Scan Cafe?

T

Talex

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I need to scan about drawer full of film, not sure how many frames, but about 10 years worth. I've considered getting a dedicated film scanner, but I am concerned that scanning film would take up too much time (I have 3 young kids under 7 yrs old). I'd rather use my free time to take pictures of my kids instead of scanning.

I'm also looking into Scan Cafe. That should be a huge timesaver, although it can add up at $0.29 per scan. But they only charge for the "keepers" that I would select, so I should be able to manage my costs.

Has anyone have experience with Scan Cafe? Would you recommend them?

Thanks!
 
Talex said:
I need to scan about drawer full of film, not sure how many frames, but about 10 years worth. I've considered getting a dedicated film scanner, but I am concerned that scanning film would take up too much time (I have 3 young kids under 7 yrs old). I'd rather use my free time to take pictures of my kids instead of scanning.

I'm also looking into Scan Cafe. That should be a huge timesaver, although it can add up at $0.29 per scan. But they only charge for the "keepers" that I would select, so I should be able to manage my costs.

Has anyone have experience with Scan Cafe? Would you recommend them?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

"you review them at your leisure and discard the ones you don't want (up to 50% of the images you send us). "

Based on the above statement I'd suggest sending a test batch of say 200 frames that way you can see what quality of work they do at a fairly low cost. Then if everything looks good you can send a larger batch.
 
I have used ScanCafe twice. Once in late 2008 and again in late 2009.

For C41 negatives, the scan quality is acceptable, not fantastic, but good enough. File size ranges from 2 MB to 4 MB (as JPGs). They offer higher res scans and delivery as 'loseless' TIFFs, but I have never used either option.

For B&W negatives, the scan quality if also acceptable and a little better than their color work simply because the technician is obviously doing some touch up work on dust and scratch removal. Again, nothing exceptional, but it's there.

The turnaround from sending the negatives to getting the scans to receiving the negatives back can be long. In late 2008, it took four months. This last time, the turnaround was just eight weeks.

I would recommend them. What I do is once I get the scans back, if there's something in there that I want a high quality, high res scan of, I get that one. ScanCafe was good for generating a digital catalogue of my film photography.

When I sent in my negatives, I labeled each negative set. The people doing the scanning then copied those notes from the negative sleeves and organized the files in to folders with the same names. Nice touch.

Also, yes, you do get to choose which images you will pay for and which you won't. (You only receive the scans of the files you choose.)
 
Thanks for your response! I will definitely mark the batches I send, and I'll try to weed out the obvious garbage. This should save me a lot of time scanning, and open up more time photographing and playing with my kids.


scottwallick said:
I have used ScanCafe twice. Once in late 2008 and again in late 2009.

For C41 negatives, the scan quality is acceptable, not fantastic, but good enough. File size ranges from 2 MB to 4 MB (as JPGs). They offer higher res scans and delivery as 'loseless' TIFFs, but I have never used either option.

For B&W negatives, the scan quality if also acceptable and a little better than their color work simply because the technician is obviously doing some touch up work on dust and scratch removal. Again, nothing exceptional, but it's there.

The turnaround from sending the negatives to getting the scans to receiving the negatives back can be long. In late 2008, it took four months. This last time, the turnaround was just eight weeks.

I would recommend them. What I do is once I get the scans back, if there's something in there that I want a high quality, high res scan of, I get that one. ScanCafe was good for generating a digital catalogue of my film photography.

When I sent in my negatives, I labeled each negative set. The people doing the scanning then copied those notes from the negative sleeves and organized the files in to folders with the same names. Nice touch.

Also, yes, you do get to choose which images you will pay for and which you won't. (You only receive the scans of the files you choose.)
Click to expand...
 
I agree with Scott that their color neg scans are decent, though I haven't sent any B&W to them. They've made mistakes on my orders like double albums uploaded, missing albums, wrong folder names, etc. but their US customer service is good (I've called them a dozen times at least).

Here's a post I wrote a few weeks ago...

I've sent about 3600 35mm color negs to Scancafe and can give you a few tips if you use them:
  1. Sign up for their email newsletters and wait for a sale. I paid 19 cents and 21 cents per 35mm color neg for my orders. Last December I got a $300 gift card for $150! The sales are frequent enough that I'd never pay full price for their services.
  2. They only do 8-bit, regardless of color/B&W, format size, resolution, etc. I've pleaded with them to offer 16-bit for at least B&W, but until they switch from Photoshop Elements it's not gonna happen.
  3. You can throw away up to half of your scans and not have to pay for them, which is the best thing about Scancafe.
  4. They don't do any noise reduction, but do sharpen your scans (you can ask them to leave them unsharpened). Their Nikon Coolscans tend to accentuate the grain a bit, so I do some light noise reduction on the scans.
Scancafe is best for archives of old negatives or slides when you don't care about fast turnaround. I don't send them any of my B&W negatives because I prefer to edit those in 16-bit.

If you want to give them a try, let me refer you and we both get a little something :cool:
 
Thanks for the advice. I will sign up for the newsletter and wait for a sale. I'm not in that big of a hurry to get my negatives scanned. This would save me $$$ from not buying a dedicated film scanner, and also save me time which is even more precious.

And yes, perhaps you can refer me and we can both get some benefits. Please PM me with the details.


Bruin said:
I agree with Scott that their color neg scans are decent, though I haven't sent any B&W to them. They've made mistakes on my orders like double albums uploaded, missing albums, wrong folder names, etc. but their US customer service is good (I've called them a dozen times at least).

Here's a post I wrote a few weeks ago...

I've sent about 3600 35mm color negs to Scancafe and can give you a few tips if you use them:
  1. Sign up for their email newsletters and wait for a sale. I paid 19 cents and 21 cents per 35mm color neg for my orders. Last December I got a $300 gift card for $150! The sales are frequent enough that I'd never pay full price for their services.
  2. They only do 8-bit, regardless of color/B&W, format size, resolution, etc. I've pleaded with them to offer 16-bit for at least B&W, but until they switch from Photoshop Elements it's not gonna happen.
  3. You can throw away up to half of your scans and not have to pay for them, which is the best thing about Scancafe.
  4. They don't do any noise reduction, but do sharpen your scans (you can ask them to leave them unsharpened). Their Nikon Coolscans tend to accentuate the grain a bit, so I do some light noise reduction on the scans.
Scancafe is best for archives of old negatives or slides when you don't care about fast turnaround. I don't send them any of my B&W negatives because I prefer to edit those in 16-bit.

If you want to give them a try, let me refer you and we both get a little something :cool:
Click to expand...
 
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