[LargeFormat] A better way

[Brock Nanson]

I deal with London Drugs here.  They know in approximate terms what it is
that I give them and they don't do anything stupid with it.  They send it
out to Colorfast in Edmonton and the results have been fine.  I see the
little crimp marks also, but they typically don't enter the image area.  No
problems at all, but it's been a while since I shot any E6 material.

I've also used Lens and Shutter in Vancouver (actually their processing
branch, forget the name for the moment) and again had no trouble.  There are
several more labs I'd be happy to trade with in Vancouver - I have a few
friends shooting professionally down there - stupidity like you experienced
would put them out of business.

There's a good one in Brisbane near Southbank, but I don't think you want to
pay the courier to use them!!  They do offer same-day service however, so
the turnaround may be better than you've seen!

Must be all those rednecks in Calgary that give you the grief ;-)

Brock

----- Original Message -----
From: "Hornford, Dave" <Dave.Hornford@hp.com>
To: <largeformat@f32.net>
Sent: Wednesday, August 07, 2002 7:25 PM
Subject: RE: [LargeFormat] A better way


Brock,
Quality degradation is driving me to develop my own E6.
My favourite pro lab now crimps my 4x5s at each corner - something their
machine does. I can live with it as I follow the advice of some wise
soul on this list and don't expect to use the whole 4x5. Also, their
staff seem to be going downhill. I've had to stop their people from
opening the boxes I give them so they can put my unexposed film in the
little envelopes. And last month they thoughtfully turned on the
lightbox so I could look at the undeveloped slides I was picking up.
My second favourite pro lab is consistently shaky on meeting their
development schedule & has misplaced my order on more than one occasion.

As an experiment I tried Agfa's E6 kit, it was easy & quick & the
chemicals are cheap. The mistakes are mine.

Dave Hornford
"There is no sense in being pessimistic.  It would not work anyway."
   --- Anon




-----Original Message-----
From: Brock Nanson [mailto:brock@nanson.org]
Sent: August 7, 2002 11:03 AM
To: largeformat@f32.net
Subject: Re: [LargeFormat] A better way



Dave,

I see you are getting plenty of replies on the question of what
equipment
is best for home development.  I would question why you aren't happy
with
the commercial labs!  I have had good luck this way and truly believe
they
will give more consistent results than the average home lab, unless you
are very fussy and careful with your technique (or buy really expensive
commercial grade equipment).  Black and white is a different story
because
I like the ability to adjust development times etc. based on how the
first
sheets come out, but with E6 I consider my time more valuable than the
cost of a commercial lab.  I would rather spend that time printing... or

sleeping for that matter!

I don't intend to insult those on the list that do enjoy processing E6 -

it's just not for me.

What problems have you had with the pro labs?

Brock