I would ask "the editor" to name a couple of photographers that he is
not pissed off with, and ask them where they get their films processed ?
Not really a darkroom thing but I don't see a better newsgroup. Can anyone recommend a good C-41 lab that will do a develop and scan and return film within a day or two, which actually does test strips and will let me see
one, and which doesn't have a dust problem?
Our local lab has a real dust issue and I don't like spotting. Dwayne's Photo does good work but has been taking longer and longer as time has gone by, and at this point I just missed a magazine deadline because they can't get film back to me after a month. I won't get paid for photos, won't
get reimbursed for travel, and my editor is pissed off at me.
All I want is simple and develop and scan on commodity C-41 materials, and
I am not particularly worried about the cost. I just need it to be good
and reasonably fast.
Any recommendations? All the big commercial labs of my youth are gone. --scott
Not really a darkroom thing but I don't see a better newsgroup. Can anyone recommend a good C-41 lab that will do a develop and scan and return film within a day or two, which actually does test strips and will let me seeI have my films developed within a week, and I print them myself, with
one, and which doesn't have a dust problem?
Our local lab has a real dust issue and I don't like spotting. Dwayne's Photo does good work but has been taking longer and longer as time has gone by, and at this point I just missed a magazine deadline because they can't get film back to me after a month. I won't get paid for photos, won't
get reimbursed for travel, and my editor is pissed off at me.
All I want is simple and develop and scan on commodity C-41 materials, and
I am not particularly worried about the cost. I just need it to be good
and reasonably fast.
Any recommendations? All the big commercial labs of my youth are gone. --scott
I have my films developed within a week, and I print them myself, with
Any recommendations? All the big commercial labs of my youth are gone.
--scott
the traditional, Ra 4 process, but it will be of little use to you, as I
am in Crete, south Greece.I am an amatheur, and I'm the last one on the alpine club that still shoots film. There is a last remaining lab for
whole of Crete, here in Iraklion, and one for slides, in Athens. Maybe
you should think of developing your films yourself? You'll have them processed on the night of the shooting, and C-41 is not that much more difficult than B&W. Not to mention that you'll be sure of using fresh chemicals. The only thing you'll need is a good thermometer. C-41 is
colour developer, stop, bleach-fix wash and stabiliser.
I have my films developed within a week, and I print them myself, with
Any recommendations? All the big commercial labs of my youth are gone. >>> --scott
the traditional, Ra 4 process, but it will be of little use to you, as
I am in Crete, south Greece.I am an amatheur, and I'm the last one on
the alpine club that still shoots film. There is a last remaining lab
for whole of Crete, here in Iraklion, and one for slides, in Athens.
Maybe you should think of developing your films yourself? You'll have
them processed on the night of the shooting, and C-41 is not that much
more difficult than B&W. Not to mention that you'll be sure of using
fresh chemicals. The only thing you'll need is a good thermometer.
C-41 is colour developer, stop, bleach-fix wash and stabiliser.
And in terms of space requirements and equipment costs, colour neg
processing is a lot less aggravation than RA4 printing.
Στις 12/11/2024 10:51 μ.μ., ο/η Abandoned Trolley έγραψε:
yes, but it's easier, if ypu orint your films yourself to get the best possible results, according to your own taste. And it's easier to scan afterwards with a simple flatbed scanner. I have a Rollei film scanner
I have my films developed within a week, and I print them myself,
Any recommendations? All the big commercial labs of my youth are gone. >>>> --scott
with the traditional, Ra 4 process, but it will be of little use to
you, as I am in Crete, south Greece.I am an amatheur, and I'm the
last one on the alpine club that still shoots film. There is a last
remaining lab for whole of Crete, here in Iraklion, and one for
slides, in Athens. Maybe you should think of developing your films
yourself? You'll have them processed on the night of the shooting,
and C-41 is not that much more difficult than B&W. Not to mention
that you'll be sure of using fresh chemicals. The only thing you'll
need is a good thermometer. C-41 is colour developer, stop, bleach-
fix wash and stabiliser.
And in terms of space requirements and equipment costs, colour neg
processing is a lot less aggravation than RA4 printing.
(DF-S 290 HD-it can also scan slides and B&W) but the resullts are like
a shot in the dark-sometimes they're good, sometimes they're mediocre
and sometimes they're bad. The difficult thing about RA4 printing is to
get the colour enlarger, and the print drum. I got them from secondhanddarkroom, in Britain. I get the chemicals from Germany, macodirect-and the paper from Britain, again.morco.
On 16/11/2024 11:57, Dimitris Tzortzakakis wrote:
Στις 12/11/2024 10:51 μ.μ., ο/η Abandoned Trolley έγραψε:
yes, but it's easier, if ypu orint your films yourself to get the best
I have my films developed within a week, and I print them myself,
Any recommendations? All the big commercial labs of my youth are
gone.
--scott
with the traditional, Ra 4 process, but it will be of little use to
you, as I am in Crete, south Greece.I am an amatheur, and I'm the
last one on the alpine club that still shoots film. There is a last
remaining lab for whole of Crete, here in Iraklion, and one for
slides, in Athens. Maybe you should think of developing your films
yourself? You'll have them processed on the night of the shooting,
and C-41 is not that much more difficult than B&W. Not to mention
that you'll be sure of using fresh chemicals. The only thing you'll
need is a good thermometer. C-41 is colour developer, stop, bleach-
fix wash and stabiliser.
And in terms of space requirements and equipment costs, colour neg
processing is a lot less aggravation than RA4 printing.
possible results, according to your own taste. And it's easier to scan
afterwards with a simple flatbed scanner. I have a Rollei film scanner
(DF-S 290 HD-it can also scan slides and B&W) but the resullts are
like a shot in the dark-sometimes they're good, sometimes they're
mediocre and sometimes they're bad. The difficult thing about RA4
printing is to get the colour enlarger, and the print drum. I got them
from secondhanddarkroom, in Britain. I get the chemicals from Germany,
macodirect-and the paper from Britain, again.morco.
That might not be the point. If the end product is going to be scanned
so that it can be printed in a magazine then all thats needed is the negative.
Long ago and far away, pro photographers started using slide film
because that was what the scanners were set up for - I suspect that it
may not have been a matter of choice.
I understand all the arguments about superior colour rendering / grain perfomance / contrast etc etc but at the end of the day, if you want toOf course, but I'm *not* a photographer, I am an electrical engineer in
get paid for your work then you need to deliver the product that the
client has asked for.
It also explains the popularity of the 6x7 format with magazine
photographers - more meat / pixels on the film + better aspect ratio =
happy printer
I would also suggest that the overwhelming majority of digital pictures
taken on "proper" cameras are never going to be printed anyway.
Finally... if you are going to get serious about RA4 printing, then a
major step on the road might be to get a roller transport processor.
That will stabilise all the temperatures and give consistent and
repeatable process times - print drums are a bit of a faff and limited
in size.
Then you might as well shoot digital, that's what I would do had I been
That might not be the point. If the end product is going to be scanned
so that it can be printed in a magazine then all thats needed is the
negative.
a pro. There are problems converting a negative into digital format,
because of its orange mask, and because it was designed to be printed
with RA4 onto paper, obviously long before digital existed.
Long ago and far away, pro photographers started using slide film
because that was what the scanners were set up for - I suspect that it
may not have been a matter of choice.
Remember that back in the days before colour printing of newspapers,
they were printed with tar on rubbish paper, so news photographers shot
miles of Kodak Tri-X rated at 1600ASA (or more) because there was no
point doing anything better.
That might not be the point. If the end product is going to be scanned
so that it can be printed in a magazine then all thats needed is the >negative.
I understand all the arguments about superior colour rendering / grain >perfomance / contrast etc etc but at the end of the day, if you want to
get paid for your work then you need to deliver the product that the
client has asked for.
It also explains the popularity of the 6x7 format with magazine
photographers - more meat / pixels on the film + better aspect ratio =
happy printer
Finally... if you are going to get serious about RA4 printing, then a
major step on the road might be to get a roller transport processor.
That will stabilise all the temperatures and give consistent and
repeatable process times - print drums are a bit of a faff and limited
in size.
Abandoned Trolley <[email protected]> wrote:I don't know-is it easy to find out "the source" that means the lab who
That might not be the point. If the end product is going to be scanned
so that it can be printed in a magazine then all thats needed is the
negative.
Right. But good quality scanning is harder than C-41 processing. I wound
up processing the last batch myself and sending negatives to the local
lab.
I understand all the arguments about superior colour rendering / grain
perfomance / contrast etc etc but at the end of the day, if you want to
get paid for your work then you need to deliver the product that the
client has asked for.
Or at least deliver -something-. I have a lot of jobs where I would
rather deliver a substandard product than nothing at all. Other projects aren the opposite.
It also explains the popularity of the 6x7 format with magazine
photographers - more meat / pixels on the film + better aspect ratio =
happy printer
Unfortunately standards have fallen enough that a lot of editors don't
really care about the slight improvement going to medium format except
for cover shots. I get looked at like an alien when I suggest 4x5 for covers.
Finally... if you are going to get serious about RA4 printing, then a
major step on the road might be to get a roller transport processor.
That will stabilise all the temperatures and give consistent and
repeatable process times - print drums are a bit of a faff and limited
in size.
I absolutely do not want to get serious about RA4 printing. Color printing is a major pain in the neck and although I totally miss Cibachrome I do
not miss processing Cibachromes one bit. The nice thing about digital technology is that I can deliver digital scans from negatives but ALSO
use the digital scans as a high grade proof sheet. I very seldom get
prints made, but when I do I am all prepared.
--scott
I don't know-is it easy to find out "the source" that means the lab who
has the actual machine that does the processing and all the rest
outsource the processing to him? Here, in Crete, south Greece, there is
just one, and I found out by pure luck (serendipity?) and, today, I had
my film processed in less than half an hour after I shot the last shot
of the film! When I handed it to the photographer I got my equipment
from, it could take even 10 days!!! and it cost 5 euros. I'm an amateur, >though (my day job is an electrician). RA4 printing is not very
difficult, you need plenty of hot water, and consistency of course.
Everyone else in Crete, be it in Chania, Rethimnon or Agios Nikolaos,
sends their films to this very lab.
Dimitris Tzortzakakis <[email protected]> wrote:
I don't know-is it easy to find out "the source" that means the lab who
has the actual machine that does the processing and all the rest
outsource the processing to him? Here, in Crete, south Greece, there is
just one, and I found out by pure luck (serendipity?) and, today, I had
my film processed in less than half an hour after I shot the last shot
of the film! When I handed it to the photographer I got my equipment
from, it could take even 10 days!!! and it cost 5 euros. I'm an amateur,
though (my day job is an electrician). RA4 printing is not very
difficult, you need plenty of hot water, and consistency of course.
Everyone else in Crete, be it in Chania, Rethimnon or Agios Nikolaos,
sends their films to this very lab.
Around here we have a number of labs. There are two labs in the local
city, Richmond, and everybody else either sends to them or sends out of
town. Both will do custom work while you wait if you ask nicely, but
neither one will let you into the darkroom while they print so you can
point out what you want.
But, both of them have more dust issues than I am willing to deal with,
and both of them take two to three weeks for a simple soup and scan.
So I'd like to send simple work like soup and scans out to a bigger lab somewhere -else. But I want a lab that is faster rather than a lab that
is slower. Used to be I could get one hour service on develop and scan
jobs.
--scott
yep that was my problem too before I discovered the lab that has the
actual machine that does the C41 developing-it's in my town and not a 20
min walk from my home.
Dimitris Tzortzakakis <[email protected]> wrote:
yep that was my problem too before I discovered the lab that has the
actual machine that does the C41 developing-it's in my town and not a 20
min walk from my home.
It's not like that here. ALL of the labs I mentioned are doing their own
C41 processing in-house. Surplus minilab gear was available for the cost
to haul it away for a decade.
The problem is they are not doing their own C41 processing quickly or well. --scott
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