Film negative scanner help and reccomendations

Hello,
I have some question about scanning 35mm negative films.

I scan my negatives in the best local Photo Lab/studio and they give me scans with 72dpi and resolution around 1800px (wide), maybe smaller. The scans visually looks fine but really loose details. I ask someone there to make some bigger scans with 300dpi and bigger resolution but they told me thats the max ( I think that's not true). They got some big negative scanner FUJI. With this dimensions of scans i cant make some adjustments on the photographs and then make some big prints around 30cm.
I give them 2 euro for scannin one film and they give me scans on a CD.

I'm wondering, is it 72 really max DPI on FUJI (i woud say) profesional scanner that use, or they just do that for quicker solving the work?

Also, I would like if someone can recommend me a good negative film scanner with decent resolution and fine price.

thank you,
Stevco.

<Conspiracy theory alert!>
1800px @ 300dpi will make 6" -> sounds like they're scanning it for standard 6x4" output. I'm not completely sure if they use the same scans/files for outputting to larger letter sized prints, but that wouldn't be much vise. (Because their large prints will totally suck!)

Maybe you should ask them if they can print at larger sizes, if they say "yes", then it means their machine is actually capable of making higher quality scans, but they're just unwilling to play with the settings. (Most likely...!???)

On Minolta maxxum 600si the scans are 1800px wide, but on Minolta SRT-101 they have cropped the negative (what I shoot is not as the scan, the scans are cropped) which is really not good and are 1523px wide.

Also i have scanned in another (local photo lab) and they gave me even smaller scans and they told the that was the max scan.. unbelievable.

Steveco

I assume that you know that the DPI figure is meaningless in a digital image. Its like me saying I have 100,000 in my account and not letting you know if I have Euro, South Korean Won or Japanese Yen

what matters is pixels, and 1800 is not much as you know. Loris is on to something which is important, that is to tell them you want the scans made for big prints

Personally I would recommend you ask point blank "do you have a noritsu mini lab?"

if the answer is no, then move on. I've had some fantastic results from Noritsu minilabs (link is to my blog). I asked for scans and developing and asked the person what density they scan at. They were confused (of course) and asked me "did I want scans for large prints?" I said yes, and got essentially 6Megapixel scans.

pellicle said:

Steveco

I assume that you know that the DPI figure is meaningless in a digital image. Its like me saying I have 100,000 in my account and not letting you know if I have Euro, South Korean Won or Japanese Yen

what matters is pixels, and 1800 is not much as you know. Loris is on to something which is important, that is to tell them you want the scans made for big prints

Personally I would recommend you ask point blank "do you have a noritsu mini lab?"

if the answer is no, then move on. I've had some fantastic results from Noritsu minilabs (link is to my blog). I asked for scans and developing and asked the person what density they scan at. They were confused (of course) and asked me "did I want scans for large prints?" I said yes, and got essentially 6Megapixel scans.

Click to expand...

Thanx for the big advice.
I assume that 1800 resolution on Fuji film scanner can't be the MAX.
I'll search if some studio in my town have Noritsu scanner.

I saw your blog, the scan from Noritsu is stunning and huge!