all your digitization needs!
Minus 2 stars for the fact that their scanning software doesn’t identify duplicates in your order.
Back in the days when it was cool to get «doubles» when having photos printed, you may have set yourself up for paying a whole lot more on your photo scanning order.
I happened to have many duplicates. I went through my photos 3 times before submitting them for scanning, and somehow I still missed a few. The technology exists to identify similar photos digitally, and I believe that for Scan Café to better serve its customers, they should invest in it so that customers aren’t paying double for a digital of the same photo. It wastes customers time who do know this — as I spent so many hours trying to identify duplicates before submitting. PLEASE ADDRESS THIS SOON ScanCafe. I want to use your service again and I keep recommending you — except for this one caveat!
As for the quality — I think they do a nice job. The color is good, not excellent. But with scanned photos, you are going to get what you get. They do offer retouching services if you have a photo that simply looks terrible.
Should you try it? Yes
Ambience: The storefront is a small area with a counter where you can drop off your box of media. I recommend reading the directions for doing this or else they will have to box it up for you when you arrive.
Service: There is a bell at the counter if no one is there. Looks like they do other things in this office besides serve customers who are dropping off media.
Location: Great location in Hayward with lots of parking. Dropping off and picking up is an easy way to avoid large shipping costs.
3 Key Tips:
1) Read the directions before dropping off media. You can save yourself some time.
2) Ensure that you don’t submit duplicates for scanning! They won’t tell you!
3) You can delete up to 20% of your submitted scanned photos, but don’t rely on this. There isn’t a way to sort them so that you can see duplicates side-​by-​side, so be prepared to really check your order before you submit.
Overall, I’ll be using them again and referring them to family and friends, but not without the duplicates warning.

I’ve been using ScanCafe for years and have always been totally satisfied. The price, quality and convenience have been excellent. I’ve used them to scan both photos and slides and they have all come out great. I particularly like the fact that I can download the images from their website since I don’t have a DVD drive any more. I even was able to share the images with my family!

I recently sent some original photos to Scan Café for them to digitize. I used the express service because I was not comfortable with originals being sent overseas. It was a terrific experience and I want to do a shout out to Jeff and Cathy for their exceptional help. I needed the photos for my husband’s 75^th birthday and they handled all the materials very well. Digital images were manually retouched and crisp. I look forward to doing more business with them.
BTW — I did not want to use UPS so I sent them a FedEx label which I prepaid and they are mailing back to me via that method. Thanks Scan Café for making my husband’s birthday really memorable.

In summer of 2010 I sent a package via UPS to a ScanCafé in San Francisco to have original 35 mm slides scanned. Weeks later I would learn that ScanCafé never received my slides. After tracking my package I learned the package was lost at the UPS South San Francisco center. A tracer request was initiated by UPS resulting in a lost package. For reasons I don’t understand, ScanCafé was the party who had to file a claim and now is considered the «Shipper». And, because I am not the shipper UPS will not speak to me regarding my claim, nor will ScanCafé even speak to me about this, at all. So, out my original slides. Take my advice: one, do not send original anything via UPS. My original slides are lost for good, I regret doing business with either parties. The monetary value cannot be recovered, the items were priceless.

I’m now updating since my last review. After I posted this, a member of their team, Nick, reached out to me. He offered to rescan any images that I had issues with, and he would personally oversee their progress. Overall, the experience was very good. After looking around at other providers, I still think that Scancafe is the best value for the money, and that they do a nice job. That said, I would definitely pay for the «Guaranteed USA Express». Both for your photo’s safety and your sanity, I think it’s a much better service than their basic offering.

Lower priced of the services. But a few workds of caution:
–Photos take a long time
-«Hand correction?» OK, but not of great value. Basically copntrast and color saturation
–Web site is terrible.
–Could not find my downloadable files

I’ve unfortunately had a horrendous experience with ScanCafe. I sent two orders totally around 1500 photos and 4 videos at the end of August. I was told that they would be done by the end of September. Due date came and went, and no one contacted me about the delay. I reached out to see where my order was, and they couldn’t give me a completion date. Finally got my first order posted on October 8. Now it’s October 22 and I still don’t have the other order, and no one is sure when it will be done.
Working with customer service has been excessively challenging. People have told me they would follow up, apply a discount and none of it ever happens. I was told my photos would definitely be ready this past Monday, and it wasn’t. They finally posted the second order on Wednesday of that week, and 1. they scanned the same photo multiple times and charged me for it, and 2. they didn’t take any of the photos out of albums as promised, just scanned the entire album page. Now I’m again waiting to find out when my order will actually be ready.
Perhaps most distressing is that twice it was made clear to me that they didn’t know where my photos were. They insisted one day that me photos were in California, and then the next day casually emailed me that actually my photos were in India. Then I received an email that I said I had sent four videos, but they only received three. I wrote back right away very concerned about my missing video. More than a day later, they wrote back to say oh yeah, we did have four videos here after all.
I would be very cautious in sending any photos or videos that are irreplaceable.

I sent over 1100 35 mm color negatives, 30 black and white 35 mm negatives, and 180 prints to be scanned. This was a huge job, and so I was looking for a good price and easy-​to-​download high-​res scans.
The turn-​around time was a bit longer than some people might like, but I wasn’t in any rush, so I didn’t mind waiting a few weeks. One thing that was really nice was that they keep you updated about where they are in the process; they emailed me (and texted, because I had signed up) when they received my shipment, when the scanning was done, when the scans were ready for review, when the hi-​res download was available, and when they shipped back my items.
Whenever there was something they needed to consult with me about, I received an email that clearly indicated that action was needed. They are very responsive by email.
Instead of choosing the bulk scan option that was cheaper (about $.22 per scan) where you buy all scans, I stuck with the more expensive option ($.33/​scan) that allowed me to drop up to 20% of the scans from my order. Since I sent negatives that were cut in sets of 4 or 5 images, I knew that sometimes I would only want 3 or 4 of the images on each set. This was a good choice for me, but the bulk option seems like a good deal if you know you’ll want to keep all your scans.
Sending the negatives instead of prints was definitely the right choice. The scans came out crisp and clean. I looked at some of the before/​after correction images online, and they did the basics that you would expect: image straightening and cropping of borders, dust spot removal, and some basic color correction.
My only complaint is that about a dozen of my photos were taken at the Grand Canyon and so were heavy on warm reds. When these images were color corrected, the scans I got were much greener than they should have been. I contacted ScanCafe about this, but they said it would cost extra to recorrect just these images, so I decided against it and corrected the color with my own software (which most people could do on their computers with almost any basic photo program). But I figure a problem with only 12 photos out of more than 1300 sent is pretty good!
The review process was easy: just sign in and see your galleries online. The hi-​res download was also easy. I got 5 zip files and downloaded them.
Bottom line: I would definitely recommend this service to a friend, and I would use them again if needed.