Does someone know if they sell film scanners in Kunming?
Thanks.

I found one Epson scanner on 121 street. The price is 2 times more than in Europe. Anyone knows why Epson is so expensive here?

If you have some time and energy, you can check out these DIY projects.

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www.instructables.com/[...]
www.instructables.com/id/Copy-Your-Old-Slides-The-Easy-Way/
www.instructables.com/id/How-to-digitize-35mm-negatives/

I also want to scan my family's big bag of photos and film, and I usually look for DIY solutions before looking for something to buy off the market. In this case, DIY seems to be much more expensive.

I'm interested though, if you were in Europe, what model would you buy? Also, did you try Taobao?

Thanks for DIY stuff (it looks like a lot of fun though), but i have around 100 films, both 135 and 120 and i would definitely need a scanner.

If i had enough money i would buy Nikon Coolscan, but since i don' have i'm looking at Epson V500. I also tried Taobao and it's expensive. I have to find something sooner or later..

Thanks for DIY stuff (it looks like a lot of fun though), but i have around 100 films, both 135 and 120 and i would definitely need a scanner.

If i had enough money i would buy Nikon Coolscan, but since i don' have i'm looking at Epson V500. I also tried Taobao and it's expensive. I have to find something sooner or later..

I wouldn't expect to find dedicated film scanners in KM—I feel lucky when I can find a lab that does C41 (but not that lucky— they've all botched it since the chemicals aren't fresh).

Taobao is probably the answer, or waiting til you our a pal goes back to Europe/US and can bring one back for you.

The other option is to send your film to one of the many services in the West that will take a giant shoebox of prints/negs/slides and scan them all and post them online/send you a CD. I can't vouch for the quality but I hear that it's decent enough, and it's hard to beat that cost per scan. (I wouldn't mail them your film from here, though.)

Don't go the DIY route with the camera—the best results you get will be inferior to a even a cheap transmissive flatbed scanner.

Well, they do C-41 on Wenhua Xiang, further from The Box, down the hill to 121 str., left side, FujiFilm. I got my 120 scans back today and its OK. Film processing costs 5 yuan, and one scan 3 yuan. It's not much, if you don't have a lot to scan.

What size scans?

Scanning using home scanners or even "professional" can be very time consuming and often yields fair to poor results. I recommend you find a photo lab with a Fuji Frontier mini lab. The film scanners in those machines are fast, generate beautiful scans with files large enough to easily print 12 x 18's. When I lived in Kunming there was at least one lab with equipment on Renmin Xi Lu less than a block west of Xiao Ximen.

joshwa, 1800x1800px (9mb), but you can ask them for bigger.

ahmet, if you are not looking for the best result, than it's ok what you recommend. it's the same if you do bw film processing by yourself (and you know how to do it) or if you take it to the studio.