Plan your family collection, choose favourites and learn about pricing, turnaround, drop-off locations and album scanning without removing prints. Find partners in Sydney, Newcastle, Canberra and Brisbane.
Seeing your collection digitally can help you choose photos for sharing, a photobook or original-size reprints. You do not need to decide every photo's future use before starting. Additional work is optional. Choosing a few favourites for a specific project lets you prioritise your budget without treating every photo as a separate restoration or enlargement job. Discuss fragile, damaged or waterlogged originals before scanning. They may need specialist conservation advice first. Digitisation does not repair the physical original.
No. Capture provides high-resolution JPEG scans with glare removal and brightness and colour processing, not generative AI. Use them for digital sharing, photobooks and reprints at the original photo's size. Check your chosen printer's requirements before ordering. Extra work depends on the original and your intended use, not simply the age of a photo. For a larger print, discuss the intended dimensions and the source photo with your scanning partner before scanning. Specialist restoration and printing are separate from Capture's scanning service; availability and charges vary by partner.
Discuss fragile, damaged or waterlogged originals before scanning. They may need specialist conservation advice first. Digitisation does not repair the physical original. Tell your partner about any enlargement, restoration or unusual output requirements before scanning starts. Ask which separate services they offer and what they charge. Ordinary colour processing forms part of Capture's scans; framing and printing do not require a different scanning service.
Capture scans photos through album pages and plastic sleeves without removing prints. This avoids the need to pull photos out of an album, but it does not make handling risk-free. Our proprietary technology removes glare and reflections digitally. Discuss fragile, damaged or waterlogged originals before scanning. They may need specialist conservation advice first. Digitisation does not repair the physical original.
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 our full guide to what we scan.
Yes. Our capture area handles prints and artworks up to 45 cm x 70 cm, which covers large portraits, framed artwork and oversized family photos. There is no need to remove a print from its frame. Bring it as it is and our technology scans it through the glass. See our What We Scan page for the full size guide and everything else we handle.
We scan bound photo albums, loose prints, individual portraits, framed photos under glass, and large format prints up to 45 cm x 70 cm. Mixed sizes can be laid out together in one session with no sorting required. We do not scan slides, negatives, film of any format, VHS tapes, or other video formats. For the full detail, including what to ask about for documents and mixed family history projects, see our What We Scan page.
Yes. A camera positioned above a controlled light frame captures everything in one pass. Wallet prints sit alongside large portraits without any manual adjustment between them. No sorting beforehand is required.
Yes. Bring your albums and loose prints together. The partner shop will assess the full volume at drop-off and give you a realistic turnaround estimate. Bulk photo scanning is a normal part of the service, not a special request that needs advance notice.
Photos are what we specialise in, from albums and loose prints to framed portraits. If you have personal letters, certificates, or family records to preserve alongside your photos, it is worth a conversation with your partner shop. Flat material that lies naturally against the scanning surface often works. We will always tell you honestly what is achievable before anything is started.
Discuss fragile, damaged or waterlogged originals before scanning. They may need specialist conservation advice first. Digitisation does not repair the physical original. Our processing improves brightness and colour in digital copies, not the condition of the originals. We do not provide specialist conservation or damage restoration, but some of our partners do. Discuss the condition of your originals before scanning. Optional manual editing of individual digital photos, such as sharpening, colourising and minor edits, carries a separate charge. Ask your scanning partner for current availability and rates.
No. Phone scanning apps capture a single flat image and often produce glare, distortion, and low resolution. Capture Australia uses professional multi-layer scanning equipment with proprietary technology that removes glare and reflections from album plastic sleeves, something phone cameras cannot do. The result is a significantly higher-quality digital image with accurate colour restoration.
Yes, automatically and at no extra cost. The scanning system corrects common issues such as fading, yellowing, and dullness, making photos clearer and brighter — see the before & after demo on our homepage for real examples of faded photos restored with true-to-life colour. These adjustments come from the optical capture and processing pipeline, not from generative AI. We do not change people, backgrounds, or objects in the image. The goal is a faithful, cleaner reproduction of the original photo, not a creative photo-editing edit. On request, your partner shop can provide the unenhanced version if you prefer the original look exactly as captured.
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.
A professional, quality, time-saving scanning service with glare removal, colour correction, digital organisation by folders, cloud link delivery, and safe return of your originals. No hidden fees. The final quote you get is the final price from us directly, or by each partner. Each photo is converted into a digital JPEG file, and the final count is shared with you before you pay.
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. See all locations on our Where to Scan page.
Yes. Sydney customers can drop off at Photoland (CBD), Camera House Drummoyne, Camera House Hornsby, Framers Warehouse (Mona Vale), Off The Wall Framing (Rockdale), or our Capture Service Centre at Pymble. Canberra and ACT customers can book Lucent Imaging in Fyshwick. Brisbane and Queensland customers can drop off at RetroMedia in Windsor. Newcastle customers can drop off at Camera House Newcastle in Kotara. Pick the location closest to you, every site uses the same glare-removal technology.
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!
If you book through a partner shop: each partner studio sets their own pricing, formats and delivery options (USB or online downloadable link). When you visit your chosen partner, they'll talk you through the available options and costs so you can choose what suits your collection best. If you book at our Capture Service Centre (Pymble, Sydney): you'll receive high-resolution digital JPEG photo files organised by album or collection, delivered free via a secure link. We can also provide a USB flash drive at $20 if you prefer, free for quantities above 500 photos. Your original albums will be returned safely, exactly as you gave them to us. We recommend an online photo app like Google Photos (you can find us in the "import" function) so you can access your scanned photos anywhere on any device.
Absolutely. All premises are monitored with security cameras, and your physical media is stored locally, on site, and never outsourced for processing. All digital files are securely stored, and never shared. We treat every album and photo like a family treasure, because that's exactly what it is.
No. Capture Australia is a professional, in-person photo scanning service, not an app or software product. We use specialised scanning equipment and proprietary glare-removal technology at our service centre in Pymble, Sydney, and through our network of trusted partner shops and studios across Sydney, Newcastle, Canberra and Brisbane. You drop off your albums at a partner location near you, and we return high-resolution digital copies.
No, we do not print photobooks or sell photo products. Capture Australia is a photo digitisation service. We take your existing physical photo albums and loose photos, scan them professionally, and deliver high-resolution digital files. We preserve what you already have rather than creating new printed products, but many of our partners have photo frames, do framing, reprint photos and create physical memories for you. Make sure you ask them for support!
Seeing your collection digitally can help you choose photos for sharing, a photobook or original-size reprints. You do not need to decide every photo's future use before starting. Capture provides high-resolution JPEG scans with glare removal and brightness and colour processing, not generative AI. Use them for digital sharing, photobooks and reprints at the original photo's size. Check your chosen printer's requirements before ordering. Choose your favourites, then check the photobook service's requirements for the layout you want. Discuss fragile, damaged or waterlogged originals before scanning. They may need specialist conservation advice first. Digitisation does not repair the physical original.
Yes, absolutely. Capture Australia produces high-resolution JPEG files that are fully suitable for reprinting and photobook creation. Whether you're ordering through our Capture Partner Shops and Studios, Snapfish, Kmart, Harvey Norman Photos, or Officeworks Photo, the files we return meet or exceed the resolution requirements for quality prints at their original size. If you have physical photos you'd like to turn into a photobook, having them professionally scanned is the essential first step to ensuring the final result looks its best.
Of course you can! Once your photos are professionally scanned and digitised, you can reprint them and have them framed, either yourself if simple standard sizes (see our blog), or through a professional framing studio. Capture's scans support original-size reprints. For a larger print, discuss the intended dimensions and the source photo with your scanning partner before scanning. Specialist restoration and printing are separate from Capture's scanning service; availability and charges vary by partner. Framing and ordinary reprinting can follow scanning without a separate specialist scan.