Photo lab's scan resolution


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canturn

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Sep 29, 2002
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Thinking of digitising some of my old negatives through the labs. Just wondering how many megapixels are the individual pictures going to be scanned? Asking this coz want to know if I can still do my own A4/A3 enlargement ;p

Thanks!
 

which shop is that?
the one I asked is abt 3 MP 1280 x 1024.
 

FYI

Colourlab which is using Fuji Frontier Machine

Scan at 4-Base
1818 x 1228
$12 for processed roll

Scan at 16-Base
3360 x 2240
$28 for processed roll

For more details, goto
http://store.yahoo.com/colourlabphoto-sg/pricelist.html#35scan

I used to scan at 4-base at Colourlab.
Each JPEG file is about 600 - 700KB.

Since I got myself a Nikon film scanner,
I usually scan at about 3,700 x 2,500 pixels
and save as JPEG file size at about 2 to 3MB.
For important photos, I save in Highest quality (least compression) which result in JPEG file size of about 13MB.


If the photo is to be used for publishing, I'll scan in CMYK (instead of the usual RGB) and save as 35MB TIFF files.


You might want to try out 1 roll first & see whether is the results OK for you. I feel that the 700KB JPEG file is not even enough for A4. On my monitor, I can see a lot of grain / pixelation.

Therefore if you've a lot of negatives to be scanned, you may want to consider getting yourself a film scanner. But take note that it's very time consuming.
It normal takes my about 3 hours to scan 1 roll of 36 frames using my Nikon SCSI film scanner with Digital ICE on.


BTW Soo Kee Colour at Raffles Place offer scanning at $5.90 per processed roll. New roll is $3.90.


Best Regards,
Tony
 

Originally posted by Tony K
FYI

Colourlab which is using Fuji Frontier Machine

Scan at 4-Base
1818 x 1228
$12 for processed roll

Scan at 16-Base
3360 x 2240
$28 for processed roll

For more details, goto
http://store.yahoo.com/colourlabphoto-sg/pricelist.html#35scan

I used to scan at 4-base at Colourlab.
Each JPEG file is about 600 - 700KB.

Since I got myself a Nikon film scanner,
I usually scan at about 3,700 x 2,500 pixels
and save as JPEG file size at about 2 to 3MB.
For important photos, I save in Highest quality (least compression) which result in JPEG file size of about 13MB.


If the photo is to be used for publishing, I'll scan in CMYK (instead of the usual RGB) and save as 35MB TIFF files.


You might want to try out 1 roll first & see whether is the results OK for you. I feel that the 700KB JPEG file is not even enough for A4. On my monitor, I can see a lot of grain / pixelation.

Therefore if you've a lot of negatives to be scanned, you may want to consider getting yourself a film scanner. But take note that it's very time consuming.
It normal takes my about 3 hours to scan 1 roll of 36 frames using my Nikon SCSI film scanner with Digital ICE on.


BTW Soo Kee Colour at Raffles Place offer scanning at $5.90 per processed roll. New roll is $3.90.


Best Regards,
Tony

On the LS30, if you don't do additional processing, it takes me only 1 minute to scan at 2700dpi with ICE enabled. :) If you have lots to scan, I think better to send to the lab. After you finish the 3rd roll, you probably won't want to continue....

The 4-base can actually print 8R with barely noticeable grain. I've tried it. Remember that on a monitor, it's near the equivalent of a 25" x 17" print. These grain and all do not appear on A4.

Unfortunately, Colour Lab's slide scans were rather disappointing. Neg scans are pretty good.

Regards
CK
 

Originally posted by ckiang


On the LS30, if you don't do additional processing, it takes me only 1 minute to scan at 2700dpi with ICE enabled. :) If you have lots to scan, I think better to send to the lab. After you finish the 3rd roll, you probably won't want to continue....

Regards
CK


Hi CK,

Thanks for your reply.

It took me 3 mins maybe because I'm using my 5 year old Pentium II 233Mhz PC with 128MB RAM.
Do you think if I increase the RAM to 256MB, will it help a lot?

Yes, it's really very time consuming & tedious to scan all the negatives. Till to date I've scanned about 15 rolls of negatives for the past 3 weeks. I actually enjoy doing it.
But it's quite a nightmare when I think that I still got more than 100 rolls of negatives to continue....


Originally posted by ckiang


The 4-base can actually print 8R with barely noticeable grain. I've tried it. Remember that on a monitor, it's near the equivalent of a 25" x 17" print. These grain and all do not appear on A4.

Regards
CK


Could you explain a little on the monitor 25"x17" equivalent?
Is it something like although I'm using a 15" monitor to view a full screen of the JPEG file, it's output actually displays at 72 dpi and not at let's say 150dpi which makes me think that it's grainy / pixelated.


One more question,
as I'll be burning all the 2-3MB images to a 800MB CDR to share with many of my friends in my Youth Group, what do you think is the best & 'most compatible' way to do it so that they can view on all their PC & Macs?
They'll also need to send to photo lab to print 4R & 8R photos.

My current workflow is
- I 'batch scan' the negatives using the Nikon Scan 3.1 software
- Selected RGB (Adobe) as the colour space
- Do Auto-Level for almost all images after Preview
- Apply Digital ICE (Normal)
- save in 2 - 3 MB JPEG (Good Balance) images
- The files names saved corresponse to the negative s/n & frame nos. Eg '987601A.jpg' where '9876' is the s/n & '01A' is the frame no.
- Create a few folders in the CDR.
Each folder do not exceed let's say 50 photos.
- attached freeware 'EXIF Image Viewer' for them to use to view the photos easily


Sorry for asking so many questions at one go, but really need your help...



canturn,
Sorry for 'gate-crashing' into your thread.

Moderator/s,
Pls split this thread if you think it's necessary.


Best Regards,
Tony
 

Also FYI,
Fotohub also does 4Base & 16Base scans. If u do Kodak PhotoCD scans, u can even do 64Base!! (thats 7228x4820!)
I've only tried slide scans with them, seems quite good...

..NuTs..

Originally posted by Tony K
FYI

Colourlab which is using Fuji Frontier Machine

Scan at 4-Base
1818 x 1228
$12 for processed roll

Scan at 16-Base
3360 x 2240
$28 for processed roll

....

Best Regards,
Tony
 

Had some negatives processed and scanned(4base) at Colour Lab recently and was barely satisfied with the results. There was a green cast to images in addition to dots and scratches, even though the negatives were freshly processed by them and none of this showed up in the prints, only on the scans.

For those who own film scanners such as the Minolta Dualscan III, would the quality from that scanner surpass the 4base scan from Colour Lab?
 

Originally posted by Zerstorer
Had some negatives processed and scanned(4base) at Colour Lab recently and was barely satisfied with the results. There was a green cast to images in addition to dots and scratches, even though the negatives were freshly processed by them and none of this showed up in the prints, only on the scans.

For those who own film scanners such as the Minolta Dualscan III, would the quality from that scanner surpass the 4base scan from Colour Lab?

I can never get as good colours as theirs... though resolution wise, my 2700dpi scanner beat the 4-base flat.

I don't have a green cast, scratches, etc problem with my scans there. Till date I must have done over 200 rolls liao, never encountered. Note that the scans might look overly grainy on screen, but that's fine. They are optimized for printing, not for viewing.

Regards
CK
 

Originally posted by Tony K

It took me 3 mins maybe because I'm using my 5 year old Pentium II 233Mhz PC with 128MB RAM.
Do you think if I increase the RAM to 256MB, will it help a lot?
256MB is barely enough. 512MB and beyond is about right.


Yes, it's really very time consuming & tedious to scan all the negatives. Till to date I've scanned about 15 rolls of negatives for the past 3 weeks. I actually enjoy doing it.
But it's quite a nightmare when I think that I still got more than 100 rolls of negatives to continue....
You gotta be kidding. I'd rather go out and shoot than spend the time scanning 15 rolls. ;p

Could you explain a little on the monitor 25"x17" equivalent?
Is it something like although I'm using a 15" monitor to view a full screen of the JPEG file, it's output actually displays at 72 dpi and not at let's say 150dpi which makes me think that it's grainy / pixelated.
Something like that. If you have an image at 72ppi (I prefer to use ppi for images as it's more 'accurate'), and it's say, 1800 pixels wide, that's 25" wide. Of coz, this depends on the monitor itself, but the idea is there.


One more question, as I'll be burning all the 2-3MB images to a 800MB CDR to share with many of my friends in my Youth Group, what do you think is the best & 'most compatible' way to do it so that they can view on all their PC & Macs? They'll also need to send to photo lab to print 4R & 8R photos.

My current workflow is
- I 'batch scan' the negatives using the Nikon Scan 3.1 software
- Selected RGB (Adobe) as the colour space
- Do Auto-Level for almost all images after Preview
- Apply Digital ICE (Normal)
- save in 2 - 3 MB JPEG (Good Balance) images
- The files names saved corresponse to the negative s/n & frame nos. Eg '987601A.jpg' where '9876' is the s/n & '01A' is the frame no.
- Create a few folders in the CDR.
Each folder do not exceed let's say 50 photos.
- attached freeware 'EXIF Image Viewer' for them to use to view the photos easily

Sorry for asking so many questions at one go, but really need your help...

JPEGs should work fine on Macs, and as long as you have a decent enough size for printing, it should be fine. Note that the images might have a different brightness/contrast when viewed on the mac though.

Regards
CK
 

Originally posted by ckiang


I can never get as good colours as theirs... though resolution wise, my 2700dpi scanner beat the 4-base flat.

Hmm.. does that mean that you do actually get more real detail with your scanner than just merely more pixels? You're using a Nikon LS30?
 

Originally posted by Zerstorer


Hmm.. does that mean that you do actually get more real detail with your scanner than just merely more pixels? You're using a Nikon LS30?

Yes, quite a bit more. I get ~3615 x 2475 pixel images which are around 25MB uncompressed. The 4-Base scans you get from labs are at most 10MB uncompressed. I have yet to try their 16-Base, so I dunno how it compares.

Yeah, I am using a LS30.

Regards
CK
 

Hi CK,

Thank you very much for your prompt replies & advices.

Best Regards,
Tony
 

Originally posted by CYRN
which shop is that?
the one I asked is abt 3 MP 1280 x 1024.
1280x1024 is only 1.3MP.
 

Originally posted by ckiang


You gotta be kidding. I'd rather go out and shoot than spend the time scanning 15 rolls. ;p

Regards
CK

Here comes the fast food.....

Buy a Nikon Digital Cam, put on the Slide Copy Adaptor, point it with your slide towards a Light Box, and you'll get your favourate slide picture on a 5 MPs digital format in less than 2 seconds each. :p
 

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