I can't find what they are using for scanning the large format film... if they said Imacon then it would be a deal, if they say Epson, so what?
"Equipment used: Epson 4490, Nikon 5000 ED, Nikon 9000 ED"
Woo. Hoo.
In other words it's getting scanned on a 4490. Still not a bad deal if you are too busy/unmotivated to do it yourself.
They claim to do 8x10 but the 4490 won't do 8x10 so I suspect that reference is out of date. It's not a bad price even for an Epson flatbed scan, say with a 4990 or 700-750, but I'd be hard pressed to send my good film to them. When I am faced with 1000s of historic but overwhelming family snapshots however, that is where they shine.
With ScanCafe the film is scanned in India, so turn around times and shipping charges might be an issue.
The Epson 4490 doesn't scan 4x5, just medium format and smaller.
Peter
According to Ken Rockwell, Scan Cafe uses an Epson 10000XL. Per his web site:
...Scan Cafe uses Epson 10000 XL scanners and hand-finish each scan for color, scratches, dust and etc.
4 x 5” (and 4 x 6”):
Negatives and positives (transparencies)
Color only
$2.49 per scan
3000 dpi (4000 dpi for $0.09 extra)
50MB file for a finished jpg
TIFF available for $0.19 extra
8” x 10”
Negatives and positives (transparencies)
Color only
Priced at $5.99 per scan
3000 dpi (4000 dpi for $0.09 extra)
200MB file for a finished jpg
TIFF available for $0.19 extra
There’re not immediately offering black & white because they're worried about scratches. They usually see lots of scratches in black & white, and their patent-pending wet mount process is not available yet for large format.
They would probably accept black & white submissions with prior arrangement, so long as you're willing to agree to clean up the scratches yourself.
These scans cost less than traditional proof prints at commercial wet labs, and could be of interest to me for proofing C-41 negatives (I'm very bad at reading the colors on those things, and don't care to own a film scanner for just this application).
This service otherwise seems a bit of a "tweener" to me. If one is making relatively small prints and doesn't need high-end scan quality, then the payback period for purchasing an Epson V700/750 (versus purchasing Scan Cafe scans) would not be long. And of course none of these scans would come close to the quality of a good drum scan for high end prints.
Then again, if they ever apply their "patent-pending wet mount process" to large format scans...
I agree about the payback on a 750 if it's just small size, etc., vs. sending chrome/negs out, but do think the value (to me, at least) is the savings in time. Scanning the hundreds/thousands of 'fair to good' stuff we all have usually isn't worth the time spent at home slogging through it all...but a few hours to select and send away, that's time well spent for images that otherwise might not be scanned at all. As everyone has said, for the big prints it's a drum anyway...but for family shots, b-roll and web-only, this seems pretty attractive.
Maybe a bit off the original topic -- but, can anyone explain to me WHY a drum scan is better? Why cant a flatbed scanner be made to equal the quality of a drum unit?
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