Scanning and Other Services of Interest to LF Photographers

[Ken Lee]

Affordable Drum Scans done on a very high quality high volume drum scanner

www.DiscountDrumScans.com

Affordable but high quality 35-mm and medium format film scanning on a Kodak Hr500 scanner

http://slides.com/scans/

Backlit high-resolution transparencies in a fine art style frame. Ready to offer 8x10's and will have 11x14 product ready soon. Also offering silver-based black and white options in various sizes up to 16x20. Made with true slide film and support for resolutions of up to 2080 DPI.

http://slides.com/backlit-portraits/

[Richard M. Coda]

Ken, is the B&W on BW film or color slide film? Looking at enlarged (or duplicate corrected) negatives for BW printing.

[Ken Lee]

For further information, see the provided links.

I merely posted the information because it's of interest to LF photographers. I am not affiliated :)

[Ed Kelsey]

Weird, they don't really say who they are and by the address it's someone working out of their house.

[David Sieverding]

Affordable Drum Scans done on a very high quality high volume drum scanner

www.DiscountDrumScans.com

Affordable but high quality 35-mm and medium format film scanning on a Kodak Hr500 scanner

http://slides.com/scans/

Backlit high-resolution transparencies in a fine art style frame. Ready to offer 8x10's and will have 11x14 product ready soon. Also offering silver-based black and white options in various sizes up to 16x20. Made with true slide film and support for resolutions of up to 2080 DPI.

http://slides.com/backlit-portraits/

[David Sieverding]

Thanks for the post Ken, we really appreciate it.

We would also greatly appreciate this forums reaction to our new services and any ideas or suggestions the forum might have.

To answer your question Richard, the black and white version of our “Lit Chromes” product is due later this month. The black and white version uses real silver film and will be available in Neutral and Sepia. My son is also working on a black and white negative service that will print well with silver and platinum processes. This service should be available in a few months.

Our company has been have been serving the photography community for over 20 years, using the names Elegant Graphics Slide Services and Slides.com, and we are fairly well known throughout certain circles. It was only recently that we decided to branch out into new markets and services.

[David Sieverding]

Here is some copy work that my Son did:

We are proud to introduce a new media concept that we believe will change the way world views “Fine Art” forever.

We offer a premium backlit media solution that is tailored to Fine Artists and anyone else who is interested in the displaying their images with a solution that offers far greater image quality than all current reflective print options. Not only is our material roughly 10 times sharper than current reflective print technology (go ahead, “Loupe it”), the material also offers a much higher contrast ratio, and wide color gamut. In addition a backlit print gives you a glowing radiant energy that can’t be duplicated with reflective technology. The media supports far more resolution then they eyes can see, all edges appear sharp and continuous. The backlighting makes the surface disappear; there are no artifacts, no halftone patterns, or red green and blue pixels that can be seen up close to distract the viewer which allows for a more natural, immersive experience. In our opinion, our technology presents the purist viewing method today for any captured images.

Our product is not a cheap LCD or digital image screen of any kind. The technology offers much greater resolution, a full range field of view, generally better contrast, wide color gamut, and expert color calibration on a pallet of 68 billion colors. Without product your image is recorded at high resolution to an analog media. Then final product can be sold by the same means as a traditional reflective print. Digital displays are not suited to this purpose, aside from quality, there are too many issues with how to distribute and protect digital Fine Art images. Collectors are not going to value a digital file the same way. Like an Inkjet or Gilcee print our Chrome Editions offers collectors something physical that they can put their confidence in. With either technology open and limited editions can be made. Although we feel that do to the increased labor, costs, and higher image quality of our product that it would generally command a higher price than an inkjet print.

We also offer a black and white silver based version of our product that will give platinum prints a run for its money.

[Jim Michael]

Is this an analog or digital product? If digital, what is the supported bit depth?

Note: "then all" should read "than all"

[David Sieverding]

It is a digital to analog product. We take a digital image and produce a high quality transparency that is mounted in an exquisite backlit display frame. The idea is to bring the magic of a chrome on the light-table to mainstream galleries. We output at 8-bits on a device that has been calibrated on a 68 billion color pallet. We use a windows standard gamma of 2.2.

Lit-Chrome features:

* 3.4 D-max 2500:1 true contrast ratio (static, not dynamic)
* True maximum optical and addressable resolutions of 2080 continuous tone pixels per inch
* Fine Art style frame
* Silver based black and white options
* Even flicker-free LED based backlighting system.
* Reproduces vivid and muted colors well

Thank you, we look forward to more questions and comments!

[bob carnie]

Ok I give up, is this a backlight RA4 Product, backlight inkjet product, backlight Ciba product??

What Black and white film are you using to produce the pos??

[David Sieverding]

It is made from real Fuji slide film... The black and white product will be made using ilford FP4 that is reversal processed.



Ok I give up, is this a backlight RA4 Product, backlight inkjet product, backlight Ciba product??

What Black and white film are you using to produce the pos??

[bob carnie]

Very good, I imagine the size is limiting for the colour, I use to make 16x20 e6 photocomps, but haven't see that around for awhile.
I make silver positives and negatives using ortho 24, really nice.
You must be using a Kodak image setter for your work or LVT recorder>
send your files over as inverted and you may not have to do the reversal process.



It is made from real Fuji slide film... The black and white product will be made using ilford FP4 that is reversal processed.

[Lenny Eiger]

Affordable Drum Scans done on a very high quality high volume drum scanner

www.DiscountDrumScans.com


Ken,
My scans are actually cheaper than theirs.... and on a Premier... I only quote the 1.7 Gig size... because that's how I look at things - from the top-quality, scan-it-only-once perspective.

There are a number of other community members here who do scans. I think if one is going to list scanning resources, we ought to invite everyone here to submit their offerings as well. At the moment, I am thinking of Bruce Watson, who has been posting and answering questions on the topic for years... and there are many others. I know Sandy King has also had a lot to contribute... altho' I don't think he does scans for others... (I hope I'm right about that.)

If there's a reasonably competitive option I'd rather buy the products and services I need from a LF'er than an alternative.

Lenny

[Bruce Watson]

I am thinking of Bruce Watson, who has been posting and answering questions on the topic for years.

Too late Lenny, but thanks. My service was geared to LFers only, and the mods wouldn't let me offer services to the group like they've done themselves for this guy. Go figure.

I played by the rules as they were at the time, but word of mouth wasn't enough; I couldn't generate enough business to keep the doors open. Less choice in the marketplace, but more work for you maybe.

[David Sieverding]

My eldest son owns and operates DiscountDrumScans.com, he is a very bright and courteous young man with lots of experience in photography and photography related technology.

Both my wife and I were fortunate enough to have been able to attend MIT many years ago. Regrettably my eldest son was not able to attend college, not because he wasn’t smart enough, but because he chose to stay home with us and help with the family business. We are immensely grateful for his assistance, and for everything he has done for the family. Everything our son does makes us proud. He is and has been very interested in photography. He has spent much of the last 7 years learning about photography and the related technology. He does shoot LF with several viewcamera’s including an 11x14 studio Deardorff, although he does not shot professionally.

My son has used and tested many professional scanners, including the one from Aztek, before finally choosing the Primescan 8400 for his scanning services. He said he found the noise level and dynamic range to be better on the Heidelberg. He mentioned that there might be some uses for the Aztek with certain 35mm and medium format films but that for large format that the Primescan 8400 is as good if not better in his opinion. The larger drums and drum-changing robot allows for more productivity; he hopes will lead to increased savings for the customer.

He offers a price match guarantee to insure that his customers receive the lowest possible prices. My son understands how important customer satisfaction is in business and he believes that the customer always-right approach is the best one. He is very talented and extremely good at what he does. I hope this forum gives him a chance to show what he can contribute to the large format community.



Ken,
My scans are actually cheaper than theirs.... and on a Premier... I only quote the 1.7 Gig size... because that's how I look at things - from the top-quality, scan-it-only-once perspective.

There are a number of other community members here who do scans. I think if one is going to list scanning resources, we ought to invite everyone here to submit their offerings as well. At the moment, I am thinking of Bruce Watson, who has been posting and answering questions on the topic for years... and there are many others. I know Sandy King has also had a lot to contribute... altho' I don't think he does scans for others... (I hope I'm right about that.)

If there's a reasonably competitive option I'd rather buy the products and services I need from a LF'er than an alternative.

Lenny

[David Sieverding]

Also, Ken was nice enough put this single thread on the site to allow my son and I to have some exposure for our new services. We appreciate this very much...

As I understand it, you have “plugged” you scanning service in dozens of threads on this website. I believe you already have enough exposure and that you might not need to seek more exposure on this thread.


Ken,
My scans are actually cheaper than theirs.... and on a Premier... I only quote the 1.7 Gig size... because that's how I look at things - from the top-quality, scan-it-only-once perspective.

There are a number of other community members here who do scans. I think if one is going to list scanning resources, we ought to invite everyone here to submit their offerings as well. At the moment, I am thinking of Bruce Watson, who has been posting and answering questions on the topic for years... and there are many others. I know Sandy King has also had a lot to contribute... altho' I don't think he does scans for others... (I hope I'm right about that.)

If there's a reasonably competitive option I'd rather buy the products and services I need from a LF'er than an alternative.

Lenny

[David Sieverding]

Thanks for the advice regarding the black and white process. We may decide to use a look up table that inverts the image for negative processing methods. One advantage of reversal processing is that we can send the film over to Doug Wood and have him process it as a Sepia slide.

We have many film recorders at our disposal including a few LVT’s. The size is limited in color although we have a freezer full of 11x14 Provia that is intended for the service. We really hope the product is successful as we think the galleries will love it... Imagine a print that glows and has more resolution then the sharpest eye can see.

If the service sells well we have plans to use another “secret media” that will give us more than 10 times the Density range of Velvia, increased sharpness, and will be available for output in sizes up to 50x120 inches. The cost will be lower per inch however we won’t be able to migrate to this new media until we see a real demand for our current product.



Very good, I imagine the size is limiting for the colour, I use to make 16x20 e6 photocomps, but haven't see that around for awhile.
I make silver positives and negatives using ortho 24, really nice.
You must be using a Kodak image setter for your work or LVT recorder>
send your files over as inverted and you may not have to do the reversal process.

[sanking]

There are a number of other community members here who do scans. I think if one is going to list scanning resources, we ought to invite everyone here to submit their offerings as well. At the moment, I am thinking of Bruce Watson, who has been posting and answering questions on the topic for years... and there are many others. I know Sandy King has also had a lot to contribute... altho' I don't think he does scans for others... (I hope I'm right about that.)

Lenny

I don't offer scanning services.

Sorry to hear that Bruce Watson's service did not work out. He did some good sample scans for me, and returned the negatives nice and clean.

Sandy

[David Sieverding]

Mr Eiger,

I have been thinking about it and it might be a good idea for the mods to make an impartial list of non-sponsored scanning resources somewhere on this site... Just a list, not a thread. What do you think?

[David Sieverding]

We would love to hear more honest reactions to our backlit photo product.

I hope the product is accepted in the Fine Art community because the media can really help bring out the radiant beauty of great images.

[Asher Kelman]

We would love to hear more honest reactions to our backlit photo product.

I hope the product is accepted in the Fine Art community because the media can really help bring out the radiant beauty of great images.

Are these backlit or what?

[David Sieverding]

Yes they are! They have a D-max of 3.4 which produces a 2500:1 contrast ratio. The product is analog, not digital, although the output is made with digital files.

A reflective print is limited to a contrast ratio of maybe 190:1 on supergloss.




Are these backlit or what?

[Jim Michael]

There is already a link to Commercial LF Resources on the main page to the site. Perhaps it needs a maintainer if it hasn't been updated lately. Are you volunteering?

Mr. Eiger has gained credibility here by his expert contributions on the subject. If I need his services he won't be hard to find. If you or your son or hopefully both become regular contributers then I think the same will hold true for you. It takes time to build business.

Good luck with your endeavors, sounds like some very interesting products.



Mr Eiger,

I have been thinking about it and it might be a good idea for the mods to make an impartial list of non-sponsored scanning resources somewhere on this site... Just a list, not a thread. What do you think?

[tgtaylor]

Mr. Eiger has gained credibility here by his expert contributions on the subject. If I need his services he won't be hard to find. If you or your son or hopefully both become regular contributers then I think the same will hold true for you. It takes time to build business.


I wholeheartedly agree.

It's interesting to note that Ken used his standing as a moderator on this forum to recommend their services to its members without personally vouching for their work. Their service may be the best thing since slice bread but I wouldn't recommend it personally until I have tried it.

Thomas

[Kevin J. Kolosky]

He didn't "recommend" anything. He merely said who they were and what they provided.

Furthermore, anyone could have posted the same thing. There was no misuse of the moderator position.

Competition is a good thing. It makes all of those providing a product or a service better, and gives the consumer a choice.

[Kirk Gittings]

Ken didn't recommend anything, but I will. Lenny has done some scans of 4x5 for me and I have to say that they are the best I have ever had. Not to say that I have tried everyone, but I have used quite a few scanning services and am not bad myself and Lenny was the best.

Second point.............."standing as a moderator"? Effectiveness as a moderator and expertise as a photographer are and should be entirely different beasts. AS A PHOTOGRAPHER I would take Ken's advice on anything photographically very serious, but that is unrelated to his performance as a moderator (which IMO is superior also).

[Lenny Eiger]

Ken didn't recommend anything, but I will.

Kirk, Thank you. Also thanks to the others as well, who had good things to say.

I think of this place as a community... rather than just a forum. There are plenty of other forums that don't feel that way to me. LF'ers may have their disagreements, sometimes even heated, but somehow there is a lot of appreciation for what we have all gone through to get our images. (Or maybe I shouldn't try to explain it.) Glad to be here....

I like the idea very much of supporting each other... and having a section for "non-sponsored" offerings.

Lenny

[sanking]

Second point.............."standing as a moderator"? Effectiveness as a moderator and expertise as a photographer are and should be entirely different beasts. AS A PHOTOGRAPHER I would take Ken's advice on anything photographically very serious, but that is unrelated to his performance as a moderator (which IMO is superior also).

Thanks. Ken deserves great credit as a very fair minded moderators who goes to great lengths to respect the opinions of others. And the only thing I see him trying to sell is good craftmanship.

Sandy King

[Sean Galbraith]

I've gotten drum scans from this guy in NYC many times and have found them to be excellent.
http://drumscanning.com/rates.html
(I have no connection to him, other than as a customer)