E-6 in 120 format - worth it?

[hiromu]

I shoot Velvia and Provia with 6x6 and 6x7 format. All of my slides go to The Slide Printer in CO. $4.95 or so for 120 and twice as much for 220, but they cover both shipping and turn around time is usually less than 10 days.
But all of my medium format negs go to Walmart for $188 develop only...

Hiromu

 

[CuS]

Thanks!

Thanks!

I will also check out Dominion too (I am in NoVa). I think I've been there - really nice people. Of the Penn locations, I like the newer Fair Lakes store the best. Tysons does have alot of old stuff, but their people strike me a self-important and somewhat snobby photo nerds.

I, for the record am also a photo nerd, but self-depricating and personable 🙂

In Virginia and mentioning Penn makes me think you are in Northern VA. You might want to try Dominion Camera in Falls Church. They develop all film up to 4x5 in house. I don't know how the cost compares to Penn. I know the folks at the Penn near Springfield Mall used to be knowledgable and friendly. I hear their store in Tysons is larger and has more older "stuff."

 

[sepiareverb]

...The biggest gain in quality is not so much due to the increase in film real estate, it is because you can optimize the plane of focus, thereby minimizing focus spread and requisite aperture for DOF. As such, you are not into diffraction limiting apertures.

Very well said, and part of the reason I've never found MF to be worth the time. But if the results you see from expired film are that exciting to you I suppose we are approaching this from two opposite extremes...

 

[sepiareverb]

...The biggest gain in quality is not so much due to the increase in film real estate, it is because you can optimize the plane of focus, thereby minimizing focus spread and requisite aperture for DOF. As such, you are not into diffraction limiting apertures.

Very well said, and part of the reason I've never found MF to be worth the time.

Oh no! I'm doomed!

But if the results you see from expired film are that exciting to you I suppose we are approaching this from two opposite extremes...

 

[kuzano]

$4.95 process, $1.50 sleeve, $9.00 HD scan on CD

$4.95 process, $1.50 sleeve, $9.00 HD scan on CD

That's what I paid last week for my roll of 120 out of the Fuji G690. Now, I do have to send it 150 miles to a lab in Portland Oregon... www.prophotosupply.com.

They send it out for processing, cut and sleeve it and run scans. The $9 is for scanning all 8 images on the roll.

It all takes about another $9 in postage. I had the last roll in a week from the day I sent it in.

Ditto all the comments on looking at your first 6X9 transparency. And while I can't do it justice, enclosed is a panorama using two frames stitched in Photoshop Elements 6. I am not a fan of post processing, so the stitch is very rudimentary.

 

[Pherdinand]

Yeah, this is the funniest thing when you start moving up from 35mm.
Film size just never seems to be enough anymore.
You have 6x9, and instead of cropping down to panorama, you scan two frames and try to make a 6x15 cm pano slide out of it. 🙄
(been there,done that)

 

[Faintandfuzzy]

Wow!' factor on the light-box, I am totally unconvinced of the advantages of going bigger than roll-film for trannies.


Roger

Well, the easiest thing to do is compare on prints. I've got 16x20 and 24x30 from both MF 6x7 Astia 100F and 4x5 Astia 100F. The difference is immediately visible even at 16x20 from drum scans.

That was convincing enough for me to decide it's not a waste of money. In fact, I'd consider it money well spent if it offers the highest fidelity.

Just my .02

 

[David Murphy]

I process it all the time at Walmart for a few dollars - I can't remember exactly what they charge, but it's less than $5. It comes back rolled up inside a spool. They will also process and print 12 shots of 6X6 120 C41 process for about $1.50 including tax - an amazing deal and perfect results.

 

[Pherdinand]

In my early days of medium format, i used to get c41 and trad. BW 6x6's printed on 10x10 or 13x13 cm (that is, 4" or 5") for the price of 35mm printing at my local fav lab within a nhour, incl development, on a fuji frontier.
They did a very good job. Always.

But after some time they decided to call it 'professional job' and charging about 4x more for the prints. Since then i only get it developed.
Lately, since i moved to another town, i was unable to find a place where they dev 120 format themselves. In addition, sometimes the film is stuck on the plastic sleeve in a few spots, and lately, they lost a film while transiting back from the big lab.

I am THIS close to give up on color film and, either go BW only where I do it all, or buy some stupid digital.

 

[maddoc]

I think it is worth it. 🙂

A similar scene taken with the similar film in 135 didn't come close.