Quality U.S. Lab that Makes Optical Color Enlargement from Sheet Film Negatives?

[Andre Noble]

Hello, I live in Los Angeles. My favorite lab, A&I no longer makes optically produced prints from enlarged 4x5 negatives.

Can you recommend a lab that still does? Cost a consideration.

Thanks,

Andre

[BradS]

This fellow used to print color and B&W from negs up to 4x5. I'm not sure he makes color prints in the darkroom anymore however.

He does nice work and his prices are quite reasonable. You might try...


Alan's Photo
3160 Santa Rita Road, Suite B8
Pleasanton, CA 94566
(925) 485-9145

[Eric Leppanen]

I've never used him, but it looks like Edgar Praus still offers this. I haven't had C prints done for awhile so I have no idea how competitive his pricing is.

http://www.4photolab.com/Pages/price_prints.html

[vinny]

try iconla.com
Frank at Lab Ciba in hollywood would know who still does opticals.

[Drew Wiley]

I believe New Lab in SF still does them. But printing from color negs onto C paper is
the easiest kind of color printing to do. All you need is a color enlarger, a processing
drum, a water jacket for temp control, and a few supplies (darkroom implied).
I'm personally allergic to RA4 chemicals, so I expose and load the drum in the darkroom, but do the actual chemical process outdoors. The printing papers most
widely available are dual-purpose; both Fuji and Kodak have now engineered their
C papers to respond well to both digital exposure and optical enlargement. So even
though commercial labs are doing optical enlargements less and less, there is no
reason to believe the necessary materials will become scarce. And it is in fact much
more economical to print them optically yourself than to have them scanned and
digitally printed. Technically and esthetically, there are pros and cons either direction. I personally like the superior detail and more authentic photographic look
of optical prints. Control of tonality and saturation is better achieved digitally,
however.

[robert lyons]

Ned Gray....in Amherst Mass.....specializes in analog c-prints from negs up to 5x7 .....mostly exhibition printing....

[Robert Fisher]

Eric, just yesterday I was just reviewing some optical prints that Edgar Praus (Praus Photo in New York) did for me.

The resolution from 810 TMax 100 is just incredible. It is SOOOOOOOO much less expensive than scan, etc.