film processing

Hey - question for the group - who's your favorite lab for developing
and scanning 120 film? I'm not ready to buy my own scanner - I don't
shoot very many rolls of film - so medium resolution scans (about 10MB)
is important.

I'm using a local guy now and am happy with their work but naturally
curious who else is out there doing the same thing. That and trying to
save a buck or five are my reasons for asking!

Thanks,

Scott

"Scott R" wrote:
Hey - question for the group - who's your favorite lab for developing
and scanning 120 film? I'm not ready to buy my own scanner - I don't
shoot very many rolls of film - so medium resolution scans (about 10MB)
is important.

I'm using a local guy now and am happy with their work but naturally
curious who else is out there doing the same thing. That and trying to
save a buck or five are my reasons for asking!

For medium resolution scanning, the 4800 ppi Epsons will do a reasonable
job, so if you don't mind spending the time, you should be able to save some
money (especially if you can justify the cost of the scanner for other
purposes). The 4800 ppi scans will be quite soft, but if you scan at 4800
ppi, apply very light noise reduction (NeatImage or NoiseNinja), and
downsample to 1600 ppi, you'll get nice 12MP images from 6x6.

Developing is harder. For B&W, doing it yourself is not only reasonable, but
the right thing, but I've always seen color processing as beyond what's
reasonable. So either local labs or sending them out. In Tokyo, there are
still lots of services, but that doesn't do anyone else any good...

David J. Littleboy
Tokyo, Japan

Here in eastern Massachusetts, I use Color Services in Needham and
Dorian's in Arlington. They both also do scans but I do my own with a
LeafScan.

Jim

Scott R wrote:

Hey - question for the group - who's your favorite lab for developing
and scanning 120 film? I'm not ready to buy my own scanner - I don't
shoot very many rolls of film - so medium resolution scans (about 10MB)
is important.

I'm using a local guy now and am happy with their work but naturally
curious who else is out there doing the same thing. That and trying to
save a buck or five are my reasons for asking!

Thanks,

Scott

"David J. Littleboy" wrote in message
...

"Scott R" wrote:
Hey - question for the group - who's your favorite lab for developing
and scanning 120 film? I'm not ready to buy my own scanner - I don't
shoot very many rolls of film - so medium resolution scans (about 10MB)
is important.

I'm using a local guy now and am happy with their work but naturally
curious who else is out there doing the same thing. That and trying to
save a buck or five are my reasons for asking!

For medium resolution scanning, the 4800 ppi Epsons will do a reasonable
job, so if you don't mind spending the time, you should be able to save
some money (especially if you can justify the cost of the scanner for
other purposes). The 4800 ppi scans will be quite soft, but if you scan at
4800 ppi, apply very light noise reduction (NeatImage or NoiseNinja), and
downsample to 1600 ppi, you'll get nice 12MP images from 6x6.


For those of less discerning taste, sure. All of your caveats aside, to me,
and anyone else not willing to sell themselves short, for anything short of
4x5, the epson flatbeds are inadequate.
--
www.mattclara.com

In article ,
"David J. Littleboy" wrote:

.In Tokyo, there are
still lots of services, but that doesn't do anyone else any good...

David J. Littleboy
Tokyo, Japan

Sure it does one would expect less film photography going on there
(Japan) but what would say the ratio of Film used there actually is?
--
Reality-Is finding that perfect picture
and never looking back.

www.gregblankphoto.com

"Greg "_"" wrote:
"David J. Littleboy" wrote:

.In Tokyo, there are
still lots of services, but that doesn't do anyone else any good...

Sure it does one would expect less film photography going on there
(Japan) but what would say the ratio of Film used there actually is?

My impression is that film is still hanging in there here. The "workflow" of
handing an undeveloped roll of 35mm color negative film to a magazine is
something I've seen in action, and the advertising poster industry (30x40"
advertising posters in the train stations here (and there are a _lot_ of
train stations here)) still seems to be LF powered. At least the detail
holds up when one puts one nose on them a surprising percentage of the time.

Still, I should follow this issue more closely.

David J. Littleboy
Tokyo, Japan

"Matt Clara" wrote in message
. ..
"David J. Littleboy" wrote in message

For medium resolution scanning, the 4800 ppi Epsons will do a reasonable
job, so if you don't mind spending the time, you should be able to save
some money (especially if you can justify the cost of the scanner for
other purposes). The 4800 ppi scans will be quite soft, but if you scan
at 4800 ppi, apply very light noise reduction (NeatImage or NoiseNinja),
and downsample to 1600 ppi, you'll get nice 12MP images from 6x6.


For those of less discerning taste, sure. All of your caveats aside, to
me, and anyone else not willing to sell themselves short, for anything
short of 4x5, the epson flatbeds are inadequate.

The guy is getting 10MB scans from his lab. That's under 4MP. He'll get far
better scans from an Epson than those scans.

One can still get an Epson 4800 ppi scanner for a reasonable price (well
under US$500) and learn how to scan on it, and determine if one wants to
spend the time and effort to scan before spending serious money on a Nikon
9000 (or whatever).

So an Epson may be bad advice for anal perfectionists with their heads up
their arses, but for real people with no experience, it's a good place to
start.

David J. Littleboy
Tokyo, Japan

The guy is getting 10MB scans from his lab. That's under 4MP. He'll get far
better scans from an Epson than those scans.

I've never used a MF camera before let alone one that's fully manual so
the name of my game is keeping the learning curve low cost. Even a $500
4800dpi flatbed scanner is equivalent to almost 70 rolls of film
scanned by my local lab. The low res scans allow me to select only the
very best for high res scans later on.

Also, the photos are mostly for internet use so low res scans still
work out pretty well.

Jim Hemenway wrote:
Here in eastern Massachusetts, I use Color Services in Needham and
Dorian's in Arlington. They both also do scans but I do my own with a
LeafScan.

Color Services has the most impressive price sheet - at 24 pages - I've
ever seen! Looks like an interesting group.

"Scott R" wrote:
The guy is getting 10MB scans from his lab. That's under 4MP. He'll get
far
better scans from an Epson than those scans.

I've never used a MF camera before let alone one that's fully manual so
the name of my game is keeping the learning curve low cost. Even a $500
4800dpi flatbed scanner is equivalent to almost 70 rolls of film
scanned by my local lab. The low res scans allow me to select only the
very best for high res scans later on.

If you don't mind not being able to do 4x5, the 4990 lists for US$199, so
that's a lot more reasonable than the 449.99 for the 4990. If you can
persuade yourself you need a document scanner, then the incremental cost is
only US$100 or so.

Be warned, though. Scanning takes a lot of time and has a steep learning
curve.

Also, there's a lot of variability in what comes out of the Epsons. Some
people seem to get great results, others rather uninspired results. So if
you plan on getting good 5x enlargements from it, you won't be disappointed.

David J. Littleboy
Tokyo, Japan