Converting film negatives to digital file

[boomerd35]

What is the best way to convert my 35mm film negatives to tiff or jpeg files? Do the common 1hr photo processing places do this, or is it something best left to a more professional processing lab?

Troy

[lscottpht]

The one-hour labs do do this, but not very well. I have taken mine to the pro labs, and they do an OK job. When you ask for specifics, like, they need to be 300 dpi and whatever dimensions, even they don't seem to know what your talking about. They just ask if you want to be able to make 8x10's or 11x14's and such. I now use a friend that scans the images for me. You will loose a little sharpness, so he fixes that, and he also does dodging and burning and color correction, if necessary. Anyway, it just really depends on what the images are being used for. I needed mine high quality because they needed to be either 300 dpi or 600 dpi for magazines/covers. A pro lab will produce fine images for use in websites or what have you.

[Bill Huber]

I am not using an Epson scanner to do all my negatives and slides.
I tried a slide copier for the camera and that did not do a very good job, had a lot of problems with WB.

So now I just use the Epson 16?? to scan them and they come out very well, it does take time but its not that bad.

They do make scanners just for this but to get a good one they are somewhat high in cost. I had a little HP Picture Scanner and it did a good job, but was very slow.

[AustinModelsAndTalent]

Minolta film scanner. Incredible results from slides and/or film negatives.

[LoungeLizard]

Originally Posted by boomerd35

What is the best way to convert my 35mm film negatives to tiff or jpeg files? Do the common 1hr photo processing places do this, or is it something best left to a more professional processing lab?

Troy

I've been using a Minolta DiMage Scan Elite 5400 that I borrowed from our photo club at work. I've done well over 2,000 slides with it and the results are OK. I say OK because in some cases they turn out darker or the color shifts a bit - but I'm on a mission to scan all my slides so I'll fix them later!

[Jim Victory]

I have been using a Canon 9000 scanner that scans both negatives and slides. It also has a built in scratch and dust removal software. I believe the new model is the 9950.

[labguy]

the one hour labs do scan film, but generally for global color and density, you will need to do final editing. also the scans are usually low res, just enough to get a 4x6 print for critical work you should send to a pro lab, you will pay more but it will be scanned by someone traained in that area. in the digital world the scan is your digital negative, there is more to a good scan than looking good on the monitor. since a monitor is only 72dpi, you're not seeing everything.