[MacDV] Re: Film Scanners

[Gregg Gorrie]

on 12/30/02 3:20 PM, David DelMonte at david at bohtech.com wrote:

> I also have a few thousand slides I'd like to digitize and catalog. I
> was thinking of the Nikon S4000 with the automatic feeder. I know that
> costs about $2000. However, if I send two thousand slides to a store
> and they cost even $.50 each (I cant find the cents key), that would be
> $1000, and additional slides would cost even more. Perhaps if I bought
> this equipment, I could offer a service for friends to cover my costs.
> 
> David

Ok, let's attempt some rudimentary math and logic here:

Scenario #1 - You buy your Nikon S4000 scanner for $2000. Theoretically, to
pay off your investment (using your estimate of $.50/slide), you would need
to scan 4000 slides. I can honestly say you would be lucky (and very
efficient) to average 20 slides/hour just for the scanning/saving/organizing
part, never mind anything to do with color correction, dusting, computer
related maintenance issues, etc. At that rate, 4000 slides would take you
200 hours. It would take five full 40-hour weeks to do this - that works out
to about $10/hour for your time. If you are gainfully employed (I assume you
are if you're looking at purchasing a $2000 scanner), and you were willing
to spend 10 hours every week over and above your regular work week to sit
and babysit a scanner, it would take you twenty weeks (about five months) to
complete this task. This also assumes you will be able find/convince friends
to pay you $.50/slide to the tune of 2000 slides (not likely if they can
send it to a "pro" shop for the same amount!).

What will you end up with? A scanner, hopefully still working after 4000
scans, that will be worth maybe a few hundred bucks in a year or two, and
all your slides saved in an amateur, unfinished format. Of course, you could
spend hundreds (or even thousands) of dollars to take courses on digital
photo finishing and then purchase the software, and then spend hundreds more
hours tweaking your 2000 digital pictures to make them look somewhat
professional (these skills are not acquired overnight).

Scenario #2 - Send your slides to a >professional< service bureau
($.50/slide might be a bit low, but given that you have several thousand,
you might be able to get that rate): $1000 total. Use the $1000 you have
saved (by not buying the scanner) to take your spouse/family/friends out for
a fabulous dinner, or maybe even a mini-vacation. Then, as you sit back
watching your slide show (Kodak Photo CDs can be played back on proprietary
Photo CD players, Mac/PC computers, and even some DVD players), contemplate
how you are going to spend the hundreds of hours you have saved yourself by
going this route. You'll probably even have enough money left over to buy
yourself a consumer scanner, with transparency adapter, just in case you
feel like messing about with the odd picture (just to get it out of your
system ...;).

Your choice ...
   
-- 
Gregg