Hi Bill,
>From your questions:
*1: Yah, it's too much excitement. You guys don't really want to hear
about what happens when a splice breaks, do you?
*2: Uhhhh. To have the local pro lab do my sister's wedding shots, cost me
about $70 for 24 prints. It was incredibly high. I think of the
one-hour machine prints as "proofs" and have the tricky exposures, like the
concert photos, printed with manually controlled exposure on a minilab as
reprints. Besides, dip and dunks have their own problems. They are used
because they are appropriate for low volume and not because they are
inherently better, IMHO.00
*3: Yeah, densitometry is neat and the emulsions, (both film and paper) are
much more tightly controlled than they used to be.
*4: No, I left. Actually, they installed a cine that ran twice as fast
(two lines, 60 feet per minute). I was working faster than a one-armed
paper hanger, trying to inspect the film and make the changes, communicate
with both ends, and move the bags (envelopes) along. I accidently walked
out through a rotary darkroom door with a roll of 110s under my arm.
Totally fogged about 20 orders. Severely edge fogged the other 80 orders.
I can tell you I was physically sick for two days, thinking about ruining
vacation pictures for 100 families! They fired me.......... Can I hang
out with you guys anyway?
*5: Qualex has a big lab in Cincinnati. It used to be owned by a grocery
chain called Kroger but they spun it off to their drug store chain called
Superx. Then Superx got bought up by Hooks. Then Hooks/Superx sold the
lab to a new, exciting joint venture between some manufactuing company and
Kodak. They called the new company "Qualex". Last I heard, Kodak bought
out their co-owner and Qualex is 1000wned by Kodak. This is why you'll
never find a Qualex lab that uses Fuji paper. Or 3M paper. Or Konica
paper. Or Fuji chemicals. Or Hunt chemicals.
*6 Do you guys wanna know about twin-checks and sorting in a big lab?
Jim
-----Original Message-----
From: Sue Pearce [mailto:bspearce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
One of my first jobs was sooting TV newsfilm, and while with Cessna, I
shot high speed MP film. I never had to run the processors at either place,
something I'm thankful for, like never shooting a wedding. Our machines ran
at a slow speed, and i remember what could happen if a splice broke, or the
film itself broke, so I can't imagine what could happen at 60' per minute.
*1 <edited>
The thing that continually amazes me agout this group is that
occasional thread about comparing drug store processing. If yo are serious
about photography, and spend thousands on equipment, why would you quibble
on a dollar a roll difference? *2
The other ting that amazes me is the quality of Qualex processing, and
that of Fuji's labs as well. I use qualex on occasion, and I don't
understand how they can get it done at all, without loosing most of the
rolls. *6
The color balance is most always within 5 points of right, often
better. I've noted tat when something IS wrong its REALLY wrong! *3
Are you still with Qualex? *4 Which lab? *5
regards,
Bill
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