The sky is falling (E6 color slide processing crisis)

[Rob-F]

I've been bringing my E6, 135 and 120, to either of two local stores that are within reasonable driving distance. So yesterday I took a roll of 120 to the closer of the two, and a sign on the door said they were closed for good, and suggested going to their main store in west county. That's a pretty far piece, so I decided to phone the other of my two usual places. Nope, they are no longer processing E6. They recommended Dwayne's (sp?) in Kansas.

So I grabbed my roll of 120, and headed out on the half-hour drive to the west county store. I dropped off the roll, paid in advance, and was advised it would be ready in a week. Later on, they phoned me. Bad news: something broke in their processor, and they will have to send it someplace--I think he said New Jersey--and the processor will be down for at least three weeks, maybe more. Would I like to drive back out and get my roll of film, or would I rather wait it out?

This is St. Louis County, population over 1 million, and you can't get a roll of E6 developed.

Now I have to figure out how to send a roll to Dwayne's. Or--doesn't Precision Camera do E6 also? Maybe I should send it there? Used to be, you could buy mailers and send it to Kodak. The times, they are a-changin'.

 

[splitimageview]

Precision hasn't done E6 in a while. I think they send it to Holland Photo in Austin, they run E6 on a daily basis

 

[Mackinaw]

I send my E-6 transparencies to AgX Imaging in Sault Sainte Marie, Michigan. Small lab that does top-notch work.

http://www.agximaging.com/

Jim B.

 

[Rob-F]

I send my E-6 transparencies to AgX Imaging in Sault Sainte Marie, Michigan. Small lab that does top-notch work.

http://www.agximaging.com/

Jim B.

You know, i like this idea. Michigan is cooler than Texas or Kansas, so less worries about color shifts during transit! Thanks, Jim!

 

[BLKRCAT]

Toronto and the GTA has what, 6 million people? There are only a few sources to do E6 here. All of which take over 4 weeks.

Welcome to 2016. I'm a huge believer in film and I love chromes but I've given up on E6 because it's such a hassle to shoot and process. I'll never use it for any sort of client work because the turnaround times are ridiculous and I can't justify shelling out the high costs for the film on my own.

Thanks Fuji.

 

[jsrockit]

Wow, I hadn't realized it was this bad.

 

[splitimageview]

Seems to be regional; the demand in Austin apparently is sufficient, Holland will do up to 8x10 using dip and dunk. I've gotten E6, next-day service, then I scan on the Pakon.

 

[Chuck Albertson]

I have no hesitation recommending Dwayne's:

http://www.dwaynesphoto.com/

Back in the day (10 years ago), it was the last lab processing K-14, and they did it well.

 

[jkjod]

I've been bringing my E6, 135 and 120, to either of two local stores that are within reasonable driving distance. So yesterday I took a roll of 120 to the closer of the two, and a sign on the door said they were closed for good, and suggested going to their main store in west county. That's a pretty far piece, so I decided to phone the other of my two usual places. Nope, they are no longer processing E6. They recommended Dwayne's (sp?) in Kansas.

So I grabbed my roll of 120, and headed out on the half-hour drive to the west county store. I dropped off the roll, paid in advance, and was advised it would be ready in a week. Later on, they phoned me. Bad news: something broke in their processor, and they will have to send it someplace--I think he said New Jersey--and the processor will be down for at least three weeks, maybe more. Would I like to drive back out and get my roll of film, or would I rather wait it out?

This is St. Louis County, population over 1 million, and you can't get a roll of E6 developed.

Now I have to figure out how to send a roll to Dwayne's. Or--doesn't Precision Camera do E6 also? Maybe I should send it there? Used to be, you could buy mailers and send it to Kodak. The times, they are a-changin'.

I've had good results with Schiller's and Creve Couer Camera. It's been a while since I had any E6 developed, but last time I checked both places could still process it.

These were from CC Camera. I didn't have a scanner at the time, so I'd probably do it myself now, but an example of their "low res" scans.

AAA008.jpg by jkjod, on Flickr

AAA002.jpg by jkjod, on Flickr

 

[wjlapier]

Dwaynes is the way to go for my Velvia.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

Toronto and the GTA has what, 6 million people? There are only a few sources to do E6 here. All of which take over 4 weeks.

I don't think any local E6 developing is available by 2016. USA or Quebec.
And few labs for C-41 are available.
I have some old E6 film and going to buy developing kit.

 

[bluesun267]

Milwaukee Metro, similar scenario. There is one place doing it once a week, if there's demand. Not exactly encouraging if you only have a couple rolls, to be told "it might get done this week". Unfortunately they didn't do quality work when I tried them (solarized my last 2 rolls of E100VS and the guy pretty much admitted they were still using a backstock of Kodak chemicals that were several years old). I now happily send slides to Dwayne's as I did with Kodachrome since the late 90s.

 

[BLKRCAT]

I don't think any local E6 developing is available by 2016. USA or Quebec.
And few labs for C-41 are available.
I have some old E6 film and going to buy developing kit.

Downtown camera offers 2 services with e6it and borealis. There is also image foundry that offers an e6 service.

 

[Rob-F]

I've had good results with Schiller's and Creve Couer Camera. It's been a while since I had any E6 developed, but last time I checked both places could still process it.

These were from CC Camera. I didn't have a scanner at the time, so I'd probably do it myself now, but an example of their "low res" scans.

AAA008.jpg by jkjod, on Flickr

AAA002.jpg by jkjod, on Flickr

Well, I don't know how to tell you this, but those are exactly the two stores I'm talking about. Schiller's no longer has E6 processing. Creve Couer Camera does, but their machine broke and is expected to be out of commission for 3 or 4 weeks. it just ain't like it used to be.

 

[Moto-Uno]

^ Not wanting to belabor the point people , but it's not so hard to do at home ! And
the kits are reasonably priced at Argentix (sp) near Montreal . Great mail service .Unless
our post office goes on strike ?
Peter

 

[jkjod]

Well, I don't know how to tell you this, but those are exactly the two stores I'm talking about. Schiller's no longer has E6 processing. Creve Couer Camera does, but their machine broke and is expected to be out of commission for 3 or 4 weeks. it just ain't like it used to be.

Wow, thats surprising - especially Schiller's. I know I called them last year about prices and they were still doing it. That is too bad. I was assuming you had tried these two labs, but just incase I thought I'd bring it up.

 

[Rob-F]

And as if that is not bad enough, my local Barnes & Noble no longer carries Moleskine notebooks. Can you imagine that?

 

[Rangefinder 35]

The lack of local (Seattle area) processing is what pushed me out of large format photography. 35mm E-6 I've been sending to Dwayne's for years now. Usually I wait till I have 2-3 rolls to process before sending them in. But sometimes, when coming back from longer trip I might send 20 roll or more at once.

 

[KenR]

There's always black and white!

 

[edge100]

Toronto and the GTA has what, 6 million people? There are only a few sources to do E6 here. All of which take over 4 weeks.

Welcome to 2016. I'm a huge believer in film and I love chromes but I've given up on E6 because it's such a hassle to shoot and process. I'll never use it for any sort of client work because the turnaround times are ridiculous and I can't justify shelling out the high costs for the film on my own.

Thanks Fuji.

Send it to me; I do my own in my basement in a Super Sidekick.