SCANNING FAQ
We offer three levels of Scan quality, Std, Mid and High Resolution.
Our 35mm and 120 scanning is done on a Fuji SP3000 scanner. This is a high quality scanner which affords a good balance between productivity and quality. It is not the very best quality and certainly not up to the standard of e.g. Imacon or drum scanners, however you would pay many times the price for these type of scans.
Our Sheet film scans are made on an Epson Pro Flatbed scanner and are of a similar quality to our other scans.
Which scans should I choose...
Standard scans:
• Perfect for social media and sharing
• Small Prints up to 5x7.5"
• Auto balanced but NOT inspected for dust*
• Digital ICE on C41 films inc XP2
Mid-res scans:
• Great for sharing, but with more detail for enlargement
• Prints up to 8x12 / A4 size
• Auto balanced but NOT inspected for dust*
• Digital ICE on C41 films inc XP2
High-res scans:
• Suitable for further editing or cropping
• Larger prints up to 12x18 / A
• Inspected, balanced with dust spots removed*
• TIF (Lossless) option also available for high-res scans
• Digital ICE on C41 films inc XP2
*Most black and white films are not compatible with digital ICE technology which can remove small dust spots when scanning. All C41 film scans use digital ICE.
Scanning Size
The scan size varies somewhat with the format of the film. Hi-res 35mm full frame is 5400x3600 pixels, (19.4 megapixel). Files are saved as JPG files in the size range approx 5-7mb.
Low-res 35mm scans will be approx 1500x2250 pixels, (3.4 megapixel). Files are around 1Mb in size.
Downloading vs CD
We offer our film scans via download link or on CD. Download link allows you to transfer the files direct to your computer or mobile device.
We use the We-Transfer Service, files will arrive as a zip file. If saving on a mobile device such as a smartphone or tablet, we would recommend the use of the "We download" App. This is allows you to bulk unzip the files direct to your device rather than individually.
Summary
| Scan Type | Cost | Pixels | Mega-pixels |
| Std | £4.50 | 1500 x 2250 | 3.4 |
| Mid Res | £8.00 | 2400 x 3600 | 8.6 |
| High Res | £15.00 | 3600 x 5400 | 19.4 |
| High res Tif | £20.00 | 3600 x 5400 | 19.4 |
Please note.
We often get questions about file sizes, megabytes, megapixels, jpg's, tiffs etc...
Megapixel Mp (1 Megapixel = 1 million pixels) is a measure of the number of pixels in an image. i.e. the number of pixels vertical multiplied by the number of horizontal pixels.
Megabyte Mb (1 Megabyte = 1024576 bytes) is a measure of the size of the saved file and this size varies depending on the file format, and the image content. e.g. Jpeg files which we supply compress the data so as to give a smaller file size. Our typical Jpegs are 5-7mb in size. The same image saved as a Tiff file might be in the region of 30Mb.