Posted by Buck Ward on November 25, 2010 at 11:46 AM
Can you recommend a scanning service for 35mm slides?
I've had slides drum scanned. It's pricey. I've looked at slide scanning services that offer to digitize your family snapshots for prices in the range of 29 cents each. I'm skeptical of their quality.
Are their slide scanning services out there that do good quality scans for a reasonable price?
Posted by Dan Borzynski on November 25, 2010 at 2:14 PM
What do you need the resulting scans to do? That will help guide the recommendations.
Posted by Barbara Graham on November 25, 2010 at 2:23 PM
Buck, one of my sisters and I used ScanCafe, she for slides and photographs and me for photographs, hundreds and hundreds of them between us, if not thousands, going back 70 years and more. For those slides and photographs that were in good condition the quality of the resulting digital images was good. If I remember correctly you only have to take and pay for the ones that you want (but you should check that), but in our case we wanted them all no matter the quality.
You should note that you do have to send them your slides, of course, and they say they send the physical slides and photographs back in the order they received them, but we didn't find that to be exactly true. Nevertheless, we were happy with the results.
You might try sending them a half dozen to start. That's what my sister did. Then you can decide from there what you think.
Posted by Buck Ward on November 25, 2010 at 3:13 PM
I want files that will look good full-screen on my 24" monitor and that I can put on my website and they will look good on other people's large monitors, files that can be used to make large-ish prints that will look as good as if they were made from the original slides.
Scans made by my old consumer-grade slide scanner are not up to the task, although the images look OK at the small size of NPN gallery limitation.
Posted by Buck Ward on November 25, 2010 at 3:34 PM
Thanks Barbara
Scan Cafe is one of the scanning services I had heard about. I only have a couple of dozen slides I want to scan and they're so cheap that I guess I don't have much to lose, as long as the slides don't get lost. It's just that I presume they cater primarily to the non-photographer snap-shooter rather than folks like us NPN pixel peepers. At prices of less than two percent of the cost of a drum scan, I wouldn't be surprised if there were a significant reduction in quality.
Danny Burk, who was member here for a long time, provides a drum scanning service. He does great work, and his pricing is very competitive. Given that you are looking to make large web display images and large prints, a drum scan will give you the best results.
Posted by Kent Staubus on November 26, 2010 at 11:33 AM
How many slides are you talking about?
Kent in SD
Posted by Buck Ward on November 26, 2010 at 12:41 PM
Preston
Danny has scanned slides for me before. I'm rather impecunious at the moment. If the low-cost scanning places aren't in the same ballpark quality-wise, I'll send my slides to Danny for drum scans.
Kent
Only a dozen or two
So, my choices are:
Drum scan - good quality for $16 to $20 per slide
Slide scanning service - unknown quality for 27 to 45 cents per slide.
Perhaps I should have asked my question differently: Can other scanning methods rival drum scan quality for 35mm slides?
A drum scan done by a skilled operator will give the best quality. Drum scans will result in scans with more detail; especially in the shadows where other scanners would tend to introduce noise.
If a drum scan is not within your budget, see if you can find someone with a Nikon LS 4000, or 5000, or a Minolta film scanner.
Some of the high end flatbed scanners like the Creo are pretty capable for small film, but you'll pay about the same as for a drum scan.
Cheap prices for scans may not be cost effectve in the long run. The operator may be someone in a shop who works using fixed settings for all scans and/or is not highly skilled. While this may work for some of your slides, it may not for others where a more custom approach will give better results.
--P
Posted by Dan Borzynski on November 26, 2010 at 8:47 PM
Buck -
In all likelihood, the scans at the lowest end of the market (and almost certainly at the prices you cite) were done on a flatbed. Probably a really nice flatbed, but a flatbed none-the-less. They will look nice on the web and probably to the average consumer but you will notice the difference versus a drum scan.
There are a couple of places that will go up at least to a Nikon Coolscan but since I already own a 4000 and Danny Burk gets my drumscans, I haven't really looked around.
Posted by John Mumaw on November 28, 2010 at 11:57 AM
I'd like to hear the results of the quality of work from Scan Café if you wouldn't mind posting them here.
Posted by scott lanz on November 29, 2010 at 1:15 PM
I've used Pearson Imaging in the past for images used for my website and making smaller prints. I was very satisfied with the results. They can be found at the services links page, or go here:
Discussion
11 repliesI've had slides drum scanned. It's pricey. I've looked at slide scanning services that offer to digitize your family snapshots for prices in the range of 29 cents each. I'm skeptical of their quality.
Are their slide scanning services out there that do good quality scans for a reasonable price?
You should note that you do have to send them your slides, of course, and they say they send the physical slides and photographs back in the order they received them, but we didn't find that to be exactly true. Nevertheless, we were happy with the results.
You might try sending them a half dozen to start. That's what my sister did. Then you can decide from there what you think.
Scans made by my old consumer-grade slide scanner are not up to the task, although the images look OK at the small size of NPN gallery limitation.
Scan Cafe is one of the scanning services I had heard about. I only have a couple of dozen slides I want to scan and they're so cheap that I guess I don't have much to lose, as long as the slides don't get lost. It's just that I presume they cater primarily to the non-photographer snap-shooter rather than folks like us NPN pixel peepers. At prices of less than two percent of the cost of a drum scan, I wouldn't be surprised if there were a significant reduction in quality.
Danny Burk, who was member here for a long time, provides a drum scanning service. He does great work, and his pricing is very competitive. Given that you are looking to make large web display images and large prints, a drum scan will give you the best results.
Danny Burk--Scanning Services
Give him a call.
--P
Kent in SD
Danny has scanned slides for me before. I'm rather impecunious at the moment. If the low-cost scanning places aren't in the same ballpark quality-wise, I'll send my slides to Danny for drum scans.
Kent
Only a dozen or two
So, my choices are:
Drum scan - good quality for $16 to $20 per slide
Slide scanning service - unknown quality for 27 to 45 cents per slide.
Perhaps I should have asked my question differently: Can other scanning methods rival drum scan quality for 35mm slides?
A drum scan done by a skilled operator will give the best quality. Drum scans will result in scans with more detail; especially in the shadows where other scanners would tend to introduce noise.
If a drum scan is not within your budget, see if you can find someone with a Nikon LS 4000, or 5000, or a Minolta film scanner.
Some of the high end flatbed scanners like the Creo are pretty capable for small film, but you'll pay about the same as for a drum scan.
Cheap prices for scans may not be cost effectve in the long run. The operator may be someone in a shop who works using fixed settings for all scans and/or is not highly skilled. While this may work for some of your slides, it may not for others where a more custom approach will give better results.
--P
In all likelihood, the scans at the lowest end of the market (and almost certainly at the prices you cite) were done on a flatbed. Probably a really nice flatbed, but a flatbed none-the-less. They will look nice on the web and probably to the average consumer but you will notice the difference versus a drum scan.
There are a couple of places that will go up at least to a Nikon Coolscan but since I already own a 4000 and Danny Burk gets my drumscans, I haven't really looked around.
http://www.pearsonimaging.com/