this is one of the reasons I would highly recommend digitizing any analog film media you might have lying around that has any value whatsoever. Technology like this, that greatly assists in “crossing over“ the old media to the forever-digital media, is disappearing in accessibility due to lack of utility – once everyone goes digital-native (which has already occurred), there is less and less of a reason to have high quality analog to digital converters.
I have a stash of old black & white photos from my grandparents' youth. They are nice but I would love to digitize them and was wondering if there is a better way than a flatbed scanner built into one of those cheapo Canon MGX inkjet all-in-one printers. Ultimately I want to run the scans through some colorizing filters and reprint them into an album to make a fun xmas present.
No, your top priorty should be washing the film thoroughly to get all the fix out after developing. Then store it properly in a dark and not to warm and humid area. That way, it will last for centuries (at least for black and white) and can be rescanned every time the digital files are lost
Ah yes. The "hope a flood or fire or theft or loss or baby/dog got to it and tried to eat it or simple human forgetfulness never happens" plan. That deserves not only a "no thanks," but a "that is a fucking ridiculous and quaint but also very sad (in the sense that this person has not realized that all analog media is already dead) notion"
Also, you missed the entire point of my comment. "Rescanning" will one day NOT be possible, at least not cheaply or without great effort. The market for people scanning analog to digital will dwindle to nothing, and thus the products that try to satisfy that market will also, unless you will be willing to fork over a ton of money for something custom.
The best you'll get is a bad reproduction taken with a cell camera of the original media that is then perhaps "enhanced" (read: pixels are invented out of thin air that were never there to begin with) by some AI.
