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Old 11th March 2017, 08:02 AM
winchman winchman is offline
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Default Scanning negatives for other people.

Just off to collect a high end scanner for our daughter to scan her negatives.
I did wonder would it be worth while offering a scanning service? Would people pay?
It wouldn't be a business just a way of funding her film etc whilst she is very keen its funds and time that are holding her back at the moment.
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Old 11th March 2017, 10:29 AM
SanMiguel SanMiguel is offline
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winchman I'm not sure the mods will let this thread run, as its not strictly about film and darkroom work.

However, I'd imagine that most people who want their films scanned either do it themselves or pay their processing lab to do it. The question would be how to break into either of those workflows.

I'd imagine you or your daughter would need to offer something significantly different/better than the solution potential customers already have. I'm no expert on scanning, but from what I read, it's not just down to the scanner used - there is more to it than that.

You might want to think about offering a developing and scanning service combined, which might be more attractive to people than just a scanning service, where they have to get their films developed elsewhere (assuming they don't do it themselves).

Another possibility might be to approach a few high-street labs (e.g., SnappySnaps) and ask if they thought there might be a market for 'high-end' scanning. If you build a good relationship with them they might out-source work to you if it comes along. However I'm not sure they would be terribly keen to sell it to their customers in the first place, as they'd basically be cutting their own profit (assuming they offer a scanning service at the minute, which most do as far as I can see). Then you'd have the problem of calling by to pick up the negatives and returning them and the scans to the lab. That will take time and might involve fuel and car parking charges etc. When all is said and done you might find yourself working for well less than the minimum wage - not a problem if it's a means to an end and you're not dependent on it for a living.

Not sure this helps, but good luck with whatever you decide to do!
Michael
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Old 11th March 2017, 10:42 AM
winchman winchman is offline
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Thanks Michael.
It was just a thought as the photography is costing a lot of money at the moment and this would bring a little in for her, if it was in demand.
As you say people will buy a cheap one, this is a KIS1500 from a mini lab so should be way better, hoping to set it up next week and give it a go.
The developing for others would be too time consuming, she has to have the right balance as Uni takes a lot of time
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Old 11th March 2017, 01:05 PM
DaveP DaveP is offline
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One thing I would say is don't just buy a scanner then look to straight away sell a service, most scanners take some learning to get the best results, what nobody needs is an absolute beginner selling a service! Only disappointment will occur...

There's a lot of folk out there offering very good scanning services for reasonable money these days, I would want to make sure that either you can offer a competitive service or at least be in an area where nobody else is doing it, as some people do not want to risk posting valuable film. Also don't forget the time aspect of unmounting slides, mounting for scanning, scanning, cleaning up the file, dust spotting, reassembling the slide mounts or replacing if the mount was broken. If its a drum scanner you've got to factor in the time to wet mount and cleanup afterwards, drying the film, and the consumables used like fluid, tape, acetate. I would imagine that unless you have some means of doing huge scan batches in bulk, like a large drum of pro graphic arts flatbed, and the level of custom to require huge batches at once, it would be easy to not make any money at all once time is factored in.
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Old 11th March 2017, 04:29 PM
winchman winchman is offline
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Thanks Dave
Its looking like a non starter, but we bought it just for our own use so nothing lost.
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