Negative Scanner Rental in Chicago

[chasfiji]

Could anyone direct me to a business that rents scanners or time with a scanner in the Chicagoland area?
Also, I could use any advice to scan about >500 negatives.

Thanks

[Ted Harris]

Chas,

That's a lot of negatives but size does matter. For example, I can scan about 40 35mm negs an hour on my Creo IQsmart 3 but a dozen at best 4x5's.

The above assumes that all the negatives are within reasonable tolerances and that I don't need to do heavy duty individual adjustments for each scan but can rather set 'em all up and push the button. If each negative requires heavy lifting then these can go up dramatically and, of course, the cost.

So, more detail on size and on the differences in the negatives and I can be of more assistance.

[nelson_chan]

My suggestion is to find someone who has an Imacon and scan raw. Batch scanning of an X5 would be nice. I can scan 40+ or so 4x5 negs on an Imacon in an hour if it's raw and I don't mess around. Just download their processing software from their site and do all of the adjustments on your time in your home. Good luck.

[Ted Harris]

Nelson, 40+ 4x5's an hour? Seems like a lot. What resolution are you using, the machine's max of 2040? That would be 1.5 minutes per scan and I didn't think the machine ran that fast .... not including time to feed them into the feeder, etc.

[nelson_chan]

Ted,

Yes 2040 for a raw scan on an Imacon 949. I've definitely gotten a little over 40 4x5 scans. I can get that many scans in an hour because while one neg is in the machine scanning, I have another 4x5 on deck in another neg holder. I was surprised how much time that saved me. When paying for the time, one can't dilly dally.

[Ted Harris]

Nelson,

I believe you but it does seem impossible to me that 1) the machine is doing an actual 2040 scan of a 4x5 in that time and that the minute and a half includes making sure the negative is clean and dust free, etc. I don't know of any scanner that does a 2040 of a 4x5 at 16 bits RGB at that speed. If you are scanning 8 bits and B&W it is still awfully fast and why would you do an 8 bit scan in B&W other than as a preview and then, why not just do and save a prescan. Just curious.

[Walter Foscari]

...Just download their processing software from their site and do all of the adjustments on your time in your home...

I thought that you needed to be registered with Hasselblad to be able to download stuff from their site?

[nelson_chan]

The software is pretty easily accessible to non owners.