What to expect?

Rogier

Rogier

Rogier Willems
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Jul 7, 2008
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Most of the film that I am receiving back from a well known lab has a substantial amount of big white specs and streaks on them.
How much debris can one expect from a lab?
 
My experience is that labs all suck, and in their opinion they never make mistakes, they'll find some way to blame you for this. Process your own film, its the only way to get decent results :(
 
Chris has the right of it. Just tackle the film yourself- no one else to blame for anything that happens, and you'll probably find it more rewarding to boot.

Hell, I dropped some Kodak Gold off at the local Wally World a few months ago (it was a test roll for a new cam) and asked for just the negatives. Totally blew the dudes mind- he stared at me blankly for a minute or two before he decided to ask the manager if he could 'just develop' the film. Sigh...
 
You should not tolerate lousy quality. Keep changing your lab until you find one that offers decent quality or start to develop your own film. Or else you might consider digital...
 
Thanks for all the quick replies!
I could try to open the negotiations with my wife to do the B&W development at home but color will be a different story.

Any lab suggestions?
My current one is Dwaynes...
 
I don't trust labs. Sometimes they are fine, other times the neg comes back with hairline scratch all over, dust specs all over scans. I only drop off color negs that I consider as casual snaps I don't care too much about. I'll do all B/W (98% of what I shoot) dev myself and hold only myself responsible for mishaps and what not.

Edit: And I do not get any scratches or spots on the negs that I process myself. And I do that in kitchen and bathroom. And I live with another person who cares nothing about film (GF) and a cat who cares about, well, really nothing other than herself. So yeah, your current lab is definitely not acceptable.
 
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Chriscrawfordphoto said:
My experience is that labs all suck, and in their opinion they never make mistakes, they'll find some way to blame you for this. Process your own film, its the only way to get decent results :(
Click to expand...

Chris=100%, I never have scratches, dust or development inconsistencies. I do my own, and I am not really setup to do film development well. You should get another lab, or preferably, do it yourself. I have a closet kit that would probably cost you less than a few rolls and you don't have to drive back and forth.
 
I am happy because we have a good lab in my country, the only lab in my country anyway, so they have good service and i love their job, just i use them for colors film only and all my film came out fine except those film i cooked myself even before developing, but the rest all are amazing, i love them, but they cost me a lot so i don't shoot much color film, and about B&W i develop all by myself at home and i didn't use the lab yet, i have one friend using them for a while but when he started to develop himself then he told me it is better than a lab, i don't know what he means but it seems that he or i can get control our B&W at home more than the lab, but i think the lab doing a fine job anyway, i saw his B&W films done at lab and almost all are very nice good results, it depends on few things and i can't blame the lab for everything, but i never get any film nor my friend from the lab with dust or scratches, i don't know why your labs have issues and i think you will have the best labs in the world and your services will be top on par comparing to us, but i am happy that i don't have to check overseas or USA/UK labs for developing services.
 
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