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Good UK Developing and scanning Labs


Stealth3kpl

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This is from a roll i sent to them in UK (i shot this for Henry) i have not done anything to it

 

 

 

Yes but  :)  the dynamic range of your shot must be all of four or five stops, the mountain range is probably pushing towards ten with the sky and forest shadow, it seems the mountain shot has severely clipped the highlights to get some shadow detail in the trees, that is operator not equipment, they use a Frontier which RPL use, the home Plustek scan is better on dynamic range but the colours, to me, are 'off" I doubt if the Plustek has been calibrated, mine hasn't, although I have targets for my flatbed.

I want to be shooting though not scanning, which is the point of using a lab with scanning equipment of the highest quality (and cost) and skilled operators rather than learning that art myself on my consumer level equipment.

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Exactly my thoughts. I may as well save on developing costs and shoot digital if I'm to spend my evenings in front of a computer

I love the look of well processed and developed film so I may shoot film in the future and risk postage to FIND or Richard or Canada Film Lab or Carmencita. My present stock of c41 will go through my Pakon.

Pete

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Exactly my thoughts. I may as well save on developing costs and shoot digital if I'm to spend my evenings in front of a computer

I love the look of well processed and developed film so I may shoot film in the future and risk postage to FIND or Richard or Canada Film Lab or Carmencita. My present stock of c41 will go through my Pakon.

Pete

You will still have to sit in front of a computer shooting digital and probably for longer I watch TV or make a cup of tea while it's scanning

 

Sent from my SM-G903F using Tapatalk

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Page 4:

 

http://motion.kodak.com/KodakGCG/uploadedfiles/motion/TI2647.pdf

 

Vision3 is shown at +8 stops and a shoulder is just appearing, ( -5/6 for toe)  say 15 stops dynamic range, still ahead of digital pushing into the top roll off, Portra 400 shares technology from that film but has more contrast lowering the dynamic range a little, so the C41 should still be your mountain choice as the latest, and greatest, digital sensor is still not at that level and until technology is developed has a hard top end stop of saturation.

A skilled scanner operator can bring 15 stops down to a usable digital range, the movies do it all the time!!

 

I might try to limit further c41 use to over cast days. Bright sunlight in the mountains isn't ideal especially when it comes to faces.
Pete

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I has 15 rolls of black and white negatives developed and scanned by Ag Photo Lab.  I paid for the largest/best possible scan ~12 GBP per roll beyond the dev fees.

 

Mush!

 

And expensive mush at that.  You'd get better scans from a flatbed.

To compound matters they save in 8 bits instead of 16 bits. So the 80 meg file you pay for is 6 meg.

 

 

If you're like me and looking for a decent dev and scan lab for back and white -- keep looking.   This has been an expensive lesson and now I'll have to scan them again myself. 

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I have a roll of Portra 160 from my Rolleicord to be developed. Just need a 'dev only' as I will scan the negs with my Epson V700 so sending to Mein Film Lab or Canada Film Lab is not cost-effective.  Current thinking is to try Aperture in London (£7.00 dev, £3.00 return postage).  Has anyone used them?

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I have a roll of Portra 160 from my Rolleicord to be developed. Just need a 'dev only' as I will scan the negs with my Epson V700 so sending to Mein Film Lab or Canada Film Lab is not cost-effective.  Current thinking is to try Aperture in London (£7.00 dev, £3.00 return postage).  Has anyone used them?

 

No but I will chip in to look at Ilford Lab, they will process C41 and I know because I have seen it they are dip and dunk so the scratch potential is lowered, not used them for this but is an alternative not mentioned before. 

£6-75 inc p&p

Edited by chris_livsey
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  • 2 weeks later...

Just FYI recently I changed my main processor to:

http://www.photo-express.co.uk/

 

and have found them excellent ...

 

I still use apertureuk when I am around oxford street in London

No E6 offered, I know not been the topic but with Ferrania edging closer to real film it is becoming a race to see if they can make it before all the lines close, like Kodachrome was we could be down to one lab. Note I am as guilty as anyone, not having shot any for a few years. I can't see E6 film production surviving on home kits.

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No E6 offered, I know not been the topic but with Ferrania edging closer to real film it is becoming a race to see if they can make it before all the lines close, like Kodachrome was we could be down to one lab. Note I am as guilty as anyone, not having shot any for a few years. I can't see E6 film production surviving on home kits.

 

 

I'm not very optimistic about the long term future of E6 but I don't think we are close to a "last line" scenario yet, are we? Photo-express in Hull don't offer E6 but I wouldn't expect them to – they are a high street consumer minilab of the type that was commonplace until digital gained the ascendency. Few of these minilab places ever did E6 in-house, usually sending it out or not offering it at all. As far as I know, there are still plenty of labs left doing E6, including pro-labs like Metro plus popular outfits like Peak, AG, etc. 

Edited by wattsy
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 As far as I know, there are still plenty of labs left doing E6, including pro-labs like Metro plus popular outfits like Peak, AG, etc. 

 

There are indeed in the UK but threads elsewhere point to the very rapid closure of E6 lines in many countries, fingers of one hand in new Zealand for example, even NYC few and far between, it would seem the UK is a bit of an exception rather than average.

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Seen the scans, thanks for posting were they: clean, blemish-free negs!  

Not particularly. Lots of cloning & healing needed in LR on some frames.  Far more than needed on a roll of Tri-X that I dev'd and scanned this afternoon.  

 

As regards the 35mm Portra 400 sent to MeinFilmLab, the received .jpg's were faultless and I am highly delighted with the result.  Pricey though. Including return of the negs, it came out at just over £21 for the one roll of 36exp.

 

Palm Lab contacted me this afternoon to request payment (£8 inc postage) for the roll of 120 Velvia 100 (E6).  The film should be back with me tomorrow or Monday.

Edited by Keith (M)
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Palm Lab contacted me this afternoon to request payment (£8 inc postage) for the roll of 120 Velvia 100 (E6).  The film should be back with me tomorrow or Monday.

Film received late this morning.  Looks to be very clean (and flat).  Two examples can be seen here.  Will try them for the next roll of C41 and hope for similar results cleanliness-wise.

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There are indeed in the UK but threads elsewhere point to the very rapid closure of E6 lines in many countries, fingers of one hand in new Zealand for example, even NYC few and far between, it would seem the UK is a bit of an exception rather than average.

Correct:

Thailand = 0

Malaysia = 0

Singapore = 1 (via Facebook - no walk-in shop).

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It may be linked to chemical availability rather than demand, or a combination of course, I understand Ferrania are compiling  a list of E6 labs for the E6 film they are progressing towards producing.

Strangely, perhaps, movie E6 still has a number of processors in operation and Ferrania have movie stock on their proposed format list.

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It may be linked to chemical availability rather than demand, or a combination of course, I understand Ferrania are compiling  a list of E6 labs for the E6 film they are progressing towards producing.

Strangely, perhaps, movie E6 still has a number of processors in operation and Ferrania have movie stock on their proposed format list.

Over this side of the conjoined ponds, it was apparently lack of demand that caused the demise. Shops ended the service as the turnover tapered off.

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