Getting film on CD at walgreens

abuccanero · Mar 20, 2008

I just found my parents old film camera and I am going to try to get into film photography. I want to beable to get my pictures on my computer without buying an expensiver scanner and all that jazz. If I get a CD from walgreens when I develop my pics will that decrease the quality or is the quality still good?

just wondering because I tried doing this with the film that was in the camera when I found it and it turned out really grainy. I am assuming it was because the film was in the camera for 5 years.

thanks.

Big Mike · Mar 20, 2008

Most labs today use digital machines to process & print your film & photos. The machine develops and scans the image, the prints it at 4x6 or 5x7 etc. from the digital file. When you get a CD, they just output those files.

So they are OK for making 4x6 or 5x7 sized prints...it gets sketchy for 8x10 and larger.

I've found that they usually are pretty grainy compared to the nice clean images from a good digital camera.

abuccanero · Mar 20, 2008

is there any other way you reccomend to get digital files that dont require doing it yourself?

christopher walrath · Mar 20, 2008

All a CD of scanned negs is good for is for reference. But that is handy as the negatives are reversed and the images are in easy-to-view format and you have the negs so you can get negative prints made at anytime. Just make sure to log your negs and CD's well so you save unnecessary hunting and pecking later. Most camera shops carry or can get negative archival storage sheets which consist of clear plastic and long pockets that will hold negative strips. They even produce them that are two part attached, one sheet for negs and another for multimedia. Though not in stock, they can be ordered. Probably the best idea yet would be to print a digital 'contact sheet' with all of the images and store that with the CD and the negs for even easier review.

abuccanero · Mar 20, 2008

I am just tring to figure out a way to get my pics on my computer so I can photoshop if neccisary or just to put them online.

Big Mike · Mar 20, 2008

Most places will print the contact sheet for you anyway...and often comes with the CD.

is there any other way you reccomend to get digital files that dont require doing it yourself?

While most labs aren't great...it can still be a viable option to just get their CD. You will be able to edit and play with the files and make reasonable sized prints.

Some labs have a 'premium' CD/DVD which gives you higher resolution images.

And of course, a good lab will be able to scan certain images at your request, but this is a lot more expensive than getting it done at the time of processing.

Lastly, you could get very high quality 'drum' scans of any negative...at a good lab...but it would be expensive.