Where can I find a good slide scanning service?
July 11, 2005 12:10 AM 
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Can anyone recommend a good slide-scanning service?
I got a friend to take pictures of a recent project, and he did a great job, except he used slide film. Now I have a bunch of slides (107 to be exact) and I'd like to find a way to digitize them and share them. I'm assuming the cheapest way to do this is hire someone to scan all slides. Is there a cheaper/better way? Does anyone have any recommendations for slide scanning services? What should I be looking for when hiring a company?
((# of scans) * (average cost of 3 vendors scanning)) - ($cost of buying my own scanning unit of comparable spec) = $foo
If $foo is greater than $0, it makes more sense to buy the unit. If not, makes more sense to shop it out. For the amount you are scanning, depending on the size and the quality desired, it might go both ways.
To wit, 2 times I have sent the scan jobs out, to wonderful results, the last, I bought my own drum (negatives). Let me be very clear: Try to find a photographer or otherwise passionate person for your scanning needs. I got bids from several teenagers at print houses, and ended up going with a photographer I found on a website who had bought one of the $$$ scanning drums I was after. He did the whole job for 3/5 the cost of the shops and he seemed to take a personal interest in doing it, which was a plus.
How to find such a guy? I'll admit I googled. I took the sexy machine model number that I wanted to do the scans with, and googled around for scanning and scanning services till I found a few guys who did it. They'll be proud to say "I use Canon 1.2Jigawatts for my scanning" and you'll be informed to go Ok, I want this and this and this, on CDs, how much?
HTH
posted by cavalier at 6:27 AM on July 11, 2005