I have 35mm negatives, I want jpgs

Anyone here use (or provide) a service to make jpgs from 35 mm negatives? I have several rolls worth that I'd like to get done.

Do you have a local camera store nearby? We have one around here that does it as a service for 10 to 15 dollars a roll depending on the resolution you want.

I'm not sure if you can mail them the rolls or not but I was really happy with a restoration they did for me.

Here's their site if you want to look them up or want a comparison price point.

Agreed on working with someone local.

It has been a while since I've done it, and I'm not certain what modern software you would use, but you can scan them in with the scanner on an all in one printer.

I was going to mention the all in one scanner/printer thing too, or just bring them to a Walgreens. At least I think they still do that.

In reply to Brian:

Doesn't that depend on if they've been processed or not already though? Around here all the drug stored stopped processing rolls so that they could get rid of the darkrooms and chemicals.

You can get half decent scans from an all in one, but for good results you at the very least need a decent photo flatbed scanner with a light-through setup, or a real film scanner.

IMHO if they're important enough to the OP to pay someone for scanning them, go to a decent pro.

I actually still have a film scanner for 35mm, but I haven't checked in years if it still works.

I did some with photoshop and a scanner. Turned out fair. Scan, click negative color, save as jpg.

They were medium format negs, 2.5" or so square. I noticed that if I enlarged them to 4x5 they were fine, but if I tried to go 8x10 they got pretty fuzzy/grainy. That was mostly a shortcoming of the digital format. Enlarging a digital image basically takes the image and makes 4 pixels where there was one. Optical (analog) enlarging (making an actual print first) is more forgiving.

I would say try it first with a scanner. You might be surprised.

Medium format negatives should allow for insane reproduction. I've printed 16x20 inch from a 16mpix APS-C camera and sold multiple copies of that print. Sounds like you were printing from a 6x6 medium format camera; the prints out of that should be pretty outstanding if processed right.

Which brings me to my next point; if this is for real saving for the future, or prints, I would have it professionally done. Proof of concept or just the ability to save and send an image, home scanning is fine, but an all in one home use printer/scanner/copier is not a real hot ticket for high quality printing, scanning, or copying. I'd take it to a professional shop that has good equipment.

Sam's Club. No.... seriously. We had ours all converted over to disc form. IIRC, we had something like 2400 negatives put onto DVD's. Cost around $150 for all of them.

Forgot to mention, you don't want the scans to be JPEG only. Make sure that whoever does the scanning also gives you lossless compression files like TIFF.

Good film scanning is tricky and slow with consumer-level equipment. I use a PrimeFilm XA for 35mm color, and a Canon 8800F for B&W and all MF; I shot and scanned ~150 rolls last year, so I'm all too familiar with the process. If it's a one-time job, don't bother with trying to scan them yourself - you'll be dissatisfied with the results (images straight out of most consumer scanners are flat and often need mild post-processing to get colors right) and spend a lot of time finding that out.

Pretty sure Walgreens still does this. Give them the negatives, they will process them and give you a CD with all the files on it. The charge isn't too bad IIRC.

Costco did it for me.

They also converted some 8mm vid to dvd.

02Pilot wrote: Good film scanning is tricky and slow with consumer-level equipment. I use a PrimeFilm XA for 35mm color, and a Canon 8800F for B&W and all MF; I shot and scanned ~150 rolls last year, so I'm all too familiar with the process. .

There are a number of companies that will send the higher end scanner for a daily fee and you just run them yourself and store them yourself. It is cheaper and in some way easier but time consuming.

wearymicrobe wrote:

02Pilot wrote: Good film scanning is tricky and slow with consumer-level equipment. I use a PrimeFilm XA for 35mm color, and a Canon 8800F for B&W and all MF; I shot and scanned ~150 rolls last year, so I'm all too familiar with the process. .

There are a number of companies that will send the higher end scanner for a daily fee and you just run them yourself and store them yourself. It is cheaper and in some way easier but time consuming.

I don't doubt it, but I can't wait a year to scan negatives. The backlog of editing and printing would be horrifying. I have on occasion relied on commercial labs to scan color film (I only develop my own B&W), but I prefer to do it myself when I have the time to maintain full control over the process.