Capture Australia digitises physical photo albums using proprietary glare-removal technology. Photos stay in the album throughout the process. No postage is required, and your originals never leave the partner shop. The service is available at trusted partner shops across Sydney, Newcastle, Canberra and Brisbane, plus the Capture Service Centre at 7 Avon Road, Pymble NSW 2073.
Colour prints begin to fade and yellow within 15 to 25 years. Albums stored in hot, humid or sun-exposed conditions deteriorate faster. Every year you wait, fine detail is lost permanently. Photos scanned with a phone typically suffer from glare, distortion and low resolution, making them unsuitable for reprinting, photobooks or long-term archiving.
Capture Australia's proprietary scanning technology removes the glare, reflections and distortion that ruin phone-scanned photos. The result is sharp, colour-accurate digital files that meet the resolution requirements of professional print labs and photobook services. No phone camera or flatbed scanner can replicate this process.
Phone scanning apps capture a flat image and often produce glare, lens distortion and low resolution. That is fine for quick social sharing but not for reprints or archiving. Flatbed scanners require removing photos from albums one by one, which risks tearing or stretching decades-old prints. Capture Australia scans through the album sleeve without removal. Proprietary processing removes glare and restores colour accuracy. The final files are ready for reprints, photobooks, sharing and long-term digital storage, with no photo handling and no damage risk.
Every scanned photo is delivered as a high-resolution JPEG file, organised by album or collection. Files arrive via a secure cloud link. They work directly with Google Photos, so you can import your collection in a few clicks and access your memories on any device. iCloud and other photo storage services are also compatible. A USB drive is available on request. Your original albums come back exactly as you handed them in. Photos stay in their sleeves. Pages remain in the same order. Covers are intact. Nothing is reordered, trimmed or altered.
Pricing depends on your partner shop and the size and type of your collection. Each partner sets their own rates for intake, scanning, storage and customer handling. At drop-off you receive an estimated photo count and an indicative quote. The Studio confirms the exact count once scanning is complete. You are charged on that confirmed count, so you only pay for photos actually scanned. Enhanced output files with glare removed and colour corrected are included as standard. For large collections of 500 photos or more, scanning can often work out to around one dollar per photo or less. Ask your partner shop about scanning your whole collection.
Turnaround is typically two to three weeks for a standard collection, depending on total photo count and the current queue at the partner shop. Small collections of one or two albums can sometimes be ready sooner. Larger collections of 10 or more albums may take a little longer. Your partner shop will give you an estimated timeline at drop-off and will contact you directly when your order is ready for collection. Turnaround times may vary during busy periods such as Christmas and school holidays.
You can also visit the Capture Service Centre directly at 7 Avon Road, Pymble NSW 2073.
No, never! Your photos stay safely in the album the whole time. Our scanning technology captures images through the plastic sleeves and pages, then uses proprietary technology to remove glare and reflections. The result: crystal-clear digital copies with zero risk of damage to your originals.
We scan both! Albums are our specialty. Photos stay in the sleeves and we remove the glare digitally. We also handle loose prints, large format photos, portraits and artworks. Our capture area covers prints up to 45cm x 70cm, so we can scan large framed portraits and artwork right in their frames. The proprietary technology scans through album plastic sleeves and glass without removing a single print, eliminating glare and reflections digitally. See capture-aus.com/what-we-scan for the full guide.
Capture Australia's scanning technology is available at these authorised partner shops and studios: Photoland in Sydney CBD, Camera House Drummoyne, Camera House Hornsby (Westfield), Framers Warehouse in Mona Vale, Off The Wall Framing in Rockdale, Camera House Newcastle in Kotara, Lucent Imaging in Fyshwick, Canberra (by appointment), and RetroMedia in Windsor, Brisbane. You can also visit the Capture Service Centre directly at Pymble, Sydney. Each location uses the same proprietary glare-removal technology for consistent, professional results.
Shops normally charge $8–15 per scanned photo, but we aim to help you scan your collection for a lot less, supported with our semi-automated workflow. Should it be a large collection of 500 photos or more, there may be a discounted offer, sometimes reaching $1 or less for each collection of 500 or more photographs, be it loose or in an album. Each partner may include additional services or charges to support each different project you may have, due to variation of customer need or location. There may also be additional charges for the original unenhanced photos, without our improvements and enhancements, i.e. the 'old looking photo.' There is also manual work for capturing the whole page of an album for archival purposes, and this may be charged separately as well, as it is not part of our normal automation.
By default, your scans are automatically improved for brightness and colour through the capture processing pipeline, not through generative AI, so they remain faithful reproductions of the originals — see the before & after demo on our homepage for real examples of faded photos restored with true-to-life colour. On request, we can produce a version where only glare and reflections are removed but the original colour and vintage feel is kept intact. If your collection needs additional manual photo restoration or colour adjustment for a special use case, that can be arranged but may carry a separate charge. Just share what you are looking for with your partner shop before scanning starts.
Turnaround is typically two to three weeks for most collections. Small collections of a few albums can sometimes be ready sooner. We want to complete your scanning project and get the job done without you waiting forever!
Visit the full FAQs page for more detailed answers.
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