Film onto the PC..

[BennyBoo]

Hey guys..

After shooting film for about 3-4 years, I bought a Canon 40D in around 2007/8 and stopped with film all together..

I've recently bought, and put a couple of rolls through, a Canon EF-M and it seems fine to me..

Now I'm looking at getting a few decent rolls through it and getting them on the PC.

Can I just take them to Boots to process the film and get a 5mp Scanner off eBay to get decent results or do I need to go deeper..?

I'm really not into / don't really have the room for developing myself, Would somewhere different than Boots be able to process the film any better for me..? What scanners are out there for a budget..?

Thanks

 

[RaglanSurf]

If they're shots you care about get them processed by the likes of Peak or The Darkroom etc and you can pick a very reasonable Epson 500 for not too much money.

 

[excalibur2]

If they're shots you care about get them processed by the likes of Peak or The Darkroom etc and you can pick a very reasonable Epson 500 for not too much money.

Hey Nick you haven't mentioned Asda dev and scanned to CD for £3 in 40 mins....if Ben just wants them on his computer for emails or posting here they are good enough for proofs.

 

[skysh4rk]

I'm really not into / don't really have the room for developing myself

Fair enough if you don't want to develop, but the only dedicated space that's needed for developing black and white is a cupboard to store a couple of bottles of chemicals. As long as you have a sink/bathtub, you already have the room.

Can I just take them to Boots to process the film and get a 5mp Scanner off eBay to get decent results or do I need to go deeper..?

How do you define decent? This is a tough question to answer without knowing more about what you want, what you plan to shoot, the types of films you plan to shoot, etc.

If you're only planning to shoot only a few rolls here and there, you might be best just sending your films to a decent lab for development and scanning, but it will depend on your circumstances.

 

[pingu666]

boots charge 2 quid a roll for scans i think, on top of dev and prints, the price of prints there is really good, and i like looking at physical prints

 

[steveo_mcg]

Yeah but generally speaking boots oversharpen the photos to hell and back if your doing that your as well going to Asda, at least its cheap.

 

[ChrisR]

Can I just take them to Boots to process the film and get a 5mp Scanner off eBay to get decent results or do I need to go deeper..?

I'm really not into / don't really have the room for developing myself, Would somewhere different than Boots be able to process the film any better for me..? What scanners are out there for a budget..?

To answer the middle part of the first question, don't, please don't, get one of those 5mp scanners off the evil bay. The upside is they are quick and easy to use, the downside is that the quality for colour negative film in particular is usually pretty bad.

Someone mentioned you can get scans done at Boots (they call it getting a CD) with processing; the same from Snappy Snaps and Max Spielmann. Some ASDAs but by no means all do process and scan of colour negative (C41) film for £3 while you shop, as Brian mentioned. All of these will be over-sharpened, but can be fine for the occasional film.

For 35mm C41, if you want better quality scans and fast turnround, my goto is Photo Express from Hull, who charge £5 or so for process and scan, and give you nice scans at 2000 ppi (vs 1200 ppi most other places, unless you pay more). You can claim 50p discount per film as a TP member, give them your TP username. Best to batch up a few rolls because of the postage to them. They are averaging 2.9 days postbox to doormat for me. They don't do slide or proper black and white (they do process C41 black and white like XP2, of course).

 

[BennyBoo]

Firstly, thankyou to everyone who replied to me

Sorry for not being clear about decent.. I've now got a 5Dii and although I know I'm not going to get that quality from my old EF-M on film to the PC, I didn't want to go back to the quality of the Zenit!

To answer the middle part of the first question, don't, please don't, get one of those 5mp scanners off the evil bay. The upside is they are quick and easy to use, the downside is that the quality for colour negative film in particular is usually pretty bad.

Someone mentioned you can get scans done at Boots (they call it getting a CD) with processing; the same from Snappy Snaps and Max Spielmann. Some ASDAs but by no means all do process and scan of colour negative (C41) film for £3 while you shop, as Brian mentioned. All of these will be over-sharpened, but can be fine for the occasional film.

For 35mm C41, if you want better quality scans and fast turnround, my goto is Photo Express from Hull, who charge £5 or so for process and scan, and give you nice scans at 2000 ppi (vs 1200 ppi most other places, unless you pay more). You can claim 50p discount per film as a TP member, give them your TP username. Best to batch up a few rolls because of the postage to them. They are averaging 2.9 days postbox to doormat for me. They don't do slide or proper black and white (they do process C41 black and white like XP2, of course).

Thankyou for this too, I'll throw a few rolls through the EF-M and send a few off.. I'm probably going to do most of them on C41 black and white Ilfords..

I'm in Grimsby, with Family in Hull, so it's not too bad if i'm in the City.. do they do process in a day?

 

[pingu666]

zenith should give you good quality if its good working order and lens is too

 

[Dave *]

I'm in Grimsby, with Family in Hull, so it's not too bad if i'm in the City.. do they do process in a day?

Looking at their website it seems possible.

How long will it take to process my order?
Virtually all work is completed and dispatched first class on the day of receipt.

http://www.photo-express.co.uk

You could call and ask:
Welcome to Photo Express. Give us a call if you need help: 01482 448594

 

[ChrisR]

I'm in Grimsby, with Family in Hull, so it's not too bad if i'm in the City.. do they do process in a day?

Never thought I'd say this, but you lucky blighter! The big problem with Photo Express for me is postage: £3.20 out and £1 back, against £4.50 for process and scan! I think it very likely they process in a day, I've often had them back 2 days later, and the average over many times including weekends for me is 2.9 days, post time included.