New Member - Greece, NY

justDave · Aug 22, 2015

..... Just found and joined the website. I've been taking pictures since ASA 25 was the fastest speed of Kodachrome there was (sadly, not at all now! What would Paul Simon think?). I live up in the Rochester area where Kodak used to be king but now seems all they produce is red ink. I have to drive about 20 miles to even find anyone who develops film and it took a month for the two rolls I picked up today.
..... I have eight file drawers of negatives plus many larger negative that are too big for those files. That goes with the more than $1000 worth of camera equipment I bought in the 1980s that apparently will be better at collecting dust than images.
..... I have a lot of questions for anyone who knows more than I do. Mainly getting those film negative converted to digital so I can print them.

Dave

Designer · Aug 22, 2015

Depending on the expected quality and your budget, you can purchase your own scanner and scan them yourself. The advantage is that the negatives don't ever leave your house.

Speaking of leaving; you can get film processed by mail order, and that is probably how the place you took them to did it. They very likely waited until they had a few more rolls to get the quantity discount. Mail order should not take that long.

mkgoulden · Aug 22, 2015

I agree, look into mail order for your development, and I would seriously recommend scanning your own negatives. I prefer scanning my own, it keeps the control of the image in my hands as well as the negative in my home. I tried to outsource once, and they did a poor quality with the conversion and the result was too pixelated. I was very disappointed. You can find quality scanners at reasonable prices, try amazon and keep an eye on ebay.

justDave · Aug 25, 2015

Thank you for your replies. I have been looking at many scanners, but it seems confusing. I have also considered a light box to use on my flatbed scanner. More than 20 years ago I bought an overhead printer so I could use it in a darkroom some day. Well back then a lot of us were not seeing the digital writing on the wall. It is simple if you already have a digital image, but not so good when the images are on film negatives. I'd also wonder if there are any websites that rate such things as film scanner... sort of a "Consumer Reports" for photography?
Dave