Rant - my E6 only film place shut down.

L

Lonely Driver

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Let me first off say that I shoot mostly digital, but I like shooting film in my purest moments. I primarily shoot Fuji Acros 100, Neopan 1600 and Velvia. As for the latter, it's a nightmare finding a reliable place to develop E6 slide film. When I moved to DC, I couldn't find a reliable place until I found "E6" in Arlington, VA (http://www.e6slidefilmprocessing.com/). Today I found out that there's closing for good. Sign of the times I guess. People keep saying that film will be around for a long time, but will there be places around to develop the film? Too many of them are going the way of the dino. Grr...
 
That's really sad. If you navigate to the home page, there's a very poingant, if somewhat bitter, notice and statement
 
Im of the opinion that we'll be back to the old days where we used to drop film off at a local store who then sent it somewhere and it returned in a couple of weeks...

In the last year the photo store I use in Delaware had to change their E6 lab.
 
I remember when nearly every street corner had a 1 hr lab. I said they would not last long since they based their income mainly on film processing/developing. The holdouts are beginning to drop but I see many of the photo related businesses still going strong because they offered a variety of services.

I don't think we'll see the end of film for a long time yet..
 
Lonely Driver said:
Let me first off say that I shoot mostly digital, but I like shooting film in my purest moments. I primarily shoot Fuji Acros 100, Neopan 1600 and Velvia. As for the latter, it's a nightmare finding a reliable place to develop E6 slide film. When I moved to DC, I couldn't find a reliable place until I found "E6" in Arlington, VA (http://www.e6slidefilmprocessing.com/). Today I found out that there's closing for good. Sign of the times I guess. People keep saying that film will be around for a long time, but will there be places around to develop the film? Too many of them are going the way of the dino. Grr...
Click to expand...
I'm sorry - but perhaps the fact that you are not the only one who "mostly shoot digital" has something to do with the cause of your lament?

Funny thing is, I've always used mailers for slides - so I am not inconveniened when local film processors go away. And for print film - they still keep opening Walgreens with processing - so all is not yet lost!

If you want to continue to shoot chromes, perhaps you should learn about Dwayne's?
 
If you explore the site, you find that they used a SOTA dip-n-dunk processor with battery backup. So it was a pro lab, dedicated to quality and reliability.
 
Looks like regular pricing-looks like retirement too. The internet/online labs are probably partially to blame.
 
Invest in a jobo system. It is easy to develop your own with this setup, and the chems are cheep compaired to paying to have them developed.
 
christo said:
Hi, I have used the National Geographic Lab many times. You being in Washington
you should give them a go. They process E6, dip and dunk, clean and perfectly
processed. http://www.nationalgeographic.com/labs/
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm going to start going there from now on - I've heard nothing but good things about them.

The owner of that E6 place honestly isn't the friendliest guy in the world, but he made sure that every slide that went out of there was exactly how I had metered and shot it. That very stringant quality control earned my respect.

As for me mainly shooting digital and adding to "the problem." I really don't know what to say... I first thought that I'm just an enthusiast and don't put enough rolls though my camera to make a difference. Then I thought that it's a matter of "specialization leads to extinction." But now I just think that it sucks that my usual place I develop E6 slide film is gone.

As others have pointed out, I'm a bit spoilied living in the city and not having to mail out my stuff but I just see E6 processing as becoming very rare in the future.
 
THe job work well even with C-41 chemicals? I live in an apt and is always on the move. I gather owning a jobo+tons of chemicals is not conducive to my living conditions right now?
 
christo said:
Hi, I have used the National Geographic Lab many times. You being in Washington
you should give them a go. They process E6, dip and dunk, clean and perfectly
processed. http://www.nationalgeographic.com/labs/
Click to expand...

I went there this weekend to get stuff developed and I don't miss Capitol Color quite so much. Service was supurb and the negatives were perfect. Thanks for the good advice!
 
trittium said:
Invest in a jobo system. It is easy to develop your own with this setup, and the chems are cheep compaired to paying to have them developed.
Click to expand...

Could you give us a pointer URL to a Jobo system that would be good for home processing?

Thanks,
Ira
 
Lonely Driver said:
Let me first off say that I shoot mostly digital, but I like shooting film in my purest moments. I primarily shoot Fuji Acros 100, Neopan 1600 and Velvia. As for the latter, it's a nightmare finding a reliable place to develop E6 slide film. When I moved to DC, I couldn't find a reliable place until I found "E6" in Arlington, VA (http://www.e6slidefilmprocessing.com/). Today I found out that there's closing for good. Sign of the times I guess. People keep saying that film will be around for a long time, but will there be places around to develop the film? Too many of them are going the way of the dino. Grr...
Click to expand...
If you have a Walmart near you they do it for about $3.50 for 24 exposures, or $4.50 for 36 exposures, mounted. They also do Kodachrome for the same price. Perfect service.
 
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