Necessary to Develop+Scan+Print at Pro Lab such as Color Lab for consumer nagetive?

[Uranus]

I have 7~8 rolls of consumer negatives (such as Fuji100,200, Kodak 100,400) waiting for developing+scanning+printing, considering the cost, is it necessary to hand them to pro lab such as Color Lab, Photo Friend etc?

Or any normal lab will do the job and the pro lab should be more worth for professional negative?

 

[ninelives]

colorlab is not expensive compare to normal lab. if u feel more confident to let the pro lab process your films then go ahead.

if you want to know how good is your exposure skill, tell the lab not to do any correction.

 

[Snowcrash]

I've heard you can ask colorlab to put white borders for your 4R prints.... Can the normal lab do that??

And ninelives is correct to say that the price difference is not that much.

Only concern for me, is the volume the 'normal lab' prints as well as how often they change their chemicals...(will affect color)

 

[ckiang]

Originally posted by Uranus
I have 7~8 rolls of consumer negatives (such as Fuji100,200, Kodak 100,400) waiting for developing+scanning+printing, considering the cost, is it necessary to hand them to pro lab such as Color Lab, Photo Friend etc?

Or any normal lab will do the job and the pro lab should be more worth for professional negative?

Definitely worth it. I've said it a million times:-

If you value your time and effort and shooting, spend the extra money in processing. It's well worth it. It costs only $0.05 more per print compared to a typical Kodak Express or Fuji outlet. Besides, normal labs may not replenish their chemicals as frequently as they should, and doesn't have a level of consistency that I want.

And yes, like snowcrash said, they can do white borders for your 4R prints if so desired. I am a regular customer and they don't charge me extra for it.


Regards
CK

 

[Uranus]

thx for the advice! I think i will head to it.

Btw, correction is done at developing time or printing time?

 

[Uranus]

And is it worth to get the scanning first and print only those good ones later? Do they charge separately for bundled printing and reprint?

 

[ckiang]

Originally posted by Uranus
And is it worth to get the scanning first and print only those good ones later? Do they charge separately for bundled printing and reprint?

Correction is done at printing stage. You can always ask for scan only, and print the ones you like later. This is what I do (only I don't really print). But bear in mind if you send the digital files to them later for printing, it's subject to $5 handling fee, and each 4R will cost $0.50 instead of $0.40 when you give them the neg. For Colour Lab, develop + print and reprint costs the same per print.

Regards
CK

 

[Gunjack]

I always hear abt handling fee. I am not a digital camera user, so may I know what do they charge the handling fee for? I find handling fee kinda expensive, especially when i dunno what they actually do.

 

[ckiang]

Originally posted by Gunjack
I always hear abt handling fee. I am not a digital camera user, so may I know what do they charge the handling fee for? I find handling fee kinda expensive, especially when i dunno what they actually do.

Well, it's just that. For them to handle your media. I never understood why almost all labs charge the handling fee.

Regards
CK

 

[Snowcrash]

Pay them 'handling fee' so that they will wear glove to handle your media

For me I do my developing and scan to CD for negative at colorlab ($13.50). No printing. member got discount
Colorlab scan for negative is quite good.

Then choose the ones I like, edit with photoshop if necessary... then send to fotohub.com for printing.

No handling fee, at 50cents per piece. (there WAS a autumn promotion got 15% discount!)

Advantages of this method:-

1) I shoot film with iso400/800 that my current digi cam can't handle.
2) If send less than 50 copies, can ask for delivery (cost $2.00)
3) No need to print large numbers to offset 'handling fee'.
4) can choose fuji paper (select 35mm at bukit timah) or kodak paper (select oub centre).

Just sharing, happy trying out.

 

[Uranus]

I think I will just consider the scanned CD as a backup storage (in case of lost negative) and as a good index or preview for selection, later I can always print from negative.

Although doing so will undoubtedly increase the turnaround time.

 

[djork]

printing from the negative again will increase the 'effects of handling' i.e. potential finger prints, scratches, etc..

i had quite a bad experience at many neighbourhood shops (some weird colour cast to the entire batch of photos and they claim my negatives had a problem but it is not), although some shops are ok, these days i only develop at konota (peninsula plaza) or colour lab (adelphi).

 

[nhyone]

Originally posted by ninelives
if you want to know how good is your exposure skill, tell the lab not to do any correction.

I doubt it is advisable to try this. Imagine scanning in the negatives yourself and not doing even a simple auto levels. Won't be pretty.

If your lab simply leaves the machine to auto-pilot, it may make simple mistakes due to sampling the wrong spot for exposure. Not very useful.

I asked a lab to do it before. Developed well over 10 rolls before I decided there is no point continuing.

 

[SNAG]

What are the visible differences that you can see from a pro lab?
I mean, will the sharpness of a picture be affected by going to a pro lab / not?

I got back some of my shots @ standard, and I printed one till 8 X 12"..
Not very sharp..
And I think it was taken with a 50mm f1.8...

Thanks a lot!

 

[mpenza]

thier free 8x12" is awful. I've gotten good 8R prints elsewhere with the same negative.

 

[SNAG]

Originally posted by mpenza
thier free 8x12" is awful. I've gotten good 8R prints elsewhere with the same negative.

Really ah?
Heng ah..
I thought that my camera was not working or something...
I shall bring my next roll down to Colourlab and give it a try.
Thanks a lot!

 

[xmen1977]

KONOTA at peninsula plaza does a great job too at a affordable price

offer the same service as Colourlab




:gbounce:

 

[ckiang]

Originally posted by SNAG
What are the visible differences that you can see from a pro lab?
I mean, will the sharpness of a picture be affected by going to a pro lab / not?

I got back some of my shots @ standard, and I printed one till 8 X 12"..
Not very sharp..
And I think it was taken with a 50mm f1.8...

Thanks a lot!

Those labs using digital minilabs will be slightly better in terms of sharpness. But most usual labs leave these $350,000 digital minilabs on autopilot and never bother about indivuidually correcting them. Pro labs usually individually correct them (one of the reasons why they can take longer), and the sharpness/colour rendition is going to be better. The better labs also uses better lenses in their minilab machines.

Standard has no standard, I'd forget about them. Yeah, their free 8x12 is horrid. Even my Epson inkjet can do better.

Regards
CK

 

[kssim]

As opposed to the 'auto-pilot' where the machine does it's own correction based on what it 'think' is right, you can actually have the machine not do any correction at all. That is different from having the lab technician not making the adjustment. In some case, the photo will look worse off than if there's any adjustment (auto or otherwise) made. That is usually due to the poor exposure made during the shoot. The reason why some folks ask for such 'uncompensated' printing despite possible poorer results is such that they can actually see how the exposure goes and learn from any mistakes made. Since that negative have quite a wide latitude, it could be possible to get some decent prints with negatives that are over/under-exposed... For that reason, it could be entirely possible that some folks have constantly been having over/under exposure on their shots without even realising it.

It's a while since I have shoot on negative and thus cannot be absolutely sure if such service/function is still possible with the current machines (with all the automation around). But I don't really see any reason why it's not possible.

KS

Originally posted by nhyone

I doubt it is advisable to try this. Imagine scanning in the negatives yourself and not doing even a simple auto levels. Won't be pretty.

If your lab simply leaves the machine to auto-pilot, it may make simple mistakes due to sampling the wrong spot for exposure. Not very useful.

I asked a lab to do it before. Developed well over 10 rolls before I decided there is no point continuing.

 

[Juvelyn]

anybody always die-die must have pics developed at RGB?
[from film]

just curious