negatives onto CD?

[judethepude]

Is it possible to transfer old-style negatives onto CD, and if so, how do I do it?

Thanks

[commoner]

Hi Jude ( or maybe Hey Jude ;-) ).......Boots or some other photo counter might do it for you...only way I can think of to DIY would be to scan the negs with a film scanner and burn a cd from the scans........commoner.

[Buenchico]

(Posted in 2 parts):

You need a film scanner to scan your negatives. If your negatives are on 35mm film then many flatbed document scanners have a 35mm film scanning facility built-in. You'll need to consider what type of quality you're hoping to achieve and how much you're prepared to pay. Cheaper scanners may only scan at a resolution of 600dpi and (even though they might claim to scan film) this just isn't good enough for anything other than very grainy results. For an indication of the type of scanner you might need, see the Canon models, here:
http://www.canon.co.uk/for_home/product_finder/scanners/ flatbed_with_film_scanning/index.asp
The basic model, 3200F, has a resolution of 1200 x 2400 dpi and this will be just about adequate for most people's needs. The next model up, however, (4200F) has a much better resolution of 3200 x 6400 and doesn't cost much more - they're both sub-�100 - so this is the one which I'd recommend. (Yes, I've got one and no, I don't work for Canon!)
As you go further up the range, resolutions don't significantly improve but you get added features like the ability, on the 8400F, to scan up to 12 negatives at once. (The 4200F only takes 4 at a time). However, the prices of these high-end scanners are much higher than the basic two models.

[Buenchico]

As I've stated, the image quality from something like the 4200F will be perfectly good enough for most users. If you need 'professional' quality, or if you've got vast quantities of negatives to scan, you might want to consider a dedicated film scanner but these start at about �240. At that price you'll get a scanner (e.g. Prime Film 3650 Pro) which will be faster and easier to use than a flatbed scanner but won't give you any better resolution. To get that you'll need to spend about �490 on a Coolscan LS50.

The software to convert your negative images to positive pictures is normally supplied with the scanner. The only other thing you'll need is time! Whichever type of scanner you choose, scanning lots of negatives (and using the software to optimise the images) can be a very tedious business!

If you don't fancy doing it yourself, then most photo-processing shops offer a facility to transfer 35mm negatives to CD. Annoyingly, they tend to charge very little for doing this at the same time as they process a film but a lot more afterwards. It's worth shopping around.

All of the foregoing, however, assumes that the negatives are 35mm. If 'old-style' means any other format than 35mm then I don't think that there's any way you'll be able to do it yourself. Also, the vast majority of processing labs won't be able to help either. If you enquire at your local Jessops store or look at the advertisements in the back of 'Amateur Photographer' you might be able to find a specialist company but they're almost certain to be very expensive.

Chris

[OBonio]

Boots can do this for a couple of quid (might be cheaper).

[judethepude]

Thanks for your answers, Commoner, Buenchico and OBonio. I will investigate the options. Thank you especially, Buenchico, for your extremely detailed response.

Jude