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We No Longer scan Large Format Film
A "View Camera" is used for exposing Large Format film. This is a large, bellows type camera and the film sizes can go from 4x5, 5x7, 4x10, 5x12, 8x10, 11x14, 7x17, 8x20, 12x20, 20x24, and 30x40. The most popular sizes are 4x5 and 8x10. View cameras are used to achieve a more detailed picture with less grain.
View cameras use sheet film but some cameras can also take an adapter to use roll film. Most View Cameras have a lot of manual settings and are difficult for the amateur to master easily. Sheet film is also more expensive than roll film but, if you want the picture quality of a large format camera, this is something that you have to deal with.
Just for size comparison sake, a 35mm slide has an image area of 1.375" x .875" and is 1.20 square inches. In order to blow this image up to a usable size, it is necessary to scan it at a higher resolution than a larger film requires.
A 5x7" transparency scanned at 300ppi would be more than sufficient for printing at full size in any magazine and would only cost $9.80, including color tweaking and spotting of any dust. The same size 5x7" transparency would cost $22.54 for scanning at 1200ppi. This could yield a high resolution print of 30" x 42" and could be saved as a TIFF (Tag Image File Format) file, with a file size of approximately 125 megs. We could get about five of them on a CD or thirty-seven on a DVD. In most cases, you probably don't need a scan of this high quality unless you are going to print a large picture.
An 8x10" transparency scanned at 300ppi would be more than sufficient for printing at full size in any magazine and would only cost $14.40, including color tweaking and spotting of any dust.
Generally you will need 250 dpi for prints. You can make do with 200. More than 300 is excess file size depending on how large a print you need. The viewing distance matters. The farther back you are the less DPI you will need. Just as an example, roadside billboards are 6 dpi. At 400 yards and in a car going 40 miles an hour, they will look fine.
If your medium format film has been rolled up and has a tight curl to it, it is going to be hard for us to get a good scan for you. Please don't send us film in this condition unless you are willing to accept whatever we can get for you.
If you have 35mm films that need to be scanned, please see our negative film scanning page.
