Companies that scan 35mm negatives to DVD?

Bromley86

Not sure where this best sits, but it's sort-of technical.

Does anyone have any recommendations for companies that will scan 35mm negatives and save them to disk? We're talking 500-1,000 normal negatives (i.e. colour, from the 80s/90s & cut into 4 image strips).

I know I could buy a negative scanner and do it myself, but I like the idea of someone else doing it. Not just because I'm lazy, although there is that, but because of the higher quality handling/scanning that they can do.

Obviously, with that many negatives involved, pennies per scan are important. I've seen someone here mention than he got 200 scanned for £6 (i.e. 3p an image), but I've yet to find anything like that.

Companies I've found so far:

Photo Express: 14-17p
http://www.photo-express.co.uk/price-list.php

MrScan: 17-20p
http://www.mr-scan.co.uk/negs.html

Slidebox: 30-35p
http://www.slidebox.co.uk/prices.html

Slides on DVD: 30-60p
http://www.slidesondvd.co.uk/html/neg_scanning.html

Digmypics: ~35p
http://www.digmypics.com/pricing.aspx#detailedpricing
(American, so presumably higher postage to get your negs there & back, but you can review online and delete 20% of your images prior to paying for them)


Anyone used any of these? Or any other companies? I've read (admittedly on a photo enthusiast site, where the requirement for quality is likely higher than mine) that Jessops are useless and SnappySnaps okay (with the exception of their Wardour St. shop in London, that is apparently excellent).


Just called SnappySnaps Wardour St., and the costs there are:
£16 for 36 or, if you're doing 10 or more sets, £10 for 36. So that's 28p an image for me.

BTW, is there any need to get them in TIFF format, which seems to cost ~1/3 more? They're just normal snaps.

EDIT:

Just for reference, I've checked into Photo Express and they have glowing reviews from a photo enthusiast forum (Talk Photography). Also, when I emailed them with a few questions, as I've got nearly 1,000 images they agreed to convert them at £5 for 40 images (12.5p an image). As far as I can tell, the scans are going to be good quality (they do TIFFs, but I think I'll be cheap and stick to JPEGs).

The cheap option is the Asda one bcl999 mentioned. Called them and they confirmed they scan 4 films worth of negatives (doesn't matter if they're cut) onto 1 CD for 97p! A very basic service (she didn't really know more than that, so assume small file size and of course no Digital Ice etc.), but so what? When she said 4 films, she did say 24 exposures, so assume it's 3 per disk if you've got 36s. That works out at about 1p per image!

So there you go. A cheap, quality option and an almost-free, loss leader option for you to choose from.

clangnuts

Getting them in TIFF format could be important, as jpeg's are a lossy format, so you won't get the same quality scans. TIFF's will be much larger files however.

bcl999

I got mine done at local Asda which has a photo counter. It may not be the quality you are looking for but at £1 (can't be sure but it was cheap) per disc, which I think takes five 36exp rolls, it wouldn't harm to give them one to do.

ajuk

ASDA adds a lot of sharpening to their Jpegs also it's quite low res and really lossy, I don't know if the staff can do anything about this.

Notmyrealname

Wants a good job, doesn't want to pay anything and quotes a list of places staffed by McDonalds level employees...

Bromley86

Is that addressed to me NMRN? I've merely listed all the stuff I found on the internet, at least 2 of which (Photo Express and Snappy Snaps Wardour Street) have been recommended by 35mm enthusiasts.

Regarding Asda, for 97p, I thought I'd try it out. I'll be sending the lot off to Photo Express next week, but I took 3 that I wouldn't be upset losing to Asda to see what happens. Asda seems like a no-brainer for people who otherwise would never get their negs scanned or use them for reprints, especially in the context of a money saving forum.

Feel free to suggest somewhere that you think does a good job for a fair price. I'd be genuinely interested as my father will be wanting his done in the near future and will likely have a bigger budget for it.

wdw2003

If the snaps are important to you, I'd be inclined to go down the diy route. That way you can crop the negs as you go, make any necessary specific corrections and also save as a tiff at a fairly high resolution. If it's important pics like say the kids as youngsters, I'd want the highest resolution possible for future enlargements, and definitely not jpegs.

I've done this to a few thousand negs already, using a dedicated neg scanner, and feel that, for me, using a commercial outlet could be too hit or miss and probably wouldn't give me the quality I'd want.

If the pics are nothing special, then probably any old store would do.

neilwoods

A lot is going to depend on what you want to do with the photo's afterwards. They just for archive purpose, to view online or print off.

For the price you are looking for at 3p or there about's per scan, then you can expect to get absolute bargain basement scanning with a 2.1mp scanner, would be cheap and nasty scan's.

If you have a PC, then why not get a negative scanner. Quite a few on the market these days, most are stand alone unit's, not 100% they are very good though.

A flatbed scanner with negative scanning ability would be the best option, something like a Canon CanoScan LiDE 700F. Get it for about £90 on amazon, once you have done the scans, could always sell the scanner on ebay.

Dave_C_2

Just my 2d worth,
I bought a so-called scanner from Aldi and all it was was a digital camera with a backlight. Rubbish contrast, best to avoid the cheap ones.

I've had negatives to CD from Jessops but they are expensive if they don't develop the film. Resolution 1800x1200 and perfect colour, comparable to digital camera.
In between I went to Jacobs for develop and CD - once. Poor resolution 1400x 1000 and poor quality from otherwise good negatives. This may have changed.

So I highly recommend you send a trial set before placing your big order.

Dave

Enterprise_1701C

We bought a combined flatbed scanner/auto feeder/negative scanner. We managed to scan all the negatives we wanted with good high quality scans, also managed to scan a few thousand photo prints. They are now stored on a pvr and a hard disc.

It is an HP scanner - don't think there is any point giving you a number as it was a few years ago.

It took time and effort, I checked each scan was the standard I wanted, then went back through and trimmed them up and enhanced them where necessary. If you do them yourself you get to choose what standard you want, whether you want to enhance the colours etc or leave them as they are. I personally would never have let someone else do it because we now have a good collection of photos in the condition we want them to be in, and if we want to show someone some old photos we just grab the pvr or hard disc and away we go.

Whatever you do though, do not forget to back up!

scotsbob

I had over 2000 slides and got them done by Digiscan (www.digiscanltd.com) and am very happy with results. I now intend to send my negatives to be scanned also.

I considered buying a scanner, doing them myself then selling the scanner on again. However my slides were taken on a Nikon with an expensive lens and there seemed little point in then scanning them with a poor quality lens. The company have top quality equipment, far better than I could afford and they have the expertise that I wouldn't have.