Shel Belinkoff wrote:
> For those of you who are thinking of sending your B&W to a lab,
> take heed. No one does it better than you.
I feel the need to defend my honor! :)
I have a really high opinion of our b&w capabilities here. That said,
there are always downsides to a "lab" as opposed to you doing it
yourself. Shel pointed out a good one: the ability to on the fly make
those tiny little adjustments that you know you'll need because of the
subject matter.
As a lab, we have to take into consideration not just your film, but
everyone else's, AND at the same time effectively streamline the process
so that I don't have one staff member spending two hours on just one
person's single roll of film for $6. Thus, while we do run different
films at different processing times, dilution and temperature have been
standardized. Emptying and refilling the machine between runs is
obviously not an option, and having to cool and heat and cool and heat
would drop our capacity pretty seriously while waiting for poor mister
Jobo to get up or down to the right temperature. A couple of films
(notably T-Max) seem to look better in Studional at 20 C instead of 24
C, but we process at 24 C because pretty much everything else looks
great in it, the runs are quicker (and yes, those extra two or three
minutes per run can be very important), and in the middle of summer,
since the incoming water lines run rather shallowly under the blacktop
in the parking lot, the coldest water we can get coming in some days is
22 to 23 C, and refrigerating our circulation bath and wash water seems
a little extravagant (and would probably wreak havoc with our electric bill).
Having said all that, though, we do accomodate special requests
particularly when large volumes are brought in or when the customer is
willing to pay for the extra time involved. I do Technidol processing
for one guy, and follow his instructions to the letter...for $20 a roll.
He understands the cost: somebody here has to basically baby his roll
for over half an hour without leaving it, so I have to pay that person's
salary plus pay for the chemicals (and Technidol is about $5 for enough
developer to do one roll) plus make enough to cover rent and electric
and water and...oh yeah, paying me! :)
Anyhow, I wouldn't neccessarily write off that lab, Shel...instead, chat
with them and figure out what can be done differently next time, in case
you feel the need to drop your stuff off there again in the future. Get
friendly with the techie. Let them know what you do and how your
results usually look and then compare your results with theirs. Of
course, don't expect to do this at 9am Monday morning or 5pm Friday
night... :)
Aaron
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