Photo processing vendor update

Cost

It turns out I'd rather think in terms of cost per roll rather than cost per photo, so here's the reformatted cost schedule (assuming 9.25% sales tax for K&S, Snapfish, and ScanCafe):
EDIT: Added Walgreens, which still does one-hour photo

Vendor (service)	$ / 24 exp	$ / 36 exp
Keeble & Shuchat (develop only)	5.46	5.46
Keeble & Shuchat (prints)	14.33	19.04
Keeble & Shuchat (1.6 MP scan)	15.24	15.24
Keeble & Shuchat (6 MP scan)	20.70	20.70
Keeble & Shuchat (slide develop only)	10.32	10.87
Keeble & Shuchat (+ 1.6 MP scan)	6.50	6.50
Keeble & Shuchat (+ 6 MP scan)	14.15	14.15
York Photo (prints + 1.6 MP scan)	5.50	6.15
York Photo, as advertised on website	4.25	5.45
Snapfish (prints + 1.6 MP scan)	6.97	7.63
Snapfish, using pre-paid credits	6.64	7.30
Walgreens (prints + scan)	13.09	16.37
ScanCafe (9 MP scan)	7.60	11.41
ScanCafe (18 MP scan)	9.96	13.68
Larsen Digital (9 MP scan)	8.88	13.32
Larsen Digital (18 MP scan)	10.08	15.12

ScanCafe and Larsen Digital also charge shipping per order, approx $15. Larsen Digital has a $40 minimum order.

Quality

From the scan quality comparison, York and Snapfish come across as about the same. K&S had better color, but I wonder if that's just the result of post-processing, which I can do in-house. Is it worth the $8-11 premium over York and Snapfish? Probably not.

As for York vs. Snapfish, they're indistinguishable in terms of scan or print quality. Turnaround time is also identical (York was a few days slower mailing the prints, but I really don't care about the prints). I like the Snapfish mailer better, though, and I get the impression that they were more careful about dust and scratches, but that might just be in my head. It's also sketchy that York has two different prices listed. It basically comes down to difference in perceived competence. Is that worth the $2 premium? I think it is.

So far I've only gotten the 1.6 MP scans, which have been seriously disappointing in terms of sharpness and noise. So what makes sense for high-resolution scans? I think ScanCafe beats out Larsen Digital in every category (so far there are only two: pricing and website quality).

What about ScanCafe vs. the K&S 6 MP scans? For negatives, Snapfish + ScanCafe is $2 cheaper than K&S (not including shipping) and probably higher quality. The downside is slower turnaround, but this is mitigated by the bonus prints and 1.6 MP scans.

It's a little different for slides. York and Snapfish don't do E-6, so I'm stuck with $10.87 for slide processing (on top of the already-more-expensive slide film). As for scanning, ScanCafe is still $3 cheaper than K&S, but this time there are no intermediate low-resolution scans.

Conclusions

Keeble & Shuchat, while local, fast, and good, is just too expensive. Snapfish is slightly (35%) more expensive than York Photo, but I think it's justified by the better quality of their website and film mailers. I have yet to compare the high-resolution scanning services, but I expect ScanCafe will be the leader there.