Collin R Brendemuehl wrote:
> > > And, most any skilled 35mm machine printer (person) can control
> > > the machine to print full-frame. Looks like a letter-boxed TV show.
> >
> >Well, no. It doesn't matter what the skill level is, most all machines crop
> >the negative to some extent, and nothing can be done about it.
>
> That's odd.
> I can go to Cord and get prints made full-frame just by asking
> that they be printed that way.
Any skilled operator on any machine? On particular models?
On paricular models with certain non-standard lenses installed?
On most machines?
One of the big things that chased me from budget bulk processing
to professional labs was the unwanted cropping. Along the way I
tried one-hour processing. Nobody could give me the full frame.
One operator at a Ritz spent forty minutes trying to give me just
a little bit more than was on his first try, and still didn't get
very close to the edges -- just barely got all of the subject's
face on the print. At a Wal-Mart they gave me a lot less than
the bulk labs did. My favourite CVS (drug store) operator bugged
the regional service tech about it and was told that it could
be done, but not with the set of lenses currently installed in
their machine.
The pro lab I usually use gives me damned near the full frame,
but not _quite_. Close enough that I'm usually happy with it,
and when it's not enough, at least the option of getting the
frame printed in its entirety on an enlarger is available right
there for a little more money. (The other pro lab I use doesn't
do machine prints at all -- enlarger only. Which costs more,
but they do _amazing_ things with my TMZ negs.)
The machine my lab uses, set up the way they've got it set up,
pretty much gives me what I see in the viewfinder. You have to
look pretty close to see where anything's missing. But the last
time I measured, yeah, a tiny wee sliver was missing from the
print.
I'm not saying you're wrong about the prints you get from Cord.
I'm just saying that with at least some machines (and the
_impression_ I get is that it's _most_ machines), complete full
frame prints aren't possible. GIven how nitpicky the folks at
my lab are about quality control, I trust them to know their
machines. Perhaps Cord uses a machine I haven't run into so
far, or perhaps they've got it set up differently in order to
be able to run full-frame prints.
Caveat: I'm not a lab expert; this is all info I've gathered
on the customer side of the counter.
-- Glenn
