Xpan film processing

[neurospine]

Ok, I am stoked. I just received my xpan I. By the way, I found it in the classifieds on RFF. I don't have a home dark room and have not yet made the jump to scanning my own negs. Any suggestions on a lab to process, possibly print, and definitely scan my xpan negs? I've found a few places on the net but would appreciate some recs from xpan users. I'm sure I will be burning through a bunch of film and would especially appreciate some advice on where the best value might be. Thanks!

 

[AusDLK]

Film scanning and printing are the thorn in the Xpan's side.

It is a great camera platform but it's non-standard frame size is a pain even for those of us that do our own image making.

My fear for you is that unless you have pretty deep pockets and/or acquire the necessary hardware to scan and print yourself will be that you become disillusioned pretty fast.

Film development is not an issue. That can be done anywhere by just about anyone. But the next step of scanning and/or printing is probably doing to require a speciality lab -- and in my experience these places don't work cheap.

I don't mean to rain on your Xpan excitement -- these cameras are terrific -- but unless you can do the post-processing yourself, you might find using the camera more than occasionally prohibitively expensive.

Good luck.

 

[Parkes Owen]

Conratulations on getting an xpan, it`s a fantastic camera. I only scan or print the shots worth keeping and use a pro lab with a drum scanner.IMHO flatbed scanners don`t do your xpan justice. I recently had a shot scanned and printed on fujiflex paper(similar to ilfochrome) 20inches long, for AUD$21 and looks great.
B&W is a similar affair,dev your own negs and get them printed at a pro lab, maybe one that uses a durst lamder or large format epson printer as they look fantastic on matt paper and will last a very long time.
BTW, if you dont have a pro lab close by, most will have a mailing service .

It is definently more expensive shooting 65x24mm but you are getting medium format quality which requires serious scanning and printing hardware to make the most of that larger neg. I`m sure you`ll love the xpan and find the results outweigh the cost.
best of luck, parkes.

 

[neurospine]

Thanks for the input Dave and Parkes. I will start shooting some film this weekend. Probably good advice to process the film first before making any decisions re printing/scanning. I did find one lab in California which will process $3 and scan to CD high res for $14 per 36 exp roll. Probably makes more sense to process locally and selectively scan/print. So, Parkes, you think jumping into the home flat bed scanning isn't worth the expense?
Steve

 

[parasko]

Conratulations on getting an xpan, it`s a fantastic camera. I only scan or print the shots worth keeping and use a pro lab with a drum scanner.IMHO flatbed scanners don`t do your xpan justice. I recently had a shot scanned and printed on fujiflex paper(similar to ilfochrome) 20inches long, for AUD$21 and looks great.

Hey Parkes,

Which pro lab in Sydney do you use for processing and printing?

I recently tried Phototecnica at Central for xpan processing. No scratches with my slides and charged around $8 a roll...not bad! I will be using them again. I haven't used them for printing though.

 

[Parkes Owen]

Thanks for the input Dave and Parkes. I will start shooting some film this weekend. Probably good advice to process the film first before making any decisions re printing/scanning. I did find one lab in California which will process $3 and scan to CD high res for $14 per 36 exp roll. Probably makes more sense to process locally and selectively scan/print. So, Parkes, you think jumping into the home flat bed scanning isn't worth the expense?
Steve

Hi Steve, I guess if I had the money for a high end flatbed and an epson r2400 printer it would be worth it if I needed to scan and print a high volume of work, but I usually only get 2 or 3 shots worth printing per roll(is that good or bad?), I think in the long run it`s cheaper for me just to get the lab to do it, and the quality should be better .

 

[Parkes Owen]

Hey Parkes,

Which pro lab in Sydney do you use for processing and printing?

I recently tried Phototecnica at Central for xpan processing. No scratches with my slides and charged around $8 a roll...not bad! I will be using them again. I haven't used them for printing though.

Hi there, the lab I use is called C41 express for scan/print, in Collaroy,north side of Syd. I use them as they are 2mins from my house(lazy!) but I would rather recommend Vision Graphics in north syd, much higher quality IMO.

I think $8 per roll is pretty good.

 

[AusDLK]

The Epson R2400 is a great printer and you can use roll paper so large panoramic prints are possible.

Scanning remains a problem. I recently purchased an Epson V750 which is supposedly the best flatbed scanner for film ever made.

However, I recently compared a scan made on the V750 and my old Minolta Elite 5400. I'm sorry to report that the V750 scan looked VERY soft in comparison. I suppose that I could be doing something wrong but what a pain to find out what it might be -- if anything.

I hoped that the V750 would be THE ANSWER. The V750 will be fine for contact prints and perhaps to make small prints.

But I fear that I will be compelled to ***horrors*** scan and stitch Xpan frames that I'm going to want to make serious prints from.

This is a disappointment...

 

[Parkes Owen]

The Epson R2400 is a great printer and you can use roll paper so large panoramic prints are possible.

Scanning remains a problem. I recently purchased an Epson V750 which is supposedly the best flatbed scanner for film ever made.

However, I recently compared a scan made on the V750 and my old Minolta Elite 5400. I'm sorry to report that the V750 scan looked VERY soft in comparison. I suppose that I could be doing something wrong but what a pain to find out what it might be -- if anything.

I hoped that the V750 would be THE ANSWER. The V750 will be fine for contact prints and perhaps to make small prints.

But I fear that I will be compelled to ***horrors*** scan and stitch Xpan frames that I'm going to want to make serious prints from.

This is a disappointment...

That`s a shame about the scanner, it makes me want to stick with the labs drum scanner as most of my prints are at least 20 to 30 inches long which would show up any scanning imperfections. I would like to buy the r2400 printer for b&W prints, as the results I`ve seen are very nice.

 

[pakodominguez]

🙂

However, I recently compared a scan made on the V750 and my old Minolta Elite 5400.

did you scan 24*65mm's XPan pics with the 5400?
I thought it only takes 24*36mm...

Pako
www.phototeka.net

 

[gdi]

I have done some pano test scans on my Coolscan V - takes 2 passes and a minute in PS.

Samples...
http://www.tunachaser.com/modules/pnCPG/coppermine/albums/userpics/10001/pano2%7E0.jpg
Crop:
http://www.tunachaser.com/modules/pnCPG/coppermine/albums/userpics/10001/pano2-100pct.jpg

 

[lZr]

Good luck with XPan. I have Horizon S3 Pro with 24x58 mm frame size. I use Epson 4990 scanner. I love my scans and can do very big prints. I like this setup.
Flatbed scanners can do it for you very nice.