lcd32bit Posted February 3, 2019 Share #1 Posted February 3, 2019 Advertisement (gone after registration) Been shooting Leica for a bit over a year and a half now, and recently got into film while we were up in Alaska for the summer and fall. Got ourselves a M7 and off we went! (Now we have a couple of MPs, an Icon ZM, and the M7 has now been sold) We first got film developed locally by Keller Custom Photo in Anchorage, AK who processes E6 once a week, but C-41 daily, but it was immediately clear that there was something wrong with their process or chemicals for both processes so we didn't use them for the remainder of the trip. Keller Custom Photo Velvia 50 E-6, scanned with Epson V850 (rescanned with Flextight X5 and colors looked similar) Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here… Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members! We then started shipping things down to Richard Lab down in LA and things were looking better... but we noticed that a lot of our photos seemed blown-out with shadows crushed, even when we were 100% sure the photos were properly exposed, and telling Richards to expose for the faces if present... sufficed to say, Richards never got it's act together despite multiple rescans, and we quickly got ourselves an Epson V850. Long story short, we ended up finding a used Flextight X5 and was much happier all-around. Some quick thoughts: Richard Lab seems to get great results as seen on Instagram with some photographers, but despite multiple rescans and specific instructions, they didn't deliver for us at all. We also tried some local labs for development service (Panda Lab, Blue Moon, Keller Custom Photo), but they had some scratches to the film. Richard Lab has perfect film handling with their dip-and-dunk method, so we'll continue to use them for developing only. Flextight X5 is fantastic, and the time editing the photo to perfection with the excellent FlexColor software is far less than with the Epson V850 with SilverFast. However, at a retail price of $26,000 vs. $800 the scanned photos are definitely not 32x better. The Epson does a pretty good job with the colors, but loses to the Flextight on sharpness and dynamic range especially for 35mm. Lake Clark N.P. Brown Bears Velvia 50 Richard Lab Scan (Noritsu) Epson V850 Scan Flextight X5 Scan Independence Mine Ruins Velvia 50 Richard Lab Scan (Noritsu) Epson V850 Scan Flextight X5 Scan Independence Mine Ruins Portra 400 Richard Lab Scan (Frontier) Epson V850 Scan Flextight X5 Scan Healy, AK Velvia 50 Epson V850 Scan Flextight X5 Scan My scanning station in the Airstream (we travel the USA full-time): 5 Quote Link to post Share on other sites Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members! We then started shipping things down to Richard Lab down in LA and things were looking better... but we noticed that a lot of our photos seemed blown-out with shadows crushed, even when we were 100% sure the photos were properly exposed, and telling Richards to expose for the faces if present... sufficed to say, Richards never got it's act together despite multiple rescans, and we quickly got ourselves an Epson V850. Long story short, we ended up finding a used Flextight X5 and was much happier all-around. Some quick thoughts: Richard Lab seems to get great results as seen on Instagram with some photographers, but despite multiple rescans and specific instructions, they didn't deliver for us at all. We also tried some local labs for development service (Panda Lab, Blue Moon, Keller Custom Photo), but they had some scratches to the film. Richard Lab has perfect film handling with their dip-and-dunk method, so we'll continue to use them for developing only. Flextight X5 is fantastic, and the time editing the photo to perfection with the excellent FlexColor software is far less than with the Epson V850 with SilverFast. However, at a retail price of $26,000 vs. $800 the scanned photos are definitely not 32x better. The Epson does a pretty good job with the colors, but loses to the Flextight on sharpness and dynamic range especially for 35mm. Lake Clark N.P. Brown Bears Velvia 50 Richard Lab Scan (Noritsu) Epson V850 Scan Flextight X5 Scan Independence Mine Ruins Velvia 50 Richard Lab Scan (Noritsu) Epson V850 Scan Flextight X5 Scan Independence Mine Ruins Portra 400 Richard Lab Scan (Frontier) Epson V850 Scan Flextight X5 Scan Healy, AK Velvia 50 Epson V850 Scan Flextight X5 Scan My scanning station in the Airstream (we travel the USA full-time): ' data-webShareUrl='https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/293953-adventures-in-film-labs-scanning-scanners-photo-heavy/?do=findComment&comment=3677448'>More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted February 3, 2019 Posted February 3, 2019 Hi lcd32bit, Take a look here Adventures in film! Labs, Scanning, Scanners! (photo heavy). I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
Keith (M) Posted February 4, 2019 Share #2 Posted February 4, 2019 Canadian Film Lab (formerly UK Film Lab) are up and running again after a hiatus due to ill health. Have used them a number of times and their developing/scanning services are (IMHO) second to none - highly recommended. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
philipus Posted February 6, 2019 Share #3 Posted February 6, 2019 Like your shots show the Flextights eat shadows like nothing else. I have the X1 and am consistently impressed. Not even the densest slides pose the slightest hint of a problem. I have also found that Flexcolor provides very accurate colour out of the gates, at least in most situations and for most emulsions. But the quality-cost ratio for the Flextights is very different from all other scanners, though the X1 is considerably cheaper than the X5. In my opinion, though, one doesn't buy such a scanner only for the scan quality but for the speed and ease of use and general flexibility of being able to scan (and mount) a very large amount of film formats. Plus, given the amount of money many of us in this forum spend on Leica lenses an X1 is actually comparably reasonable and will improve the quality of one's photos a lot more than buying a 50 APO or Noctilux will. It won't have the same bragging rights though. Just my humble opinion of course. Your images from the Noritsu shows exactly what I have seen in so many images before, crushed shadows and generally a smaller dynamic range and high-key look. For complete control scanning oneself is the only way to go. br Philip Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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