Negatives to digital / CD

[bikehikeskifish]

I have a pile of old negatives that I'd like to scan or otherwise digitize. Can anyone recommend a professional service for doing this?

Thx,
Tim

 

[Tom Rankin]

I have a pile of old negatives that I'd like to scan or otherwise digitize. Can anyone recommend a professional service for doing this?

Thx,
Tim

I'll undercut anyone's price! Send them to me!

 

[gram]

Cvs

Last year I took to CVS some negatives of a trip we took to Glacier NP in 2000. They transferred the pics to CD and I saved them to my computer.

I was amazed at how well they came out. The camera the pics were taken on was a basic 35MM and the storage of the negatives over the years wasn't ideal. The price was very reasonable, and CVS runs sales on this service.

You could try a few and see if you're satisfied. Don't cut the negatives, leave them in strip form.

 

[Taconic]

Any photo lab should be able to do this, and do it cheaply. I used to work at one. I doubt much has changed.

If you know any local photographers that are still living in the dark ages and using film p), find out who they send their work to. Chances are that's the place with the best gear. Good negative scanners aren't cheap.

 

[DougPaul]

Any photo lab should be able to do this, and do it cheaply. I used to work at one. I doubt much has changed.

I recently picked up an Epson V700 on a pre-Christmas sale (current price ~$600) and am currently making 12MP (3200 dpi) scans of my slides. (The very similar V750 is a bit better for a higher price.) It isn't a flying spot scanner, but it does a decent job at a decent price. There are some nice comments about it in http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/scanning-old-new.shtml and http://www.luminous-landscape.com/pdf/Scanning-With-Silverfast.pdf and a review at http://www.imaging-resource.com/SCAN/V700/V700.HTM. (The scanner is working as I type...)

EDIT: added two more reviews: http://www.photo-i.co.uk/Reviews/interactive/Epson V700/page_1.htm
http://www.photo-i.co.uk/Reviews/interactive/Epson V750/page_1.htm

If you know any local photographers that are still living in the dark ages and using film p), find out who they send their work to. Chances are that's the place with the best gear. Good negative scanners aren't cheap.

The above V700/V750 will scan negatives. Ken Rockwell uses and recommends http://www.northcoastphoto.com/ in his page on photo labs: http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/labs.htm. They will develop your film and scan it for you.

Some people still happen to like film. Particularly for medium and large formats cameras.

Doug

 

[Taconic]

I wouldn't be surprised if things have changed. That's not the kind of scanner we used for 35mm (I forget what it was, but I remember them running about $5K a pop,) so I have no idea how it compares to what I'm familiar with. We also had a big Kodak 4050 which I seem to remember could also scan 4x5s. I remember it being about $20K at the time. It was also a tremendous pain because it had to warm up for the better part of an hour before it could be used.

It wouldn't surprise me in the least to find that decent negative scanners could be had for <$1K at this point. My frame of reference is about 10 years off.

Some people still happen to like film. Particularly for medium and large formats cameras.

No question. Though I think even that refuge is under siege.

I was just having fun. Personally, I wouldn't go back to film if you paid me.

 

[DougPaul]

I wouldn't be surprised if things have changed. That's not the kind of scanner we used for 35mm (I forget what it was, but I remember them running about $5K a pop,) so I have no idea how it compares to what I'm familiar with. We also had a big Kodak 4050 which I seem to remember could also scan 4x5s. I remember it being about $20K at the time. It was also a tremendous pain because it had to warm up for the better part of an hour before it could be used.

It wouldn't surprise me in the least to find that decent negative scanners could be had for <$1K at this point. My frame of reference is about 10 years off.

Yes--I too looked a few years ago and was put off by the prices, US$4-5K at the time. It looks like reasonable scanners can now be purchased at reasonable prices. The afore-mentioned V700/V750 (a flatbed scanner) appears to be good enough for semi-pro and advanced amateur use. (There are less expensive ones that look pretty good too. http://www.imaging-resource.com/SCAN/V600/V600.HTM is as good a place as any to start looking.)

No question. Though I think even that refuge [film] is under siege.

I was just having fun. Personally, I wouldn't go back to film if you paid me.

Film is certainly out for casual photographers. Ken Rockwell (http://www.kenrockwell.com/) seems to be having his own personal back-to-film epiphany. He rightly observes that higher end (ie SLR) digital cameras have become very complex, heavy, and throw-away--there is a newer! better! (often expensive) model out every few months to a year. (However good lenses do last a lot longer as long as they fit the next body.) He hasn't totally abandoned digital--he does seem feel that 35mm DSLRs are better than film SLRs for certain purposes, that digital is better than film for point-and-shoots, and gets his film scanned. While I don't entirely agree with him, he does have a point (and IMO he is welcome to use whatever he wants). FWIW, I haven't used my film gear in a number of years now and it will probably stay in my photographic museum. Still have a few rolls of film in the freezer...

Doug

 

[bikehikeskifish]

I'm looking for a service. I haven't got enough to purchase a scanner, I'm not planning on making any more negatives, and I certainly haven't got the time or patience to scan them myself.

Tim

 

[DougPaul]

I'm looking for a service. I haven't got enough to purchase a scanner, I'm not planning on making any more negatives, and I certainly haven't got the time or patience to scan them myself.

It isn't for everyone... And you have to have a large enough collection of slides/negatives/prints to scan to amortize the cost of the scanner.

It it taking me a lot of time--5 min/slide to scan and ~2 min/slide (on a slow CPU) to produce the JPEG (4+ total hours per 36 exposure box) plus time to check and fix any bad scans, and a lot of computing (CPU+storage) resources (200MB/raw slide image, ~4MB per final JPEG). Fortunately, it is mostly a load, start, and ignore for an hour kind of job.

As a start at finding a service, I checked out Gram's suggestion of CVS--their services and prices are on their website (http://www.cvs.com). If you want the best results, I suspect that you will want a photo lab. There has to be lots of discussion out on the net--fire up a search engine and you should be able to get lots of suggestions and reviews of labs.

Doug

 

[Grumpy]

I’ve had satisfactory scans of 35mm negatives done inexpensively at in-house big box store photo departments. I've also had some scans done in those labs that were not very satisfactory.

For digitizing slides, I’ve used professional photo lab services, which are considerably more costly and reliable.

While I know the original question was about outside services, I’ve considered buying a high quality scanner to digitize my own extensive collection of slides and negatives (B&W and color), in 35mm and medium format sizes. I lean toward the Nikon Coolscan 9000 ED, which fills the bill but is pricey, at nearly $2,200. It also happens to be the only scanner Nikon continues to carry in its current product list on the Nikon USA web site.

I lean toward the Nikon scanner out of habit – that’s the brand I used and trusted for years. I also note that not many years ago Nikon offered a selection of several film scanners. This was when we still were undergoing the transition from film to digital – well less than a decade ago I still was shooting some newspaper jobs on film and scanning the negs to digitize them for publication. Now that digital images straight from the camera have all but completely done away with film, the scanner field seems to have narrowed considerably.

In any event, I probably would do considerable editing before scanning, to pick and choose particular images that seem worthy of (useful for) conversion. The daunting part of such a project lies in the fact that my personal files span close to 50 years, well more than 40 of them as an active professional. Some images probably have historical value or significance. If I procrastinate long enough, maybe this will turn out to be one of those jobs that can just be skipped …

G.

 

[DougPaul]

While I know the original question was about outside services, I’ve considered buying a high quality scanner to digitize my own extensive collection of slides and negatives (B&W and color), in 35mm and medium format sizes. I lean toward the Nikon Coolscan 9000 ED, which fills the bill but is pricey, at nearly $2,200. It also happens to be the only scanner Nikon continues to carry in its current product list on the Nikon USA web site.

I lean toward the Nikon scanner out of habit – that’s the brand I used and trusted for years. I also note that not many years ago Nikon offered a selection of several film scanners. This was when we still were undergoing the transition from film to digital – well less than a decade ago I still was shooting some newspaper jobs on film and scanning the negs to digitize them for publication. Now that digital images straight from the camera have all but completely done away with film, the scanner field seems to have narrowed considerably.

A comparison of the Nikon 4000 scanner and the Epson V700. http://www.photo-i.co.uk/Reviews/interactive/Epson V700/page_8.htm

Looking at the overall scan the Nikon produces the best looking scan, but the V700 is not far behind.

For the full review, see http://www.photo-i.co.uk/Reviews/interactive/Epson V700/page_1.htm

Minolta also used to make some good 35mm film/slide scanners.

Doug