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Help Page
If you are have a problem, before contacting us please read through the following as it may help.
If you wish to arrange a return please see our returns page
Quality of image
- Please remember that your films/slides are most probably a few decades old so may have faded, collected dust or obtained scratch marks within this time. Our scanners and staff will offer the best possible picture available from the material provided however they will not always be able to provide a miracle modern day equivalent digital image as if it was taken yesterday. Some images will still have scratch/debit marks which were not possible to remove with a standard digital scan, some will have colour faded due to UV exposure, so will have colour “blotches” due to fading or mould. If you experience any of these then we recommend using a digital image restore service, we do offer minor image restores however if the task is larger then we recommend a local company who can restore any digital image expertly, average price is £25 per image, simply drop us an email with your requirements and we will let you know if its something we can do or if it will be needed to be pasted on to a digital image restore professional.
- The blue (or other colour) blotches are fading of the film, this is usually caused by UV or mould, again nothing to do with the scanning process its all down to the original material.
- Our service is to scan the images to digital in the best way possible however if the image needs restoring then it is not something we generally carry out, as this can be hours if not days of work on each image correcting every small detail, we don’t offer this type of high level restore however we do recommend a company that do, you will be looking for a digital image restorer, we recommend a local guy where the average price is around £25 per image, please email us for his contact details.
Inverted Slides or Negatives
- If your slides do not have a “view from this side” indicator then we will do the best we can to scan the slide the correct way but we can not guarantee this will be correct, if you need to ‘flip’ the images then we have provided a link above to XNView a free software package that can do this. This also applies to negatives where they have been scanned back to front.
Missing images
- Sometimes our scanners may reject certain images for many reasons such as, image too dark, out of focus, scanner data glitch or debit on the film causing it to jam in the scanner. If you do notice that some images are missing from your order simply drop us a quick email to let us know and then if approved we will ask you to return the missing films for us to reattempt the scan, there is no guarantee that the scanner will pick it up second time through but we are always willing to reattempt.
Cropping
- Our scanners will automatically crops every image, sometimes they may crop an image incorrectly, this is mainly due to poor image light levels of the original photo, 35mm or APS film bar code being dirty and unreadable or incorrect slide size. We do check all images but do not compare cropping with the original negative.
Un-mounted or damaged slides
- We offer an additional service for slides which are no longer in their mounts or damaged, this is an extra charge on top of the scanning cost on each image. This charge covers us mounting your slides in a temporary slide mount and removing them after scanning – If your slides are mounted in very poor condition mounts then this charge may also apply if we can not scan your slide in its existing mount. -See prices page for cost.
Oversized and undersized 35mm slides
- We are sometimes sent oversized slides mixed in with standard 35mm slide batches which can cause cropping issues.
- A standard 35mm slide in a 2″ x 2″ mount with the frame size (film area) is usually about 34mm x 23mm, although it does vary very slightly by manufacturer and slide age. Our standard scanners are designed for 35MM slides but any slide in a 2″ square mount can be scanned. Scans from formats larger than 35MM, like 126, 127 or “Super Slides” will be cropped. Unfortunately, a significant portion cannot be scanned due to the aperture of the scanner. We can however scan these slides using our high-end scanner which is priced differently – see 126/127 sized slides on our price list. Please make sure when ordering you order the correct sized slides and separate your slides when shipping to us.
- We can not be held responsible for incorrect cropping of slides which are sent in mixed bundles or ordered under different services, i.e., 126 slides ordered as 35mm slides. We will of course if spotted scan these slides differently and charge appropriately but when bulk scanning spotting every incorrect slide is not possible.
- The free Picasa software at the above link will provide you with a cropping tool so that you can judge where to crop the image. If you would like us to re-crop your image to our best judgement please use our Photo Restore Service
Dirty films
- We do not touch any film or negative images, we use air blowers to remove surface dust but if the slides are dirty or sticky we can not remove this and it may be visible on the scans. We use top of the range scanners and digital ice software to reduce the amount of dust/scratch marks on the digital image but we can not 100% guarantee that all marks will be removed, basically the better quality your originals the better results you will get, do remember that film is static and attracts dust. Monochrome images tend to be slightly worse for this effect due to the digital ice software no being able to distinguish as well as with colour images. Most of colour images come our without any noticeable marks, monochrome usually come of good too. We can attempt to remove this using our Photo Restore Service.
Glass Mounted or plastic sleeves slides
- If you want the best quality scanned image it is best that we scan slides without their glass or plastic sleeve protection, our scanners do scan very well with these type of mounted slides but usually best with it removed as there will be much less dust and focusing will be much sharper. If you wish to have your slides scanned without glass/sleeves then you need to remove the glass before sending them to us, we can not remove and remount the glass as part of our service. Any glass slides that are cracked will also need the glass removed prior to sending as this will be picked up on scanning. Glass mounted slides which are not standard size, i.e. home made glass mounts and are too large for our scanners have to be scanned using our medium format scanner at medium format prices, as long as your slides is a manufactured mount then this should not pose a problem.
Image Rotation
- With APS films and 35mm negatives we do not rotate the images, i.e. if a photo was taken with the camera sideways then the image will be on the disc sideways, this can again be rotated using any simple photo software if required.
Image order
- Due to the way we scan slides and negatives we cannot guarantee any pre-set orders of images, we will try stick to an obvious order where possible however there are many influences that can change this, for example with slide scanning we use multiple scanners on larger orders, this keeps the prices down and speeds up completion. Different types/sizes of slides may need to go through different scanners, some images may need to be scanned again due to dirt levels or scanning incorrectly. Some slides may need to have their mounts repaired or replaced due to being too weak to go through our scanners. We advise that the best way to put images in a particular order is to rename/re-order the images in digital format when you receive them back from us, It’s a lot easier when you can see the full image on your PC screen. – If you specifically require your slides to be in an exact order please email or call us to discuss your requirements as this will need to be carried on by hand on an individual slide basis and will be charged at an hourly rate for completion, this will not be part of our bulk scanning and prices will be extremely higher due to time for completion.
Returned order of originals
- As noted above we use bulk process scanners so can not guarantee that we can keep your films is any particular order for their return, we will of course do the best we can to keep to any particular requests however with the way our scanners operate it may not always be possible.
Slide Mount Repairs
- We advise all customers sending us slides to go through their slides prior to sending to us to check that your mounts are in good condition. With card mounts which have come unstuck a simple staple may be sufficient. If however we can not scan your slide in its original mount due to it falling apart then we will repair or remount your slide at additional cost. – We will let you know of this prior to the repair.
Negative Film strips
- Please note we do not scan part film strips, each strip must be scanned in full. A minimum of two 35mm images per strip. Medium format and photos can be single images. Please also make sure that there is nothing stuck to your negatives such as label strips as there may be an additional charge to remove these.
- We can not scan unprocessed film strips of any kind.
Compatibility of Mr Scan Media.
- All our discs are checked for errors before posting. Our discs are written in JPG or TIFF format which is compatible on most modern PCs and Macs with CD/DVD drives that can read DVD-+R discs. For larger orders we also use DVD+R-DL (Dual layer) – If your PC can not read Dual layer discs please let us know prior to completion of your order.
- If your PC/Mac can not read our discs please check in another PC if possible .
- Also it is recommended to update any firmware for your CD/DVD drive as we use the latest high quality media which sometimes may not be recognised by slightly older drive units, firmware can be obtained via your drive manufactures website, we are not responsible for any issues regarding firmware upgrades, or last resort return to Mr Scan to be tested.
- We are not responsible for the set up of your computer and can offer no technical support.
- For our TV-resolution DVD sets, video conversions and slideshows we use high-quality DVD+R/-r or CD-r media to maximize compatibility with a domestic DVD players the disc will work in most domestic DVD players that are compatible with JPG files. Most modern DVD players will have no problem with this DVD set but we can not guarantee it will be compatible with all players on the market. If your player does not play DVD+R/-r and only plays DVD-R for example then please let us know this on your order form.
Media will not read
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- If you have a problem reading one of our USB Sticks/SD cards or hard drives then please rif possible try it in another machine then if still faulty request a return using our returns page.
- Our discs are standard DVD-/+R or CD-R branded discs which are compatible with a standard PC with DVD-ROM drive. If your drive does not read the disc please if possible try it in another PC. If it still does not work then please report the issue back to us via email and we will let you know how to return your disc to us.
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Our Services
