So, how do you digitize?

[atlcruiser]

B+W develope at home. C41/E6 either local and scan myself or (more often) send to North Coast for developing and scanning.

I scan at home with a Canon 8800F that is great for the price point. I have a better scans carrier for my MF B+W and it made a world of difference!

I have just gotten my Epson R2400 and love it. Suddenly I can print 13 x 19 and really see what it look like!

 

[Bobonli]

B+W develope at home. C41/E6 either local and scan myself or (more often) send to North Coast for developing and scanning.

I looked at North Coast. Their site says that the scanned files open in Photoshop as 48 mb sized files.

I'm curious, do you get bigger file sizes scanning at home?

My local shop's scans open in PS as 39mb (6.4mb jpegs on a CD) files and they are nowhere as clear and sharp as the specimens in this thread. Just trying to decide whether to continue sinking money into the local shop's scans or buy my own scanner. I seem to recall the scans I made with my Coolscan being crystal clear and sharp...though time-consuming.

Thank you all for your help

 

[Ranchu]

I looked at North Coast. Their site says that the scanned files open in Photoshop as 48 mb sized files.

I'm curious, do you get bigger file sizes scanning at home?

My local shop's scans open in PS as 39mb (6.4mb jpegs on a CD) files and they are nowhere as clear and sharp as the specimens in this thread. Just trying to decide whether to continue sinking money into the local shop's scans or buy my own scanner. I seem to recall the scans I made with my Coolscan being crystal clear and sharp...though time-consuming.

Thank you all for your help

Coolscan V ED files are about 60 mb in 8 bit. 6.4 mb jpegs are pretty good sized, they should be decently sharp. If not, I don't think they're all that good scans. On the other hand, remember the pics above most likely have been sharpened to various degrees...

To answer your question with my subjective opinion, the flatbeds are decent for 35mm, but they don't get 'grain sharp' like a Coolscan or others. That's the only film scanner I have experience with. I also have a V500. The both work, but with the Coolscan I can see I'm getting everything.

 

[DrTebi]

I looked at North Coast. Their site says that the scanned files open in Photoshop as 48 mb sized files.

I'm curious, do you get bigger file sizes scanning at home?

I scan with a CanoScan FS4000US film scanner at the highest resolution (4000dpi), and Photoshop opens them at 57 megs.

I have tried scans from five different labs:
Coopers Imaging (terrible)
Wolf Camera (terrible)
Bison Photo (just OK)
Photoworks San Francisco (good but expensive)
Dwayne's (good and cheap)

The only ones that delivered usable results were Photoworks SF (my local lab), and Dwayne's. The local lab charges quite a lot for high-res scans, which sucks. Dwayne's on the other hand only charges $2.99 for quite nice scans. Photoworks as well as Dwayne's files open in PS at 17.1 MB.

The one difference I noticed when comparing my own scans to the lab scans was, that their scans were less noisy. This is probably better with a Nikon CoolScan though.

Well, my own conclusion so far is that I will always get higher resolution scans from home scanning, and full control over the outcome--but is it worth the time? After shooting nine rolls of film on my last trip, I decided to sent everything to Dwayne's for developing and scanning, however if I do want I can still make my own scans later on.

 

[not_in_good_order]

I use a Nikon Coolscan 5000 ED. I bought it a couple of years ago before it was discontinued and absolutely love the scans it produces. I can't imagine parting with it.

 

[DrTebi]

I use a Nikon Coolscan 5000 ED. I bought it a couple of years ago before it was discontinued and absolutely love the scans it produces. I can't imagine parting with it.

Your flickr photos are really nice indeed. Do you do any post-processing after scanning?

 

[not_in_good_order]

Your flickr photos are really nice indeed. Do you do any post-processing after scanning?

Thank you. I use use Adobe Lightroom for basic post processing (resizing, sharpening, cropping, white balance adjustment, etc). I go pretty light on the post processing. Every type of film has a characteristic look and I don't like to mess with that too much.