Laboratories and service providers / Medium format prints

Rocketman · 2009-05-21T17:08:30+00:00

Hallo Leute! Vielleicht passt dieses Thema hier nicht ganz, oder es wurde schon oft genug besprochen. Leider habe ich über die Suchfunktion noch kein passe...

Rocketman

Hi everyone! This topic might not quite fit here, or perhaps it’s been discussed often enough already. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find a suitable thread using the search function. As I’d like to start shooting in colour again soon, both with my Mamiya 645 and with various little gems such as the Agfa Click, I’m on the lookout for labs that produce C-41 developments and medium-format prints that are both affordable and of good quality. What experiences have you had? Are there any insider tips, or does it usually all end up going to CEWE? Doing it myself isn’t an option for me (yet). The initial costs and the effort involved are too high for me. Best regards, Sebastian

joram

As far as I know, pretty much everyone sends colour photos to CEWE, though I’m not sure how Impex handles it. But Foto Meyer and Wüstefeld in Berlin only develop black-and-white photos themselves, and even then not always. I take my 35mm and medium format film to dm; they do a pretty good job, because they send it to CEWE too and don’t charge 6 euros for development like Fotogeschichte do, but only 1.50 or so.

philippleser

I haven’t had a good experience with DM / CeWe. The best thing about them is actually the price. As a bonus, you occasionally get scratched negatives, often with stains; rolls of film that don’t fit in the sleeves and end up tumbling out of the bag loose; The prints often have a colour cast, are sometimes ‘pixelated’ (as they’re printed from a scan) and are usually sub-par. I’ve also had thick fluff on prints from roll film (on every picture). Of course, not all of these issues occur at the same time! In most cases, the negatives are fine, but I wouldn’t take important films there. The prints are actually consistently poor. For a quick test to see if a second-hand camera still works or similar, it’s certainly good enough. 35mm seems to work a bit better, probably because CeWe is more geared towards that. My solution to the problem: I develop black-and-white film myself. You can also develop C41 and E6 yourself (though I don’t; I use colour film too rarely for that) or you can take the film to a good lab and pay a few euros more (though prints are very expensive). If there isn’t a decent lab nearby, you can use Fotostudio 13 or Farbglanz (which is a bit cheaper), for example. Regards, Philipp

joram

I haven’t had any problems with DM so far; the negatives were always kept in a small bag inside the larger one. But it’s probably true that Cewe isn’t set up to perform MF film processing.

cfb_de

Hi Sebastian, I take my colour medium-format stuff to the camera shop just round the corner. They’ve got a large Fuji Frontier in their main shop and can handle up to 6x9 on it for processing. If, contrary to expectations, it’s quiet on Saturdays, I can stay there, have a coffee and help out with customers at the same time :-) C41/RA-4 are quick processes, after all. With the Frontier, the data is exposed onto a 20x30 sheet so quickly that I couldn’t manage that in the exposure time using analogue methods. Incidentally, the advice in the shop is actually based on the customer’s needs rather than on what the shop wants to sell! (And the prices are even better compared to Blümarkt.) Some people come in wanting a bridge camera (my colleague has one of those too...) and leave with a compact. Others want a compact but take photos indoors and do portraits. They usually end up with a DSLR. The last F6 was sold to the press about a year ago. C41 development costs 2.99, including scans on CD it’s 6.99. Prints at the usual price of 0.69 for 13x18. I don’t think that’s much, because in return I don’t get the standard filtering designed for garish colours and total exhaustion, but have my own colour reproduction preferences stored there (colour chart and grey card photographed, this twice per film: daylight and drizzly weather). That’s almost as convenient as a specialist lab, apart from the hybrid detour. After some bad experiences with roll films at a large-scale lab, E6 now goes exclusively to a specialist lab. I might try colour gloss again there, but on the other hand, medium-format slides are an expensive hobby in themselves, so I don’t mind using a specialist lab (with the frames I want – one is lazy, after all). Best regards, Franz

RolandLindner

Good old ORWO now has a really efficient photo service – they even develop medium format! Just order a few photo envelopes and give it a go. They’ll accommodate special requests, such as a white border, or, as in my case, a 4 cm border on the left-hand side for my flipbooks. They do a pretty decent job with black and white too; as is the case everywhere, ORWO prints onto colour paper. My Delta 400 prints were a bit flat, but they produce clean prints from classics like APX 400 or ADOX CHS100. However, I always perform the development on my own for black and white negatives. http://www.pixelnet.de/index.php?id=photofromfilm My verdict: Highly recommended! Roland

philippleser

Hi Franz,

... After some bad experiences with roll films in large-format printing, E6 now goes exclusively to a specialist lab. I might give colour gloss another go there, but then again, medium-format slides are an expensive hobby in themselves, so I don’t really mind using a specialist lab (with the frames I want – I am a bit lazy, after all).

I’m not a big E6 user, so I can’t comment on the quality variations with many films, but whatever I’ve sent to Farbglanz so far (some C41, a few E6) has always come back in impeccable quality. The negatives/slides are bagged properly and are suitable for contact printing, and the development quality is impeccable (naturally, there are no scratches, fingerprints, etc.). I haven’t had any prints made yet, just a CD of scans once (I think they were about 3MP, but I’m not sure anymore). They were quite heavily saturated, but otherwise of good quality. Regards, Philipp

RolandLindner

Hi Franz,
... After some bad experiences with large-format roll films, I now send all my E6 to a specialist lab. I might give colour glossy a go again, but then again, medium-format slides are an expensive hobby in themselves, so I don’t really mind using a specialist lab (with the frames I want – I am a bit lazy, after all).
I’m not a big E6 user, so I can’t comment on the quality fluctuations with many films, but whatever I’ve sent to Farbglanz so far (some C41, a few E6) has always come back in impeccable quality. The negatives/slides are bagged properly and are suitable for contact printing, and the development quality is impeccable (naturally, there are no scratches, fingerprints, etc.). I haven’t had any prints made yet, just a CD of scans once (I think they were about 3MP, but I’m not sure anymore). They were quite heavily saturated, but otherwise good quality. Regards, Philipp

Then get a print done at Farbglanz – it’s brilliant. As well as standard prints, Farbglanz also offers so-called ‘specialist prints’ – you can’t get better than that! Roland

TOMBRG

Then have a print made at Farbglanz – it’s brilliant. As well as standard prints, Farbglanz also offers what they call ‘specialist prints’ – you can’t get better than that! Roland I agree with the recommendation. Farbglanz does a very neat job and always meets deadlines.