First 120 film, poor scan results

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strax

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Robert
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I eventually got round to putting a film through my Bronica ETRS. 3 years of ownership, 2 years sitting on a shelf and a year to run the film through it.:thinking:

The film came back today, velvia 100. I ordered processing and a scan. The scans are nowhere near as good as the slides, the colour is off and not so sharp either.

Is this what I have to expect without paying a fortune to get each slide scanned on an expensive scanner?
 
Unfortunately yes

However, I would have thought that a lab with the capability to process and scan 120 would be a cut above your average 35mm c41 processor.
Maybe they are a one off duff set, I dunno, what res are they ?

Scans are expensive though, and unless you do them yourself you have no control over the end product.
 
Which lab, and what scanning did you specify (if any?). If it's a consumer lab I wouldn't expect them to get much from a medium format slide, something I doubt they deal with much. With a pro lab, no excuses.
 
I got a bad set of Velvia 100 scans back from 'The Darkroom' once, they were just massively over exposed yet the actual slides were fine. An email or two later they apologised and offered me my money back for the scans, which I accepted. They didn't seem sure why they were all like that and the other times that I have used them for scans they've been top notch. Possibly a write error or something stupid like that.

I would complain to the lab and ask for either a new set of scans or for your money back.
 
joxby said:
Unfortunately yes


I dunno, what res are they ?
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The website quotes 2000X3000@400dpi.

Looking at them further maybe I cant comment on the sharpness until I see the original slides blown up. What I do know is that the scans are about a stop darker and can be up to 20% over-saturated. I know Velvia can over saturate images but not that much.

freecom2 said:
Which lab, and what scanning did you specify (if any?). If it's a consumer lab I wouldn't expect them to get much from a medium format slide, something I doubt they deal with much. With a pro lab, no excuses.
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It was here

s162216 said:
I would complain to the lab and ask for either a new set of scans or for your money back.
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I might just do that. Pretty poor service from them too. The order took 10 days and me sending them a couple of emails chasing them up.

I have adjusted the jpg's as close as I could get to the slides using CS5, but it would have been better if they were closer to begin with.

I'll post a couple up later.
 
The only scans I've had from them have been very bog standard 35mm C-41 scans, which were fine (I've had no issues in recommending them in the past).

If you have a Facebook account, it might be worth posting asking if the scans look right, along with a sample picture on their Facebook page. They are usually very helpful to those who query on there:
https://www.facebook.com/FujiDigital
 
The reason for the delay is likely because their not a pro lab and so with the amount of 120 film that is honestly used these days, they likely only run it once a week or so, probably even less with E6.

I've used them before for 110 film processing, and they weren't bad. If you want fast processing, then try 'The Darkroom',

http://www.the-darkroom.com/fastcart/processing.html

They are a pro lab and have an excellent turn around time, I can send a 35mm Process and mount order using their freepost address, and it'll be back with me in 3 - 4 days. Their processing quality is excellent as are their prices (£4.90 for 120 E6 dev + £5 for low res scans or £12.50 for high res, including return postage). As mentioned above I did have a slight problem with a set of scans from them once, but they accepted that it was their fault and compensated me quickly + all subsequent scans have been excellent.
 
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Two caveats: Velvia, and in general slide film, can be very difficult to scan. Most scanners and monitors don't even come close to being able to replicate what you see when you look at a Velvia slide on a lightbox.

Additionally, as Samuel pointed out, 120 E6 is not a very common developing need so that probably explains the delay. I would again contact them asking them when they run their E6 dev, you were probably just unlucky and the timing ended up being a day after they run their E6.
 
As noted Velvia is notoriously difficult to scan and unless its done carefully its not uncommon for scans to show little shadow detail as while a projector can just blast through the shadows, most scanners don't have a high enough Dmax to get the detail in them unless multi-exposure scanning is used (Even scanners such as the Nikon Coolscan 9000ED strugle with Velvia despite having a tested Dmax of 4.8, this is where drum scanners come into their own)
 
s162216 said:
As noted Velvia is notoriously difficult to scan and unless its done carefully its not uncommon for scans to show little shadow detail as while a projector can just blast through the shadows, most scanners don't have a high enough Dmax to get the detail in them unless multi-exposure scanning is used (Even scanners such as the Nikon Coolscan 9000ED strugle with Velvia despite having a tested Dmax of 4.8, this is where drum scanners come into their own)
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Good to know, maybe I should just try a neg film next time. It leads onto my next question though, which is the cheapest scanner that gives acceptable results with 120 film? Epson V500 or is there something better?

rhody said:
The final paragraph on their "About Us" page is worth a mention at this stage
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I never noticed that...:thinking:
 
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