A&I Labs - drum scans

[Paul Butler]

Has anyone else send negatives for scanning at A&I lately?

I have used them extensively in the past. Recently, I sent several 5x7 negatives in for scanning. Their "date in" was 6/15/05 and their "date out" was 6/17/05 per the invoice. I was out $270 for the work.

Unfortunately (and very unlike my previous experience with them), inspection of the postmark on the box indicates that my negs and the disk weren't mailed back to me until 6/27/05 when I called them to ask where my scans were.

Then, to add insult to injury, I received a CD ROM that is unreadable. I've tried it on 3 different machines with different operating systems and CD drives. The person who burned the CD didn't check it before sending it out.

I don't know what went wrong, but I will think twice before using them for drum scans in the future. Any other different recommendations for drum scanning 5x7?

[Danny Burk]

Paul - take a look at my drum scanning info page. I scan all formats up to 8x10, and I'm just as fussy with client material as I am with my own. There are a number of LF Info participants who use my service; if they're reading now, perhaps some will make a post to vouch for my quality.

http://www.dannyburk.com/drum_scanning.htm

Thanks!
Danny

[Paul Butler]

I just spoke with Heather at A&I (a different person than who handled my original order) and she was very accomodating and is sending me a new CD. It appears that it was burned to improper media. By sending in my stuff to her attention, I should get timely turnaround and readable CDs in the future - but will investigate other options as well!

(P.S. yes, drum scans are expensive, but for work for exhibition or sale they are great! no noise in the shadow areas, fine gradation of tones, superb detail)

[Paul Butzi]

depending on volume and output goals, it might simply make more sense to arrange to do your scanning yourself.

Lots of folks working in LF are scanning their own film, on flatbed scanners. The most recent generation of mid range flatbed scanners actually will produce decent results, particularly for B&W. I use a Microtek ArtixScan 1800f, which is currently available for under $1000.

At that price, assuming you have the rest of the equipment to do the scans, it doesn't take many scans before you've recouped the investment in the scanner.

The downside, of course, is that you end up doing the scans yourself. If you're facing thousands of scans then that's a factor as well.

[John Flavell]

Danny, I just went to your website and the "scanning sevices" tab is blacked out and is not a link.

[Danny Burk]

"Danny, I just went to your website and the "scanning sevices" tab is blacked out and is not a link."

Thanks for your note, John. I just checked and it's working fine for me; I check my site daily to make sure everything's operational.

Did you paste in the above url, or click on one of the header links? Is anyone else having a problem?

Many thanks,
Danny

[Paul Butzi]

When I use the URL above, the 'scanning services' tab is indeed blacked out and not a link, but that's because it's the scanning services page and doesn't need to link to itself.

Just scroll down. All the info is there.

[John Flavell]

I still use a wind-up clock, too.