Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/12/29
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]The best way to scan 35mm negs/slides is to have a professional lab scan them for you onto Kodak photoCD. It generally costs between $1-$2 per scan, plus the charges for the CD.(about $20) You can get three 36exp rolls onto one CD. Scanning with a consumer film scanner from nikon, canon, or minolta can produce similar results if you are extremely careful with dust control. I worked as a scandroid in college and never, ever want to experience the tedium of scanning again, nor do I recommend the experience to others. Unless your time is worth less than $1 per hour, I recommend PhotoCD over any current consumer scanner. You will see improved quality and won't have to spend as much time retouching. Anyone who is interested in publishing their photos on the web really needs to read Phillip Greenspun's advice on this topic at photo.net: http://www.photo.net/wtr/thebook/images.html His methods are very well thought out, and his images look extremely good on my monitor. Scanning rollfilm, large format, or odd sized submini negs is another story. In these cases PhotoCD scanning can be prohibitively expensive and buying a film scanner may be the only way to go if you want/need to scan a number of images. I looked at the photos at http://www.mediadyne.gr/ and think that it may be worth having a photoCD done, especially if they were scanned with a flatbed scanner, or older film scanner. - -Rolf