Pages: [1]   Go Down

Author Topic: Good UK 35 mm slide scanning service?  (Read 2898 times)

Hywel

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 294
    • http://www.restrainedelegance.com
Good UK 35 mm slide scanning service?
« on: February 27, 2010, 08:05:00 pm »

Hi All,

  I'm looking to have my film archives scanned. I don't have the time to do it myself, and I was wondering if anyone could recommend a good UK slide scanning service?

  The slides are mounted 35mm, mostly plastic-mounted Velvia and paper-mounted Kodachrome 64. There's a few 6 x 7 cm unmounted transparencies and a few rolls of negatives which never got printed too.

  These shots are non-commercial, and will be of variable quality. I'd like a decent job done of it- blower to remove dust, scan with digital ICE, sensible adjustment of levels (ideally by a human being who can spot a snow scene or a model shot against black velvet). I don't need drum scanner quality, these were fairly cheap cameras with low end zoom lenses so we're more talking sentimental value than anything else, but I would like to be able to put the keepers into my digital portfolio for old times' sake.

  My personal/landscape collection is probably 3000 shots, although these probably need a first pass yes/no which would whittle it down to a few hundred. There's also the first 5000 or so shots from my website which are also on film and which were scanned pretty crappily at the time, which could maybe stand redoing for archival; however, I doubt that would be cost effective.

 It would certainly be an option to buy a moderately decent slide scanner with feeder and hire an intern... but the appeal of dropping off boxloads of slides and getting the completed scans back on a hard drive a few weeks later is considerable.

  Obviously the cost of the scans will influence the ruthlessness of my preselection!

  Can anyone suggest any good UK bureau for this?

  Cheers, Hywel
Logged

Nick Walker

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 143
    • www.sportpicturelibrary.com
Good UK 35 mm slide scanning service?
« Reply #1 on: February 28, 2010, 04:54:17 am »

Quote from: Hywel
Hi All,

  I'm looking to have my film archives scanned. I don't have the time to do it myself, and I was wondering if anyone could recommend a good UK slide scanning service?

  The slides are mounted 35mm, mostly plastic-mounted Velvia and paper-mounted Kodachrome 64. There's a few 6 x 7 cm unmounted transparencies and a few rolls of negatives which never got printed too.

  These shots are non-commercial, and will be of variable quality. I'd like a decent job done of it- blower to remove dust, scan with digital ICE, sensible adjustment of levels (ideally by a human being who can spot a snow scene or a model shot against black velvet). I don't need drum scanner quality, these were fairly cheap cameras with low end zoom lenses so we're more talking sentimental value than anything else, but I would like to be able to put the keepers into my digital portfolio for old times' sake.

  My personal/landscape collection is probably 3000 shots, although these probably need a first pass yes/no which would whittle it down to a few hundred. There's also the first 5000 or so shots from my website which are also on film and which were scanned pretty crappily at the time, which could maybe stand redoing for archival; however, I doubt that would be cost effective.

 It would certainly be an option to buy a moderately decent slide scanner with feeder and hire an intern... but the appeal of dropping off boxloads of slides and getting the completed scans back on a hard drive a few weeks later is considerable.

  Obviously the cost of the scans will influence the ruthlessness of my preselection!

  Can anyone suggest any good UK bureau for this?

  Cheers, Hywel


Hywel,

A few pointers from experience.

Don't expect a cheap job if you are after high quality as the time is brutal, experienced judgement and colour management skills are required. I have just scanned 1,200 slides from my library to very high quality standards, it as taken me two weeks. I have a Nikon LS 5000 scanner, importantly driven by Silverfast software that offers IT8 calibrated.  It is advantageous with high contrast slides to vary the gamma (higher gamma lightens shadows, highlights barely affected - better roll off) input for 'each' slide depending on the contrast. Nikon Scan software is dreadful, no calibration option, 'very' slow even in one pass mode and has not been updated by Nikon for several years.

There are many companies that will spew out scans below £1 a throw. I tested a company that advertises as a quality professional lab, who have been in business for many years, they clipped important highlights that only have a value of 247 on a flat scan - after enquiring they were using Nikon Scan's auto exposure button! - so be warned there are a lot of cowboys out there. Ask some questions about the companies scanning operations before you commit; what software are they using, what gamma values, etc. I made the company re-scan the images to get them right second time around, the colours were still off as they were not profiling their scanner - they had never heard of Silverfast!

You will still have to clean up areas where ICE technology has only partially, or poorly, deals with dust/damage marks.

Provided the operator is skilled Nikon scanners such as the LS 5000 provide very high quality. I also owned a Imacon scanner - detailed tests against the Nikon showed small differences that were not worth fretting over. For best results the slide mounts need to be in excellent condition. I remove my slides from the bulk standard machine mounts and use German pin registered mounts as they keep the slides as flat as possible and have an aperture closer to the full 35mm area. For the sharpest scans the AF should be manually driven on each slide as the auto-focus is not always spot-on.

For 35mm I would not recommend the services of a scanning company relying on Epson flat bed scanners as they are noticeably inferior to the Nikon LS5000. I owned a V750 Pro and returned it (also returned replacement unit for refund) after 'detailed' tests. For 35mm they do not live up the Pro status that Espon advertise - both of my units created a serious triple blooming floor on light against dark subjects (especially yellows against a black background). They also require a heavy dose of targeted sharpening to match the Nikon ED optics and hardware.

Scanning Kodachrome raises some issues, for starters, due to Kodachrome's unique film structure, ICE technology wont work - you may find some of this information useful - http://www.silverfast.com/highlights/kodachrome/en.html

On a last note I made several enquiries with UK scanning services that offer reasonable rates )not the cheaqp end) and none of them were colour management savvy after asking some pressing questions. They offer adequate services when quality is not sought after. If you find a cost effective lab that appears to be on the ball ask them if they would be willing to provide a sample scan so that you can examine the quality before submitting a large selection.
« Last Edit: February 28, 2010, 06:11:40 am by Nick Walker »
Logged

Hywel

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 294
    • http://www.restrainedelegance.com
Good UK 35 mm slide scanning service?
« Reply #2 on: February 28, 2010, 06:18:44 am »

Hi Nick,

  Not unexpected, but a touch depressing!

  Thank you for the comprehensive post. I was looking at a scanner driven by Silverfast with the IT8 calibration if I was going to buy hardware, but I probably need someone else to put in the time to do the scans.. hiring an intern is starting to look more sensible, assuming I can find someone who isn't a total gibbon and can spot a snow scene vs a black backdrop. I was aware of the issues with Kodachrome, fortunately the vast majority of my collection is on Fuji anyway so I was going to buy a Velvia calibration target and rely on manual overrides if there were shots on other film stock that I was burning to keep.

  There seem to be a lot of "43p a slide" merchants out there and of course these are going to be scanned in a hurry with auto settings...

  I'm certainly not averse to paying a few pounds per slide for a good quality scan, it'll just mean I need to be strict and cull my selects before sending. But I'm having trouble finding anyone who looks like they will do it reliably, which is depressing. One might have thought that profiling their scanners would be the very least they would do!

  Cheers, Hywel.
« Last Edit: February 28, 2010, 06:27:25 am by Hywel »
Logged
Pages: [1]   Go Up