Developing Labs in 2018

[Thad Gerheim]

I've been using Citizen's Photo in Portland for the past three years (4x5, 5x7.) They do excellent work and are very polite on the phone. I even stopped in for a visit last summer when I was out that way. Never had any film scratched, damaged, or lost by them.




Kent in SD

+1

[jkf]

"The Lab" in Vancover, BC (Canada) has been doing a great job with my e-6 120 -- I believe they also do LF up to 8x10 and have no doubt it (or c-41) would be the same, they are very quality oriented.

[dkonigs]

So I'm beginning to think that thedarkroom's reputation as a quality lab comes from their work with roll film, cause their sheet film developing has left me unimpressed.

I'm glad I just stumbled upon this thread. I've been using TheDarkRoom for 120 roll film (C-41 and B&W) processing for the past couple months, because they make the whole process relatively easy. The free scans also made for a great "teaser", even though I always re-scanned myself. However, they have a habit of leaving pinches on the edges of some of the cut negative strips, which I find incredibly annoying (especially when trying to put them in a glassless scan holder).
Of course your 4x5 experience now leaves me terrified of using them, so I think I'll just give NCPS a try (they seem to have a good reputation).

(The last time I shot 4x5, I was mixing my own B&W chemicals and just doing it at home. I'm not sure I really want to get back into that just yet, especially since I want to do a mixture of B&W, C-41, and E-6, so knowing of good mail-away labs is always a good thing.)

[Corran]

I used NCPS for a while but they screwed up an entire batch of E-6 once (over $100 worth of processing) and that's what pushed me to just develop it all myself.

The issue was black crap all over the slides, from several types of cameras and different film types, so it was clearly a processing issue w/ their chemicals. I mentioned it to them and they wanted me to send all my images back to "evaluate" which I was not interested in doing.

I used Praus once and the positives were immaculate. I would use him on any mission-critical color images, but developing at home is "good enough" for me, for most things, and I can own the mistakes if there are any.

[Laminarman]

I have used North Coast for processing of 35 and 120 with drum scans emailed to me for the past 5-6 years. Quality always great. Service top notch and I never had a issue.

[Chester McCheeserton]

LTI Lightside in NYC. I had been using Praus but the proofs from my 810 Portra 160 were all over the place. LTI makes a very nice actual contact print.

+ one for LTI. Been sending them all my C-41 5x7 for last 6 or 7 years. never had contacts made but develop only is always super prompt turnaround and no complaints so far about the results. Knock on wood

[6x6TLL]

Not sure where the OP is, but when I recently moved to Los Angeles I was recommended to use The Icon in Hollywood (iconla.com). So far everything they've done (E6 in 120 and 4x5 format, high res scanning and digital printing enlargements) has been excellent, great service, very knowledgeable staff.

Looks like they cost a bit more than North Coast, not sure how that works out once you factor in shipping. YMMV.

[Iga]

I use one in Italy for all (b/w to e-6) and his quality control is top notch. He can do r4-a up to 20*24 and if needed internegative from slides. He is absolutely amazing in the range of service, like he fixed my durst transformer and head, can do the scale of a large format lens and cla all hasselblad materials.
Sandro presta, if you need more holler me


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I'm interested ! Please let me know his direction.
Thanks,
Igor