Costco film to CD conversion

I had a chat with a Costco photo tech regarding CD file size and

scanning resolution. Here is what I found out:

 

Standard 35mm neg to CD conversion is $2.39. Resolution and .jpg

file sizes are sufficiant to print a 4 x 6 photo at up to 320 dpi.

 

"Proffessinal" grade neg to CD conversion is $10. .jpg file size and

resolution is sufficient to print up to 8 x 12 at up to 320 dpi.

 

For casual, infrequent useage, Proffessinal conversion should be fine

and cost effective. HOWEVER: ~25 rolls of 35mm film processed

proffessinaly = the cost of a new Minolta Dual Scan IV (3200dpi

resolution).

 

Best,

 

Ross

One has to assume those prices are per roll.

 

Doing the math the "standard" gets you some 1200x1800 or so DPI. "Professional" is 2400x3600. That's 2400 DPI for a 1x1.5 inch frame.

 

25 rolls of scanning will take how long to process with a Minolta Dual Scan IV? Does this machine accept 24 to 36 frame strips or just 4 to 6 frame strips? Then again, what kind of job will Costco do in terms of setting the optimum color balance and exposure for each and every frame?

Beware : I got some 35mm rolls scanned at a local lab with their "Pro" offer (3000x4000 pixels) and while it was cheap and the resolution was good, the files were JPEG compressed like I've never seen before, down to 1 megabyte per image ! All you can see are the big blocky artifacts, utterly unusable for anything except downsizing to 800x600 for web use.

My wife had 35mm scans done when she had her negative film processed recently. They didn't offer her standard or professional, but I think that the cost was $6/roll. The scans were very low-resolution and horrible -- a total waste of money, IMO.