**Background**

I have a low cost USB negatives scanner that is operated manually by passing the negatives in a tray through it and scanning one by one. The quality looks good enough - for old everyday leisure photos mostly taken on compacts, nothing of precision here. The sensor is 5M pixel and colour depth per channel (RGB) is 10 bits.

*Spending money to save time (scarce)*

The alternative option for me is to get the negatives digitized by a service, and Boots and Jessops in the UK offer such a service at a price point that I'm happy to use: between 5-8 pounds per 24 or 36 frames. I have many packs of frames, multiples of 10.

My spare time is very limited. So I am seriously considering a service, to spend money to save time as I am able and willing to afford this.

*Care of developer handling negatives*

Regarding concerns one might have over loss of precious memories at a developer: 1) I have the best shows from the negatives in print form and 2) Both services offer 1 hour turnaround service which makes it unlikely that they would get "lost in the post", for example.

*Decluttering*

Once the process is done and I am happy with the results, I will discard the negatives and any prints. I am currently in the advanced stages of digitizing all my documents if their paper form is not mandatory, or simply discarding non-essential material without digitizing. My place is increasingly minimalist by the week :)

**My question is:** do you think the results of the service would be at least as good as doing it manually at home? Regarding quality?