What is the best way to sort out 1000's of old large format negatives?

Question

They were taken by my late parents. Scanning would take too long and scanners seem to be 35mm only, not 120 size and some glass plates.
I was thinking of building a light box and taking photos of them and then making them posative on photoshop. This would let me know which are the interesting ones. What sugestions do you have?

Answer 1

Despite your objections to scanners, there are quite a few scanners on the market that can scan anything from 120film all the way up to 8x10 negatives, including glass collodion prints. As far as time is concerned you can simply preview the image, instead of making the complete scan. The complete scan will take a long time, that is if you scan at a really high resolution, but a preview only takes a few seconds so that you may decide whether or not the image is interesting or not. With 6cmx6cm 120 size film I can preview 3 images at a time using my Epson scanner, of course there are some tricks to this, for example take the scanner out of full auto mode, and use the manual or professional mode, as well as deselect auto thumbnails. Typically if the scanner is all warmed up, it takes me about 30 seconds or less to see three images at a time, and they are all positive, so no having to guess what the positive looks like. The scanner below is pretty good and although it doesnt have the 8x10 capabilities of other Epson scanners, at least it can scan 120 and 220 film.

Answer 2

Im affraid you've got to develope an eye for seeing negatives.Make a light box, sort out the interesting, and carefully put all back into sleeves to archive. Being celuloid, theyll last longer than digital medium! you dont have to rush to "print" all of them, just to "see", just tune your eyes in, and youll have a good idea of whats on each one.
Lucky you, your parents invested in large format, youll have great, enlargable prints, and happy, lasting memories.

Answer 3

if you want to keep them for sentimental reasons, then take them to a specialist or you could end up spoiling them,, if you just want to see whats on them it would be interesting to play around with diferent techniques to try get them printed mounting them and using a projector could help,, if your just askin WHAT you should do with them for no other reason,, throw them away..

maybe you would be better asking a professional developer how to get them re preinted!!