High-end scanning service in the EU

[Out to Lunch]

A few days ago, I stumbled upon this website -no relation with the owners. It seems an interesting alternative to sending off film/slides to the USA. http://www.filmscanner.info/en/index.html

Cheers, Peter

 

[HHPhoto]

There are dozens of higher grade scan services in Germany alone.
It would be stupid to send films for scanning to the US from Europe.

Much better quality than filmscannerinfo is delivered by Dominique Ventzke:
www.high-end-scans.de

Cheers, Jan

 

[Out to Lunch]

Much better quality than filmscannerinfo is delivered by Dominique Ventzke

Did you compare?

 

[dct]

It depends...

It depends...

There are dozens of higher grade scan services in Germany alone.
It would be stupid to send films for scanning to the US from Europe.

Much better quality than filmscannerinfo is delivered by Dominique Ventzke:
www.high-end-scans.de

Cheers, Jan

Well, let us first define (high end) film scanning.
Are you talking about regular full roll development and scanning, some 20 to 50 rolls (135 = 36*50 = 1800 scans/year) at ~25 Mpix? You will not get a reasonable price in EU. I compared a lot and that's why I don't agree with your highlighted sentence. It is advantegeous and convenient send it overseas and I attend it regularly since 2011.

I suppose we should be more specific. Are we just discussing the up to 20 keepers per year, we would like to print oversized? All right, then go for drum scans and print it accordingly first class. But then we are in a completely different league... of prices too!

Being not a millionaire I have to check the price-performance ratio before I place my monthly orders.

 

[HHPhoto]

Did you compare?

Yes, I did.

Cheers, Jan

 

[HHPhoto]

Well, let us first define (high end) film scanning.
Are you talking about regular full roll development and scanning, some 20 to 50 rolls (135 = 36*50 = 1800 scans/year) at ~25 Mpix? You will not get a reasonable price in EU. I compared a lot and that's why I don't agree with your highlighted sentence. It is advantegeous and convenient send it overseas and I attend it regularly since 2011.

I have to disagree. There are lots of options here in the EU, at least for us EU Europeans 😉.
E.g. http://www.digitalcopy24.de/ or Foto Weckbrodt.
Less quality than with www.high-end-scans.de, but good quality at lower prices.
And not the expensive oversea shipping costs.

Anyway, with 20 to 50 rolls p.a. as you say it makes sense to think about doing own optical printing on RA-4:
- much better quality than any scan, even high end drum scans (the resolution of APO enlarging lenses is unsurpassed and much better than any drum scanner; all scientific tests proved that).
- lower costs.

And with 20 to 50 rolls p.a. it also makes sense to think about having your own scanner, a Coolscan 5000 / 9000 or Plustek 120 for example.

Cheers, Jan

 

[dct]

I have to disagree. There are lots of options here in the EU, at least for us EU Europeans 😉.
E.g. http://www.digitalcopy24.de/ or Foto Weckbrodt.
Less quality than with www.high-end-scans.de, but good quality at lower prices.
And not the expensive oversea shipping costs.

Admittedly digitalcopy24.de looks interesting solely for scanning. But I forgot to mention an important aspect of my mentioned overseas service in the total costs calculation: it includes also developing C-41 in the scan price and you have no minimum number of frame. Though B&W goes for a surcharge the roll.
Does digiatlcopy24.de include development too in their prices?

Anyway, with 20 to 50 rolls p.a. as you say it makes sense to think about doing own optical printing on RA-4:
- much better quality than any scan, even high end drum scans (the resolution of APO enlarging lenses is unsurpassed and much better than any drum scanner; all scientific tests proved that).
- lower costs.

And with 20 to 50 rolls p.a. it also makes sense to think about having your own scanner, a Coolscan 5000 / 9000 or Plustek 120 for example.

Cheers, Jan

20 to 50 rolls p.a. doesn't equal to thousands of prints: I don't have so many worthy keepers :bang:
If I print 20 to 30 images big (p.a.), then I had a good year. Hence I prefer to give the job to a professional.
Same for development and scanning: My spare time is rather limited.

 

[brbo]

Then why do you need 25MP scans of all your shots when the high resolution will only come to play in one or two percent of your shots?

I live in EU and when I still had my C-41 films developed and scanned (though only 3000x2000dpi) locally it was dirt cheap (around 4-5 EUR - developing and scanning). Is it really that much cheaper to send it to US?!

 

[wallace]

Much better quality than filmscannerinfo is delivered by Dominique Ventzke:
www.high-end-scans.de

Cheers, Jan[/quote]



Thanks for the link! looks very interesting to me...

Cheers, Thomas

 

[HHPhoto]

Does digiatlcopy24.de include development too in their prices?

No. But development is very cheap in lots of EU member countries.
Cheapest is Germany: C-41 in dm drugstores is only 95 Euro Cents. E6 only 1,95€.
At Rossmann drugstores both are only 2,55€.
Professional labs with dip and dunk processing are mostly in the 3,50 - 6€ range here.

Cheers, Jan

 

[dct]

You are right. It might be cheaper separating the development from the scan service. Will try your proposition: Thank you for the enlightenment.

 

[Matus]

Much better quality than filmscannerinfo is delivered by Dominique Ventzke:
www.high-end-scans.de

Those are VERY reasonable prices for drum scans. I will give them a try.


I have used http://www.digitalcopy24.de/ for several years now and the Imacon X5 scans are very good for the price too (7€ for 4x5" @ 2000 spi raw FFF scan). Mr. Choroba (the owner) also offers Coolscan 5000 and 9000 scan, but with 9000 has problems with film flatness and so it may produce partially unsharp scans at times.

I have a also come across: http://cheapdrumscanning.com that is located in UK. I plan to give them a shot too. Their base price for 4x5" drumscan @ 2000 spi and 16bit is 15 pounds (for if you want to do dust spotting etc.).

 

[tsiklonaut]

For those who're interested in drum scanning I offer high-end scanning service for very competitive prices, based in Estonia.

Plus I offer a unique mastering service on analog photos for those who're keen to shooting but not so much to the technical details. Some of the results you can see here.

Pop me a PM or e-mail me at the bottom of the page link posted above.