Hi-res scans to CD

[colyn]

I have tried a few local outlets to get hi-res scans from my color negs to CD but end up with 60-100kb size scans.
Who does true hi-res scans to CD so I can print 8x10 11x14??

 

[rogue_designer]

in my experience, that usually takes sending to a pro lab and paying higher scan prices... not doing a process/scan

I've heard that some people have gotten high-res scans from 1-hr processors when they know someone there and can tweak the settings, but I've never experienced that.

 

[froyd]

Try Costco

Try Costco

I don't know what's the comparative quality of the scans because I never got them from anywhere else (ignorance is bliss?), but they are pretty big scans... I forget the pixel size, but I can print good 8x10 and even stretch to 11x14 on some shots. I think the scans are close to 3000 pixels wide.

 

[bmattock]

Get a scanner and do it yourself. You get much better quality, and you will take care not to scratch up your negs. Those one-hour places are manned by baboons with hemorrhoids. You don't want them touching your film any more than they have to.

 

[Al Kaplan]

They're not all baboons. Erma, the woman who is in charge of the lab at my local Walgreens, knows her stuff and seems to do a good job training her staff to handle the negatives by the edges only. She keeps the chemistry fresh, and I've even seen her down on her knees, screw driver in hand, the side panel off the printer, getting things back in spec. Not all one-hours are the same!

 

[Armoured]

Experimenting a bit locally: in Toronto, Walmart gave roughly a one-meg jpg scan, Shopper's Drug Mart 2.4 meg, and Annex photo 0.5 meg - but the first two from 35 mm, the last from 120 6X6! (Not happy with that at all).
Unfortunately, I don't know if there's much to do but compare place to place. I highly doubt that even the chains are completely consistent. Not only that, the staff at this Shopper's (one guy) does it himself and seems to know what he's doing - I haven't asked but suspect I could get him to max it out if I asked nicely. None of these are up to the quality of what I could do myself but for a couple of bucks it's much easier (and I can do upscans when needed, using these as a reference).

 

[Zonan]

Take a look at North Coast Photographic in Carlsbad, CA (northcoastphoto.com). They do both standard and high res scans. I find their high res scans to be excellent. Prices, tho higher than x-mart, are reasonable compared to competition. You might be able to get by with the lower res option.

 

[splitimageview]

Ditto on North Coast. The quality of the scans are superb, as is the developing. They don't use the minilab machines that tend to scratch negs, it's all dip and dunk.

 

[Rhoyle]

I'm very lucky. My local Costco gives me 18 meg Jpgs. The manager said that they had enough requests for them that they just do them that way as a matter of course now. Most of the time they're quite good and there's enough info there that I can do some tweaking if needed.

 

[amateriat]

Get a scanner and do it yourself. You get much better quality, and you will take care not to scratch up your negs. Those one-hour places are manned by baboons with hemorrhoids. You don't want them touching your film any more than they have to.

I'm with you on this, Bill: IMO, the less handling my film gets, the better, which is why I not only not get scans or prints from my film at my local labs, I don't even let them cut the film once it come out of the processor: they just roll it up and drop it in the little cardboard folder. Faster, cheaper, and fewer chances of scratched negs and hard feelings.

Many chain-store minilabs do have people who know their gluteus max from their elbows, but these outfits work in shifts, and you don't always know who will really be handling your negs.


- Barrett

 

[colyn]

Get a scanner and do it yourself. You get much better quality, and you will take care not to scratch up your negs. Those one-hour places are manned by baboons with hemorrhoids. You don't want them touching your film any more than they have to.

I do have a scanner but scanning all frames can be a long drawn out process. I prefer to only scan my b&w negs and let my color negs be scanned by the processor.