Somewhere in the house, there’s a photo of your parents at a chalet looking younger than you do now. It might be in an album, or the only copy might still be on film. From scanners to a stand that holds your phone over a print, here are eight ways to get those photos ready for the family WhatsApp chat.
1. Epson Perfection V39II Flatbed Photo Scanner
The Epson Perfection V39II is a flatbed scanner, which means you lay a printed photo on a flat sheet of glass and the machine copies it to your computer. It’s a straightforward way to make a digital copy of that family portrait before putting the original back in the album.
The scanner is compact and lightweight, so you can take it to the relative who keeps the family albums. That lets you work through the prints there and leave them where they belong. The Epson ships from Singapore.
Check out how much it costs here: https://s.shopee.sg/9pfhXXzasM
2. Tabletop Phone Copy Stand
This tabletop copy stand holds your phone above a print so you can photograph it straight from overhead. The adjustable spring holder fits phones from 5.8 cm to 9.3 cm wide, and the stand supports up to 2 kg. You can keep the phone in place while swapping the prints underneath.
The included Bluetooth remote triggers your phone’s camera without a cable, from up to 10 m away. At the table, the handy part is being able to take the shot without tapping the phone while it’s in the holder. The stand ships from Mainland China.
Check out how much it costs here: https://s.shopee.sg/2gCX0s5PxE
3. KODAK Slide N SCAN Film and Slide Scanner
If you find negatives, strips of film where light and dark tones are reversed, the KODAK Slide N SCAN can turn them into digital photos. It handles colour and black-and-white negatives in the 135, 110 and 126 film formats, as well as slides in those formats, including 50 mm mounted slides, which are film images held in small frames.
The 5-inch LCD is a colour screen with a gallery mode, so you can preview and edit your scans on the scanner itself. The files go straight onto an SD card, a small removable memory card. The Kodak scanner ships from Singapore.
Check out how much it costs here: https://s.shopee.sg/7KyMevCstf
4. ULANZI VIJIM K20 LED Panel Light
The ULANZI VIJIM K20 is a lightweight 11-inch panel with 192 LEDs, the tiny lights that give the panel its soft glow. It clamps to a desk and lets you adjust brightness from 0 to 100 per cent. You can also adjust the colour temperature, or how warm or cool the light looks, anywhere from 2500 to 9000 kelvin, the unit used for that scale.
The extension pole has a ballhead, a joint that lets you tilt and turn the panel to aim the light at the print. The set comes with a 1.5 m Type-C cord and a remote that works from up to 30 m away. It ships from Singapore.
Check out how much it costs here: https://s.shopee.sg/80E3OWVfEx
5. Kidario A4 Grid Cutting Mat
The green Kidario mat measures 22 cm by 30 cm and has 1 cm by 1 cm and 5 cm by 5 cm grids on both sides. Line up the edge of an old print with a grid line to help keep it straight when you photograph or scan it.
Both sides also have angle markings, including a 180-degree mark for a straight angle. The mat is self-healing, which means small blade marks close back up after a cut if you also use it for crafts. It ships from Malaysia.
Check out how much it costs here: https://s.shopee.sg/8VAK3zude8
6. High-Resolution Film and Slide Scanner
This compact scanner turns colour and black-and-white film into JPEGs, a common type of photo file. It handles 35 mm film, also known as 135, as well as 126, 110 and 8 mm film. It saves directly to an SD card, so you can scan without a computer or extra software.
You can check the scan on the 2.4-inch colour screen or use the supplied cable to send video to a TV. The scanner can use interpolation, which means estimating extra pixels, to produce an image of up to 22 megapixels, or 22 million pixels. It ships from Mainland China.
Check out how much it costs here: https://s.shopee.sg/5LDIG6Zm1k
7. BTM Portable 135mm Film Digitizer
The BTM film digitiser works with your smartphone to make digital copies of 135 film, better known as 35 mm film, whether you have negatives or slides. Its built-in light spreads evenly across the film to help reduce imperfections as your phone captures the image.
The unit measures about 15.5 cm by 10.5 cm by 4 cm and weighs about 250 g. It’s small enough to take along with your phone if you’re going through a relative’s film collection at their place. The BTM ships from Mainland China.
Check out how much it costs here: https://s.shopee.sg/9V2rEavXNm
8. ALLGOODS LED Copy Board Light Tracing Pad
The ALLGOODS tracing pad is a slim panel that lights a print, slide or strip of negatives from underneath. A clear acrylic sheet spreads the light evenly so you can see the image more clearly before photographing it with your phone.
The pad plugs in by USB, has three brightness levels and measures about 30 cm by 20 cm by 0.35 cm in the A4 size. Other sizes are sold on the same page, so go for the “A4” one. The pad ships from Mainland China.
Check out how much it costs here: https://s.shopee.sg/2BGGW4KNnc
