Pro Lab MF Digital Scan "Super/Hi Res" Questions?

[alex___4]

I am EXTREMELY interested in getting reasonbly priced MF scans as

part of C41 and E6 initial development, and have the following

questions thereto:

 

 

1) How does a $10 Kodak Pro CD Scan of medium format compare to a

Nikon 8000 or Minolta or Polaroid MF scan? Or the Epson 2450?

 

2) I have seen so called "Hi res" or "Super res" scans offered in

British photography (Practical Photography and Amateur Photography)

magazines that were said to be 18 meg per picture for both 35mm and

medium format AND for both print and slide film, at what seemed

reasonable prices--(8 to 12 British pounds) for C41 + Super Res

scans!!! I have NOT seen any American lab offering this--the best

being Dale Labs of Florida, who along with others, offers some 3-4

meg per 35mm C41 neg, but NO MF (slide or C41) scans (inexpensively

at time of development). Any word on the machines used by the British

labs and the quality attained? And is there ANY American lab offering

this service/price combination? The web site of one British lab

offering it for 35mm is www.lab35.com.

 

3) Thumbing through my issues of Practical and Amateur Photography, I

am unable to find the British lab (or labs) that offered "Super/Hi

res" acans WITH MF E6 or C41 development--but I'm certain I saw at

least one such ad. Does anyone know who does?

 

Thanks.

 

Alex

[andreas_carl]

18 MB = super high res? You must be kidding!!!

The Epson 2450 gives 5100x5100 pixels from Hasselblad slides, which translates to 150 MByte for a 48-bit color scan. The Nikon 8000 produces about 430 MByte files for a a 48-bit color scan. For a comparison of the two pls. search the archives, I posted one a few weeks back.

[msitaraman]

I checked with my Fuji Frontier lab. They do not offer it with MF.

On the other hand, check <a href=http://www.kenrockwell.com/minolta/mpperf.htm>this review</a> out.

 

<br><p>

http://www.kenrockwell.com/minolta/mpperf.htm

[andrew l. booth]

Alex, there's a whole other world out there which you're not going to see if you read Amateur photographer. AP is written with low-cost photography in mind, so bear that in mind. Pick up Professional Photographer or the British Journal of Photography, and investigate some of the labs listed in those magazines if you want better/professional results.

<p>

Pro Photo CD produces up to 6000x4000 scans - this is a 72MB file. Check out: <a href="http://www.dunns.co.uk/">Dunns</a> as an example of a pro-lab which does these - and they're within your budget, especially for 20+ scans.

<p>

I've had simultaneous scans done from 35mm at Snappy Snaps (who are probably the best of the high street labs). They were unusable - poor colours and posterisation - avoid!

[alex___4]

Thanks for the replies, Andreas, Mani and Andrew!

 

Andreas--the term "Super Hi Res" for a 18MB file generated from a 35mm or MF scan IS NOT MY TERMINOLOGY, but that of labs advertising this, such as the www.lab35.com service. Note also that this is MASS PRODUCED at the time of initial C41 or E6 development. I am well aware that this is paltry by state-of-the-art standards--a full blown 8000 dpi MF drum scan would go to a FULL GIG of space. But, an inexpensive SMALL scan done at time of development would be EXTREMELY convenient for IMMEDIATELY sharing and evaluating one's work with friends, family, clients or the web, and the 3-4 meg scans initially offered by only Dale Labs (here in the US AFAIK), is becoming ubiquitous for all C41 35mm scans at least! What I am looking for is a lab that also does this for MF--I want a CD ROM with any MF C41 or E6 I develop.

 

Mani -- thanks for the pointer to the rave review of the new Minolta MF scanner, but for the moment, I'll be getting the consensus "best buy"--the Epson 2450.

 

Andrew -- I'm in the US and have not seen Professional Photographer or BJP for sale here, although I am aware of the excellent reputation of the BJP, which is carried by some libraries here in the US (the Lincoln Center Library in NYC for example).

 

Anyway, my two essential questions remain unanswered:

 

1) How good is the Kodak Pro Photo CD scan of 72MB (per Andrew)

compared to a Minolta, Nikon or Polaroid MF scan?

 

2) Does ANY lab in the US or England offer a SMALL scan per

frame of MF at development time, that has become the norm

for 35mm processing?

 

Thanks again.

 

Alex

[andrew l. booth]

Alex, since you're US based - can I ask why you're researching the UK companies and press? I would have thought you'd find a much better range of options your side of the pond.

 

Couple of comments on ProPhotoCD. It's a compressed format - and the 72MB files are compressed to around 6MB. To acheive this impressive compression, the scanned image seems to be softened before compression. After you import and finish work on the image, a good amount of sharpening is required.

 

Some ProPhotoCD labs claim up to a DMax of 4.8 on their scans, but I've read comments on these forums disputing this (I believe Scott Eaton weighed in on this subject). I wold expect a scan from a modern scanner like the Nikon 8000 to be both sharper and with better dynamic range.

 

I have never seen an economic process/print/scan for Medium Format (to answer your question 3).

 

I think the ideal solution to your needs would be something like the Epson 2450 - which will give you better scans than 'with processing' ones (if you could get them), and would approach ProPhotoCD at much lower cost.