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E6 processing in the UK, Peak Imaging RIP?

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Hi there,

Just joined the forum tonight as a way of finding this out. My most recent film sent to Peak in Sheffiled, who I've used for years, came back unopened and marked "return to sender". Checking their website it would seem that processing has been temporarily suspended, and I've contacted them to see if this will be a long term thing.

In the meantime, this Provia won't process itself. Ideally I'd like mounted slides, though I do have masses of slide mounts and an electric mounter, and even slide boxes.

Can anyone recommend someone?

On a personal note: I use an R3, mostly with a Summilux-R 50mm f1.4 lens, and nothing but Provia 100F.

Thanks for any help/advice.

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Bikie John

Bikie John

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I asked the local processing lab about this. They no longer do their own E6 processing, they had been sending it to Peak (where they said the service was very good) but had met the same problems. They recently sent a small amount of work to The Darkroom in Cheltenham:

https://www.the-darkroom.co.uk/

and said that the results were fine.

Hope this helps ... John

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earleygallery

earleygallery

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If there's a branch near you, Snappy Snaps do E6 processing (or did last time I used them).

Also these guys who I have heard good things about https://ntphotoworks.com/product-category/film-processing-developing-scanning-2/35mm-processing-services/e6-process-colour-slide-film-35mm/

Edited by earleygallery
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LocalHero1953

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3 hours ago, wattsy said:

That's a shame. Even though I haven't used them for years it is reassuring when there are multiple options available for things like film processing. I'm surprised that they have just disappeared rather than had a more orderly closure – maybe somebody died?

If that was the case you'd expect their website to stay live, or have an announcement - it's just gone blank.

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Ouroboros

Ouroboros

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Palm Labs in Birmingham have also closed down which is disappointing, I used them a lot in the past for E6 mainly because all their E6 processing was done on Fridays so I knew the chemistry was always fresh. 

Analogue Wonderland are quoting a 3-week turnaround for E6 processing. £12.50 for a 35mm roll with no scanning, but you'd need to mount them yourself.  

Seems a good case for home processing!

Edited by Ouroboros
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Jon Warwick

Jon Warwick

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It’d be a great shame if Peak is no longer around. Personally I had always found their turnaround time, communication, packaging, and quality of processing to be absolutely superb over the years from 35mm up to 4x5.

It’s starting to become pretty tricky for me to justify 4x5 colour film these days as the cost of film and availability of processing disappears. Each sheet of 4x5 film is c £ 7, and somewhere like Metro is almost £ 10 for processing. So roughly £ 17 a “click” now 😳

Edited by Jon Warwick
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LocalHero1953

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Found a post on FB by the Sheffield Photographic Centre that says Peak Imaging have chronic chemical supply problems and staff shortages and won't take orders for a few weeks. Given the close down of the whole website, I suspect the latter is more likely, and at a senior level.

Edited by LocalHero1953
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Anbaric

Anbaric

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On 9/13/2022 at 9:42 PM, wattsy said:

There’s also Metro Imaging in Clerkenwell. I’ve no idea what the turnaround time is nowadays but I remember when it was same day or two hours if you paid the rush rate. https://metroimaging.co.uk

They have an excellent reputation, but at £12 processing + £12 mounting + VAT + about £20 for a roll of E100, it's now getting close to £50 for a single box of slides...

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250swb

250swb

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11 hours ago, LocalHero1953 said:

Found a post on FB by the Sheffield Photographic Centre that says Peak Imaging have chronic chemical supply problems and staff shortages and won't take orders for a few weeks. Given the close down of the whole website, I suspect the latter is more likely, and at a senior level.

I think this is closure, and for a lab with so much exposure I would maybe assume the problem is in bulk buying to keep their running costs down and prices competitive. Peak Imaging have always had a competitive price structure and a quality turnaround for C41 or E6, but they probably have a fixed ratio of running costs, something a smaller lab can dodge around.

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Jon Warwick

Jon Warwick

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19 hours ago, Anbaric said:

…… at £12 processing + £12 mounting + VAT + about £20 for a roll of E100, it's now getting close to £50 for a single box of slides...

And of course if one wants to get to a single print, a drum scan (which I regard as important for quality scanning of E6) can often double that cost just to output 1 image!

I think film price & processing has got to a level where I might throw in the towel, for 5x4 especially.  Getting individual sheets of exposed 5x4 film out of a taped-up box infers the person doing the processing needs to really know what they’re doing, and in any case it seems places doing large format film processing are few and far between (Peak Imaging always did it superbly for me, and to 250swb’s comment I was also attracted to Peak’s very competitive price structure).

I have more confidence in UK options I still see out there for 35mm and 120 processing being widely available, especially C41 and B&W.

 

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wattsy

wattsy

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22 hours ago, Anbaric said:

They have an excellent reputation, but at £12 processing + £12 mounting + VAT + about £20 for a roll of E100, it's now getting close to £50 for a single box of slides...

Certainly a different cost proposition nowadays (I remember buying processing paid Kodachrome for around £6 per roll in the early 2000s) but probably still worth it if transparencies are your thing. I guess 35mm slides are now a similar cost per shot to instant film.

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deleted name

deleted name

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I'm new to this forum and didn't realise so many people had taken the time to reply to my query - seems like you only get an alert here for "likes"?

Thanks for all the suggestions. I went with ag photolab who were well-priced, and sent a prepaid mailer for the next film - effectively reducing the cost by almsot £5. The slides weren't mounted though, ended up doing that myself digging out the motorised cutter/mounter I used to use as part of my work in a high street camera shop/film processor, and some of the thousands of slide mounts that were left over from those days.

I'd forgotten how much I hate slide mounting, but my initial option to keep things sleeved disappeared when i remembered how dirty everything gets.

Thanks again!

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