File Size For 35MM Film CD

[paldusty]

I need some help here. When I shoot film I like to get a cd of my photos and that way I have a digital copy of my film image. What I am having a problem with is that the file sizes of the images taken is pretty small (700K). Is this the most I can expect or should I ask for some sort of special processing to get a bigger file for each image. I was surprised to see that the file sizes were so small as compared to a digital image.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks, Dave

[zona5101]

That is very small. When I would have film put on a cd during processing , most of the photofinishers would provide two folders of the images...one low resolution for email etc and one hi rez. The high rez were in the 3 to 5 Meg filesize. Perhaps there is another folder on the CD?

[Doug Pardee]

Originally Posted by paldusty

When I shoot film I like to get a cd of my photos and that way I have a digital copy of my film image. What I am having a problem with is that the file sizes of the images taken is pretty small (700K). Is this the most I can expect or should I ask for some sort of special processing to get a bigger file for each image.

In general, no, you can't expect better. The CD images are made by projecting the pictures onto a camera-type sensor, and that sensor is generally fairly low-resolution in most current film-processing equipment. The Kodak PictureCD standard is 1.5 megapixels (1536x1024). This resolution is suitable for viewing on a monitor or a TV (even an HDTV), but not for large prints.

If you want better you'll either have to scan the negatives yourself, or pay to have them scanned. The last time I checked (a few years ago), it was about $1/photo (US$) for scanning services.

[thephotophile]

I had the same problem with labs giving crummy low rez scans, but then I bit the bullet and bought my own film scanner. a Canoscan 5600F. Not the best film scanner, but also didn't break the bank. More importantly, the quality of the scans are miles better now! I typically end up with about a 24 mega pixel image that is glorious to look at, especially if I scanned from Velvia 50 or Provia 100, or even Sensia 100! Even scans from cheap Fuji Superia 200 is very acceptable, though of course the grain is visible, not that that should hold you back from making great photos, because once you put it to print the grain simply vanishes at normal print sizes anyway.

Hope that helps.

[OsmosisStudios]

My lab give me two options 4-base (approx 4-4.5mp) and 16-base (approx 9mp). Theyre very accurate too.

This is done as a supplementary service for $5.99 per roll on top of the developing cost (~$7). If I were to bring in negatives to be scanned, however, I'd be looking at 1.99 per frame