B/W Flim processing in North Carolina

[Bob Phipps]

I'm looking for a professioal processing lab in North Carolina for B/W 4x5 film. Recently moved to NC, and my old lab is taking to much time in shipping. Any suggestions for transparnecy as well would be welcomed.

Thanks.

[Bill_1856]

Dalmation Labs has a good reputation. Just B&W, I think.

[John Barnes]

Dalmation, in Greensboro just off spring garden st. Good people and good work.

John

[Bruce Watson]

http://www.jwphotolabs.com/

JW Photolabs is in Raleigh. They do B&W film processing up to 10x8 film. I don't know the details of the process, but they are a full service pro lab, so I would image it's a nitrogen burst line running D76 or XTOL. I use JW for my C-41 5x4 processing. They do good work - they keep the clip marks out of the image area too.

They also load their Lightjet with an actual B&W paper (used to be Kodak, not sure what they are using now) several times a week. I've had prints done this way that are surprisingly good. Of course, they also do conventional B&W darkroom work as well.

Welcome to NC!

[kthompson]

I kind of doubt the tankline is D76, it might be XTOL replenished, but my best bet is that it's TMAX RS. It used to be used DDX I think, but I've heard through the grapevine that they've switched over to mostly Kodak there now because Ilford's been so troublesome with their supply problems...just about every in town is having problems right now with suppliers...(us included).

B/W is a tough call though. I would say Dalmatian would be your best bet. E6? For Raleigh, my vote would be on American Film & Print in North Raleigh. They have a good C41 line and do trad. & Frontier prints as well. JW is good for larger prints and anything you need done as a Lightjet. They also offer first surface mounting, laminating etc.

One of the only other labs in the state with a lightjet is down in Charlotte--Quality Chrome. They used to be a great E6 lab, but have gone mostly digital now. I don't think they offer film services anymore.

There are some other good labs in the state, most are over in the Triad and cater to the furniture market studios, or are owned by the studios themselves. It depends on where you live in the state I guess, but in many areas, labs have all but disappeared. Finding one that handles sheet film or E6 may be a problem, let alone a custom b/w lab. I can tell you that right now is a bad time for most of the labs in the area, many seem to be slowly going out of business. The E6 lines are running on reduced schedules, and there are some problems with quality from this as well, because of low throughput. The in-house lab I work in, we used to curse our E6 machine, but now we're actually pretty lucky I guess to run it ourselves, based on some of what I've seen recently...

I guess for b/w my recommendation would be as always to do it yourself, if you can, because you probably won't be 100% happy using a commercial lab unless you can find a custom one.

Good luck all the same though, and welcome to NC.

[Herb Cunningham]

JW is a good shop and will work with you - the were using Ilford bw chemistry a couple of years ago, but any lab is not going to give you as good as your own work.

also welcome to NC

[Bill_1856]

Don't forget the old Groucho Marx dictum: "I wouldn't want to belong to any organization which would have me as a member."