buying a film scanner or paying a lab to do the work

[arielkedem]

hi,

i have several hundred slides and negatives i would like to have scanned for the following purposes: 1) (most important)- to start a gallery on Pbase! 2) to ensure they last many more years 3) to be able to make large prints from some of the slides.

it seems like financially it would be a good deal to buy a film scanner. however, i understand it is very time-consuming and i am not sure whether i would be able to perform the scan as professionally as a good lab would.

has anyone been in this situation? what did you eventually decide and what would you RECOMMEND me to do?

[frim]

I would check the price of having the scans done, I checked at Wegman (the food store, they have a photo shop) & I think it was 25 or 30 cents each (less for bigger batches).

If you can get hi res scans for 300 slides for $100 to $150, why buy the equipment, unless you have use for it in the future. You will pay that much for the scanner. Do you still shoot film?

I have a Nikon scanner and scan some of my old 35mm negs, but it does take time and not the most interesting thing to sit and do.

[leggings]

The supermarket does that? I have been mucking around with my scanner for about three hours now, hence all of my posts and comments on galleries in the past couple of hours, and have gotten no work done whatsoever. I have an Epson perfection scanner that is not exactly working perfectly. It scans photos quite well but film is an absolute bugger to deal with. Sometimes it wants to and sometimes it doesn’t. It is more uncooperative than children. It won’t even let me make a selection between film and photo. I am going grocery shopping and get some work done tomorrow. I do hope they do black and white as well as colour.

Duncan

[frim]

Duncan:

Could not tell if you were putting me on or not, I was serious.

Do you have a Wegmans near you.

Wegmans is chain of gigantic markets that have food, produce, dishes, lawn furniture, flowers, pharmacy, magazines, newspapers from around the world, a photo department, prepared meals to go, and at least four cafe type restaurants (Chinese, Pizza, Subs & American) with seating and more . The photo shop does one hour processing, has Kodak digital do it yourself scanner photo copier machines and more. They do photo mugs, tee shirts, magnets, and more and a complete book other processing they do. Photos to CD, slides to CD (or Disk), the whole nine yards. You can probably check them out on line.

FRIM (EPHRAIM)

[leggings]

I do have a Wegmans near me. I will have to check it out. I have been suffering with my scanner. I have shopped there a few times but never went to their photo dept. I was a bit disappointed when I went to their bakery and asked for scones and they didn’t have any. They kept thinking I said stones and wanted me to go to the landscape dept at Chase Pitken. I had to say it several times. Apparently I was speaking English and not American.

Duncan

[arielkedem]

hi,

thank you for replying to my post regarding slide scanning.
i was wondering- when you say 30 cents per scan, what kind of resolution would that produce? in the past when i needed to scan slides for blow-ups they were 5$ a piece (for very large prints). in fact, that is why i was in such a dilema. however, with your information it may not be a question anymore, for that price!

let's say i'll only spend 5$ a scan for specific scans for large prints- would the "cheaper" scan be good enough for, let's say, a gallery on the web? what about for printing 4x6 prints, etc?

thanks a lot for your help!

ariel

[frim]

I was talking about a scan to go digital, the scan would give you your slide or negative on a CD as a JPG file and then you could print it or have it printed. The cost of the print would be over and above the scan.

[frim]

I was in Wegmans today and got you the price list.

[bob_mcbob]

Those are pretty low quality scans, do they offer anything better?