Any Europeans using NCPS?

[zoltan_arva_toth]

<p>North Coast Photographic Services have been promoted as a low-cost, high-quality processing+scanning alternative here and elsewhere. And indeed they seem to be very reasonable for anyone living in the United States. The one full-resolution - albeit compressed - Velvia scan posted by Ken Rockwell at http://www.kenrockwell.com/contax/images/g2/examples/31120037-5mb.jpg (wait till it fully downloads and clears up) is very promising. They also state that they accept orders from anywhere in the world, but note that shipping to Europe may amount to as much as $22, which kind of defeats the otherwise low prices.</p>

<p>Has anyone living in Europe tried their services yet? If so, what are your experiences re turn-round times, costs and quality?</p>

[guido_h]

It's not only the shipping costs, it's also additional handling fees, possible taxes and delays imposed by customs (depending on country). Add the risk of loss in transit as well as possible x-ray damage, and I can hardly imagine this making sense for any customer in Europe. Besides, I know of several similar services in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria, and I'm sure others ones exist in other European countries as well.

[zoltan_arva_toth]

<p>Thanks, Guido. Would you mind sharing the names of those German/Swiss/Austrian companies (and your experience with them)?</p>

[charlessalomons]

www.hobbylab.ch is an example of a Swiss company that I have used to my satisfaction.

Also, if you are in the Zurich area, Photo Ganz offers development and scanning services

[guido_h]

In Austria, http://www.cyberlab.at, http://www.fotoleutner.at, http://www.fayer.at, and http://www.wolczak.at all do mail order (high quality B/W and/or C-41 custom push/pull/regular development and scanning). There are also many local photo stores throughout the country which still do film development (and sometimes also scanning) in-house.

 

In Germany, http://www.kontrastlab.de and http://www.fotoporto.de; again, many others exist as well. In both countries, you can give 135-type color film and slides to the local drugstore (dm - Drogeriemarkt), which will send it to a central Fuji facility with a one-week turnaround time. However, no custom development, and the quality of the scans (optional, on request) is quite basic.

[m-paul-o]

I will add Fotospeed in Vienna http://www.fotospeed.at is processing my slides (including push) and they will scan it in several sizes and either burn a CD or you can download it from their FTP. They scan on Noritsu and for extra quality (and price :-) ) Imacon is also available. They will do B/W and C-41 processing as well.

 

Quality is very satisfactory for me (E-6 processing+scan at 48 MB tiff+CD runs for 16,90 €)

 

Not sure about mail order though, but they are very friendly so try to send them an e-mail...<div></div>

[zoltan_arva_toth]

<p>Thanks for all this great info guys!</p>

[carl_erik_kopseng]

<p>Sorry for reviving an old thread, but I would like to tip everyone of <a href="http://www.dwaynesphoto.com/newsite2006/color-neg-processprint.html">Dwayne's Photo Service</a>, which is quite reasonable even for Europeans. When I send the maximum of 6 films for processing and scanning, I pay an average of 9 € or 12 $ per film. That figure includes</p>

<ul>

<li>shipping to the US and back from Norway (approx 10$ from Norway, 15 $ back)</li>

<li>Processing of films 4$ per film</li>

<li>Scanning of films 3$ per film</li>

</ul>

<p>The 35mm scans are excellent and with 6Mpix resolution. They also do cross processinging of film, and I have never had to pay extra to have my E-6 films from my Holga processed as C-41. I just write X-PRO on the films.<br>

I have to say that although the service for 120 film is great and cheap, the films are scanned at a mere 1024x1024 resolution ... </p><div></div>