Justin Scobie wrote:
>Hi has anyone had any dealings with HQFS scanning ? can anyone
>recommend them?
My recent experience:
I've been looking for low-cost/reasonable quality scans for around 1,000
transparencies (many of which are really nice Kodachromes) as self-
scanning is proving too time-consuming and not big enough budget for
drum scans
HQFS originally advertised a 'library' rate of �1.00 per scan (you had
to prepay �250 on account) which was naturally very attractive to me
and, it seems, a lot of others, but their latest prices have risen and
are no longer as competitive.....
Before these price rises I sent my half-dozen 'test' transparencies to
HQFS for scanning - these are transparencies which I have scans of from
elsewhere, some as true drum scans (and which I also have scanned on my
own Polaroid Sprintscan 4000) - 3 x 6x6cm (Ektachrome and Velvia) and 3
x 35mm (1 Velvia and 2 Kodachromes, the latter which are notorious for
being difficult to scan well, though mine with Sprint4000 have been
good)
Turnaround of the order was fine, a few days, and the 6x6cm scans (at
�4.50 each) were acceptable (at high res producing 300MB file...) though
with some 'combing' in the histograms (not so good)
The Velvia 35mm scan (at �3.25 each) was also okay (70MB) but one of the
Kodachromes was awful - too dark and looking like the scanner had been
jogged during scan (almost a Monet effect!) - the other Kodachrome was
better but nowhere near as good as even my own scans.....
I returned the two Kodachromes plus CD of scans and asked for re-scans -
it was nearly ten days before I received them back with new scans on CD
- but the new scans were almost identical to the first ones.....
The obvious conclusion is that they cannot produce good scans of
Kodachromes (which is what I really need scanned) - I considered using
them again for 6x6cm scans but their further price rises mean I will try
a couple of alternative services elsewhere first
Geoff Dore
--
Geoff Dore Photography
Nature - Landscape - Travel
Mailto: ProDIG(at)geoffdore.demon.co.uk Tel/Fax: 07041 514133
Website: http://www.geoffdore.com or: 01202 315326
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