Digital BW, The Print

I have had a lot of scans done for me by service bureaus. I very much 
like the people at NancyScans and they did good work for me.  
Sometimes I thought they increased the contrast too much at the 
scanning stage, but that was probably my own fault for not giving 
them explicit enough instructions.  NancyScans does all the spotting 
for you, and I don't think I ever saw a dust mark, after about 30 
scans at 200 MB each (from 6cm x 9cm originals).  I had my last few 
scans done at West Coast Imaging.  I liked these scans better than 
those from NancyScans, probably because Rich Seiling has a more fine 
art oriented workflow concept -- he simply tries to retain all the 
information from the original and allow you the most flexibility 
to "develop" it how you want later on in Photoshop.  WCI also spotted 
my scans for me, and did a very good job, although now and then, 
there were one or two dust specks left in the scan.  I think that if 
I had communicated effectively enough with NancyScans, then I'd get 
as good of a scan from them as I got from WCI.  In short, both of 
these service bureaus, in my experience, offer great service, great 
scans, and are very responsive to their customers.  NancyScans gave 
me the best customer service I've ever gotten from any service bureau.

I haven't done any scans for the last year or so because I've been 
saving up for my own scanner.  I ordered an Imacon Photo Flextight 
this week.  As others have stated, I'd rather be doing my own scans 
working in 16 bits per channel, on a slightly inferior machine 
(Imacons still can't match Tangos, although they're probably very 
clsoe).  But I'd be very comfortable working again with NancyScans 
and/or WCI.  NancyScans will save out 16 bits, but at an increased 
cost.  Unless you're very concerned about the detail in your shadow, 
I personally wouldn't spend the extra money for the 16 bits -- it 
almost doubles the cost of a drum scan.

(I work only from color positives and then custom mix the channels 
myself to get a black and white rendition, so my experiences may not 
be directly applicable to those working with black and white negative 
originals.)

> Mark Tucker wrote:
> 
> > --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., SKID Photography
> > <skid@b...> wrote:
> > > Try it yourself.  Go to Nancy Scans or some other good, high
> > end service bureau, you might be amazed.
> >
> > I have tried letting outside labs do scans for me, but even though
> > they mean well, and they're fine citizens and all that, it's just 
not
> > their image. Nor do they have any sixth-sense feeling about what
> > the scan should feel like. So, for me, I don't think I could EVER 
let
> > someone else do a scan for me.
>