Should You Take Your 35mm Slides to Walgreens or Old Photo?

Walgreens is convenient for prints, but slide scanning is a different craft. Below are real, side-by-side comparisons that show how our in-house, 4000 ppi process preserves the full frame and true color—without sending your family slides out to unknown third parties.

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Grand Canyon — Full Frame & Color vs Cropped & Uncorrected

Old Photo took a very discolored slide and our experts were able to tweak the image and make it look pretty nice. We always look for pleasing color and usually we can make each scan look at least a little better. We can do “magic” but not “miracles”.

Grand Canyon 127 slide restored by Affordable—full frame with pleasing color — Old Photo (Corrected, Full Frame)

Grand Canyon 127 slide scanned by Walgreens—cropped and without color correction — Walgreen’s Scan (Cropped, No Color Correction)

Not only did Walgreen’s completely neglect any color corrections, you should notice that the Walgreen’s scan is cropped down and you do not get the whole 127 slide.

Yellowstone — What a Proper Scan Should Look Like

These scans are pretty much self-explanatory.

Yellowstone slide scanned by Affordable—neutral color and detail preserved — Old Photo (Color-Corrected)

Yellowstone slide scanned by Walgreens—flat color and lower fidelity — Walgreen’s Scan (Uncorrected)

Mountain Lake — Detail Retained vs Soft & Colorless

Can you really look at these images and then not send your slides to Old Photo?

Mountain lake slide scanned by Affordable—sharp detail and balanced exposure — Old Photo (Balanced Exposure)

Mountain lake slide scanned by Walgreens—duller color and softer detail — Walgreen’s Scan (Duller, Softer)

Mountain Desert — Consistent Color, Entire Frame

Mountain desert slide scanned by Affordable—natural color across the full frame — Old Photo (Natural Color)

Mountain desert slide scanned by Walgreens—weaker color and contrast — Walgreen’s Scan (Weaker Color)

Why We Keep Your Slides In-House

Keep in mind that Walgreen’s, Costco, Walmart and a multitude of other companies often send scanning projects to an aggregator who does the work and ships it back. In the past, the scans we received back from “Costco” arrived on media labeled “YesVideo.” YesVideo has recently changed its name to “Capture.”

Example disc labeled YesVideo—evidence of outsourced scanning work — Evidence of outsourced work: media labeled “YesVideo.”

We do not outsource your irreplaceable family slides. Your project stays with us from intake to final checks.

Should you take your slides to Costco? Click here.

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