"Reasonable" place to get scans and development?

[dugrant153]

Hey everyone,

I'm looking for a decent local pro lab that I can "hook up with" as I try to setup my workflow. Listening to "Inside Analog Photo" has reaaalllyyy influenced me in creating a good film work flow for pro work - shoot, develop, scan, done!

I currently use Custom Color for my developing needs, but one thing I've realized is the cost of scanning. for "Medium" res, it's $20 a roll!! WOW. At the moment, I just develop and scan at home.

I checked out the prices in the states and for the same res, you're looking at almost half the cost as opposed to up here. Is $20 a roll for scanning (CD) the norm here in Vancouver? If I'm churning out 10 rolls of film per wedding/event/photoshoot... I either pass part of it onto the consumer or... ouch!

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

PS: I currently scan on an Epson Perfection 4490. Really good for what it was and for the price point... but 10 rolls would take me atleast 2 full days! lol

 

[Paddy]

Have you checked out Costco's pricing yet? I've heard they're quite reasonable, with decent file sizes too. This is inclusive with a dev/print order.

Otherwise, anEpson V700, or V750 is going to give you very good quality batch scans. I've got the V700 and love it.

I hope this helps.

Paddy

 

[Dennis S]

Another good place in Vancouver that I use "The Lab" they do good work @ reasonable prices.
I have also been comparing prices from here to the USA and I can tell you we pay way more for photography supplies etc. Check out:
(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

 

[dugrant153]

I'll definitely have to check those places.

As for Costco, my local Costco stopped processing any film. Sad.

I got some scans back from Custom Color (medium res scans)... the tonality is not that great and the noise reduction smoothed out ANY detail from my roll of Ilford Delta 3200. Ouch.
My lesson: so far, I haven't found a place that does really good scans that match the quality I'm able to manually do on my Epson 4490. The problem is ... if I shot 10 rolls for an event, I'll be sitting at the computer all day scanning!

 

[Dennis S]

That is one of the reasons I went to a larger scanner(Canoscan 9900F) besides the fact I can do 120 film with it and I can do 24 frames of 35mm film in one shot. Saved me enormous amounts of time.

 

[dugrant153]

That's what I'm thinking of doing now. As far as I can see, doesn't look like we have a local lab that can do "custom scanning profiles" like the Richard Photo Labs in California... or... maybe I've missed someone... hmm...

Anyways, scanning is sort of relaxing for me. But I can imagine it'd be quite a chore with 10 rolls to output (especially if some of it is 120 film - I'm only at 2 frames per scan!)

 

[jpberger]

Why not just send your stuff to Richard then? Their clients come from all over, not just California. If these are paid gigs courier fees should be no biggie relative to the total cost.

 

[dugrant153]

I've thought about that, but am always afraid of it getting lost in the mail. Especially if going over international waters.
But has anyone in Canada sent stuff to Richards no problem? If so, it may be my way to go!