Dwayne's for Slide Developing and Scanning?

<p>Has anyone out there used Dwayne's for 35mm slide processing <em>with</em> scanning? I am most interested in the quality of their scans. I understand that the quality of their Kodachrome scans at time of processing leaves something to be desired. How about other slide films? I know not to expect much from time-of-processing low-resolution scans, but how might these compare with typical low-resolution minilab scans of 35mm negative film? If there are better places to send slide film for developing and inexpensive scanning, what are they? Thanks for comments and suggestions.</p>

<p>Haven't had scans done there, but have had processing done there. Next time I will include a note to make sure they put the month, year, and frame number on the slide mounts. Don't think the last batch had that and it helps me a lot while editing. Kodachromes are hard to scan. I had good luck getting Kodak PhotoCD scans, but that was way back in 1997. My Nikon Coolscan V ED does pretty well.</p>

<p>I was getting 35mm C-41 scanned there from 2003-2005, and it was pretty good - clean, no scratches or dust. The only limitation was that it was 3,000 X 2,000 pixel resolution, which seems a bit limited by today's standards. That might have changed in five years. I went to digital, so don't know.</p>

<p>Dwayne's did a poor job scanning Kodachromes for me two years ago. The scans were so awful it made me think I had ruined the shots. I almost threw away the two boxes of slides until I looked at them and they were beautiful. </p>

<p><a href="http://www.northcoastphoto.com/">http://www.northcoastphoto.com/</a><br>

These guys are the absolute best for when you need scanning. They do a great job, and if you visit Ken Rockwells site kenrockwell.com, you can see many examples of their work. That is who he uses. Its 11.5 a roll for the 15MP Enhanced scans, or 5.50 for the 6MP budget scans.</p>

Dwayne's Photo does a great job with developing (I've sent them C-41 color print film and Kodachrome). My negatives and slides were always very clean with no dust, scratches, etc. I've had prints made and they were ok...not the best, but not too bad. BUT their scans are absolutely horrible. I had them scan a roll of Kodachrome one time, and I will never bother again. The slides looked great, but the scans sucked. I'm glad I had a slide viewer and a projector because the slides themselves looked beautiful. But the scans were very disappointing - low resolution, and the colors didn't look right. Everything was too dark and had kind of a greenish tint.

 

I wouldn't bother having them scan your slides. They will do a good job with developing the film, but their scans suck.

To me, $5 for 36 exposures, roughly 1200 x 1900 @ 250 ppi, is fine. That's less than the $9 setup charge I pay locally. To me, for $5 for 36, after trying to do my own back in 2003 with an HP S20, it's well worth my time and money. Some few times I've had slides rescanned by a custom lab. So I see Dwayne's scans as more than good enough for flickr.com or photo.net.

 

Besides, for me Kodachrome is an old friend, and I appreciate Dwayne's for their efforts.

 

With respect to slide numbering and dates, they're still there. I just received two rolls last week. They're imprinted, but not inked. Not like the old days. But I remember this shift began years ago. So I spend the time to write the slide numbers on the mount for my own convenience.

 

I've seen changes in service quality for Kodak processing over the years, and it saddens me. There once was a Kodak plant in Honolulu. But I'm a die-hard slide guy, and Kodachrome is a friend, so 'till the end of the year, I'm happy I can still shoot Kodachrome,

 

I've had my disappointments with Dwayne's with slide mounts numbering or CDs, but the Kodachromes mounted slides were what I expected.

 

I repeat. I'm happy I can still shoot Kodachrome. Thanks to Kodak for the graceful end of an era, and Dwayne's for participation.

<p>Thanks for the responses, everyone. With Brian, I think that 5 bucks for scanning makes it worthwhile, even if not the best. A friend showed me some Dwayne's scans of K64 that he was unhappy with. But, a little adjustment in PS made them quite acceptable.</p>