scans sent to India--how do you feel?

[sfcole]

I checked scan prices for medium format and ScanCafe was very cheap. Turns out they send them to

Bangalore for scanning. How do you feel about this? Is it worth saving money to outsource?

[jgaines]

There is a short article in the December issueof Popular Photography about this ScanCafe.

Editoral by John Owens. He sent some for trial and was impressed by the results. Turn around time was about 40 - 60 days.

[Dennis Peek]

You have to be kidding! You are willing to take valuable (I assume) originals and ship them

half way around the world to a foreign country (no slight towards India per se)? When I think

of the lost and delayed shipments I have encountered over the years and the difficulty

dealing with shipping operations and compounding that with a foreign operation, I shudder.

 

 

Good luck!

[Charles_Webster]

Sounds like it conforms to the "Good / Fast / Cheap - Pick 2" rule. Seems like it's good and cheap, but far from fast. It's up to you to choose what's important. As Dennis says, I wouldn't send my irreplaceable negatives half way round the world for scanning, even if it were free.

 

<Chas>

[stephen_bay]

When I shot film, I used to make in-camera dupes. In this case I would have no hesitation

sending them overseas for scanning. I would think twice if the slide were my only copy, but

might do it anyways since scanning is very slow and time-consuming.

[Stock-Photos]

I operate a 35mm slide scanning service, out of my home office:

 

http://www.saugus.net/Photos/scanning.shtml

 

Since ScanCafe, and others like it (who send work out of the country)came on the scene, I've have seen a few USA based scanning businesses lower their prices as a result.

 

Apparently, the majority of the public does not always want the least expensive option.

 

I don't target the market sector which seeks the lowest price. I have not lowered my prices. In fact, I'm considering raising them, due in-part, to the volume of work I'm getting. Incoming orders here have been rising steadily for the last 7 years. I often refer callers to trustworthy, lower priced scan providers. I often include ads for competitors on my scanning page through Google AdSense.

 

Quality is "customer satisfaction". If people want a very low price and their happy with the product, then it's a good service. There are many people who would never have considered getting thousands of negatives scanned, until these low prices came along.

 

The film to digital market is growing rapidly as more and more people want their film based images converted to digital.

 

Scott, I suggest you send some of your medium formats to a company which does the work in USA (I can recommend a few, but I only do 35MM slides) and some of your medium format to ScanCafe.

 

Then compare the cost/quality factors and let us know with another entry to this thread when all is done.

 

One thing I strongly recommend is getting tif format scans as opposed to jpg.

 

J.

[Stock-Photos]

Could it be that the original poster is a troll for Digmypics? See his entry here:

 

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=007wEQ

 

If he liked digmy so much, why would he have started this thread unless he's up to no good?

[kelly_flanigan1]

About a decade ago service bureaus were outsourcing scans to farm towns in podunk USA, the UK, Singapore, where ever to drop the labor costs. With light weight negatives the shipping costs are not much. So if its today India, last year was Canada, the year before Mars, what ugly biases are broght up if you seek a bigger bang for the buck; but live in a high wage area yourself? Retouching has been outsourced too; along with software support, and telemarketing. Many times other areas have a radically lower labor cost, radically lower environmental costs if making an item to. The USA has blinders on.

[sfcole]

"Could it be that the original poster is a troll for Digmypics? See his entry here:

 

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=007wEQ

 

If he liked digmy so much, why would he have started this thread unless he's up to no

good?

 

Uh....J. Harrington: No, I'm not a troll for Digmypics. And I'm not up to no good (at least

not here anyway). What I am doing is trying to figure out if I need to pay $5-6 to

Dygmypics (which I've used in the past for 35mm) for my 120 film. I had never heard of

films being sent to overseas. I was actually considering your service but because you're

trolling for yourself...maybe not. You always seem to pop up during scanning discussions,

ready to make disparaging remarks about other services. Why is that?

[damon_mercadante]

I think J. Harrington's overall intentions were good, and he made some good points.

 

I met some guys from photo.net at the PhotoPlus conference, and they suggested ScanCafe post periodically to keep everyone informed, so that is what I am doing.

 

ScanCafe's offering is fairly specific: high quality, high volume, low cost. As the Pop Photo article shows, shipping to India is safe. The images are sent overnight on a plane just like a Fedex package from NY to LA.

 

That said, local firms offer benefits as well. Smaller orders can be turned around faster, and you may feel the need to be physically near the images. It is simply a cost/benefit question for you. Everyone has different needs.

 

ScanCafe's bigger philosophy is that 1% of your images may be ultra-critical, and it may be best to do them in your own office or through a local service. We think our service fits in well with the other 99%. Historically, it simply wasn't economical to do the other 99%. When you think of it, there are plenty of images that need to be scanned both at the local level and at larger scale.

 

Jim's best suggestion is to test out a couple of services. ScanCafe does not have a minimum order size, and many customers test us out before sending big orders. We encourage that.

 

Hopefully, you've found this post to be informational and positive for the entire industry. More than happy to answer any specific questions, and more than happy to take feedback on how to post effectively in the future.

 

Damon

ScanCafe

[qtluong]

I've had film scanned in India in the past (not ScanCafe) and will do it again. The film has some value, since it is core 5x7 transparencies from

<a href = "http://www.terragalleria.com/parks/info/faqs.html">the National Parks project</a>. I just traveled to Mumbai and handed the film directly to the lab. The savings paid many, many more times for the trip, and in addition, I got to do some very productive travel around the country, which resulted in most of those <a href = "http://www.terragalleria.com/asia/india/">Pictures of India</a>.

[User_503771]

My own take on this is that, if you're providing a reliable, ethical, high quality service, then keep up the great work!

 

And to others, please don't knock it if you haven't tried it.

[Stock-Photos]

The original poster asked, "how do you feel?".

 

My second comment in this thread called Mr Cole's motives into question. I made a mistake and to Mr. Cole, I apologize.

[sfcole]

Apology accepted. Thanks.

[Ian Taylor]

Anyone have experience with JaincoTech? They have a US partner and work with Istockphoto. I need to scan approx 200 MF negs for my agency and these guys seem fairly pro. $4.32 per scan for 50MB is a nice price compared with what I'm used to paying.

<p>

http://www.jaincotech.com/

<p>

http://www.istockphoto.com/scanningservices.php

[qtluong]

Some folks over the <a href = "http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/">large format photography forum</a> have been pleased with Jaincotech.

[lockecito]

I recently used ScanCafe for a test batch and I was happy with the results. I'm not an expert and I haven't done side-by-side comparisons but I can't spot obvious flaws. The files came on a DVD and the negatives were returned in their original sleeves. I don't recall the exact turnaround time [why bother worrying?] but it was slightly more than a month.

 

As long as their logistical operation is solid I don't see any reason why them being in India is any better/worse than a US-based operation. I think it's fantastic that there exists a low-cost option.

 

This may be changing the topic slightly but ScanCafe offers add-ons; 4000dpi scanning for an extra 9 cents as well as TIFF files for another extra 9 cents [their default option is JPEGs scanned at 3000dpi]. As far as cost goes, this seems reasonable altho it makes the file sizes MUCH larger. Having triple Terabyte back-ups in remote locations starts to add up. Does anyone have opinions as to whether the extra resolution and/or TIFF files is worth it? I suppose the answer is "it depends". It always does but what are some criteria to help decide?

[jasson_kato]

I have tried KeyIndia Graphics www.keyindiagraphics.com at Mumbai, India and they charge $2.50 per image for upto 100 MB scans and cleaned up. Fantastic results. Their email is info@keyindiagraphics.com

[jim_horton]

I've taken the plunge and sent about 800 negatives to scancafe.

 

 

I based my decision on results I saw from a friend who used scancafe--he's a very good and demanding amateur photographer, he was impressed and so was I.

 

 

I also like the fact that scancafe is up front about offshore outsourcing, and that Damon here is upfront about his affiliation with scancafe and not a 'troll'.

 

 

For me, the tradeoff between the downsides: what I see as a only a slight risk with shipping overseas and a longer delay--compared with the upside of the lower price, is well worth it.

 

 

I've had these negatives sitting for anywhere from 6 to 30 years, so another few weeks isn't a big deal.

 

 

The other downsides of offshore outsourcing (especially Indian) that are often deal-killers in other industries--specifically software development--are things like language barrier (specs getting lost in translation) time-zone (developer calling you at his lunchime, which is around 1 AM for me), and uncertainty of actual hours worked/billed--do not apply here in my opinion.

 

--Jim

[jeff glass]

Jim Horton: How was your experience with ScanCafe?

 

jeff Glass

[jim_horton]

Well I had forgotten this post because the excessive time it took for ScanCafe to finish.

 

So there's a checkmark in the 'bad' column--it took 2 full months--twice their claim. They explained that this is because of the recent positive publicity they've recieved and a huge influx of business. That may be true, but 2 months is still a long time to wait, especially when 4 weeks was the promised timeframe.

 

The price was very reasonable, .19 per negative. This was for the 3000 dpi and not the 4000 dpi 'pro' option, which I believe was .25.

 

I thought the quality at 3000dpi was decent--some of the negatives I sent were ones of which I'd previously scanned the prints, and in a side-by-side comparison the quality of ScanCafe's work on the negative was better, but not significantly so. However the fact that I didn't have to sit there and do it myself is definitely worth the money.

 

The process of reviewing and choosing which images to keep and which to discard was fairly easy. They allow you to discard up to half of the negatives you send, so it made my initial selection of negatives easier--I didn't feel the need to snip individual frames out of a strip of negatives to keep the price down.

 

I have a second batch ready to do, and after I finally got my first batch back from ScanCafe, I looked all over the web for US based services with quicker turnaround time. The best I found was a 'best case scenario' 2 weeks at .57 per negative. That's nearly 3 times the cost of Scancafe--too much for the quantity I'm doing, so I will likely send the other batches to ScanCafe, but I'll just have to be prepared to wait longer than I'd like.

--Jim

[albert_pang]

[This is a response to the original question. See other thread for my review of ScanCafe.]

 

Half the people that I work with are Indians and many are in Bangalore. Out-sourcing/off-shoring to India for anything that

is 'technical' is a way of life. Given the same price, I would probably send my scans to some place within driving distance.

But that's moot as no US based 'pro' quality scanning service can match their price (at least for the next 10-15 years).

ScanCafe has already scanned over 5000 of my slides/negatives and I have more on the way. I would be paying at least 3

times if I were to have it done in the US. Besides, their quality is comparable to something like ScanDigital.

[engelgrafik]

<p>On ScanCafe's website, they have a picture showing how they seriously wrap up many individual boxes from individual orders onto a giant palette before shipping to India from California. All I can say is that if a plane crashed into the ocean, that palette would probably float for a good day or so.<br>

J. Harrington makes an excellent point about quality and working locally. Here's my take:<br>

Local scanners usually start at $2 per scan for Medium Format and go up to $200 for a drum.<br>

I don't need all 1200 of my medium format frames scanned in at such high quality and "custom" precision. I just want all of them digitized at a resolution I can use for placement and layout, and so I can see which ones I want to scan at super high res with a drum or Imacon, later.<br>

I want a quick digital catalog of all my film shots. Even doing this myself would take forever, even if I was just scanning at 300 DPI.<br>

ScanCafe provides this for about $1 per frame which is 2X cheaper than the cheapest local guy... and they provide a high quality online user experience to choose your photos you want to buy, and you only have to buy 50% of the photos that were scanned. Local scanners do not offer this, they just don't have the online resources and turnkey systems because they are usually unwilling to spend good money for good web applications.<br>

For me, everthing else ScanCafe does...3000 DPI, digital ICE, trained color calibration, etc. is icing on the cake!<br>

Then, when I have my 1200 strong catalog of MF shots in Aperture or iPhoto, I will then go through and decide which ones I want scanned in by a local guy for the $50-200 drum scan. ;)<br>

In this way, ScanCafe's value proposition is completely different than the local, custom high quality scanner.<br>

I only wish the local scan providers would catch on to this, but it costs a lot of money to set up a turnkey scanning system that provides all the things ScanCafe does.<br>

A lot of people think it's all about price, but a lot of it is about user experience. ScanCafe just makes it so much easier and simpler to get scans made! Local scanners could learn a lesson here, they need to focus on simplicity, reducing obstacles like so many different types of scan choices which only confuse and put off the potential customer. I went to one website and was bombarded with simply too many choices... and the pricing was hard to figure out. It's clear they are marketing to a completely different need.</p>