Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/10/04
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]> From: Anthony Atkielski [mailto:anthony@atkielski.com] > > The slides I had developed yesterday at the one-hour place > are perfectly > developed and entirely clean--no scratches, no spots, no > dust. What would I get > from a pro lab that I wouldn't be getting here? I'm pretty > much convinced right > now that pro labs offer me nothing in this domain. With all > those Noritsu > machines around, all you need is a bit of attention to > handling, chemicals, and > maintenance, and you can get superb development. Your last sentence is the answer. With a pro lab you get the assurance that they are paying attention to the handling, chemicals and maintenance. Replenishment is one of the biggest issues in lab processing. Get it wrong and the results start to suffer - be it E6, C-41 or paper. These are not one-shot developers, the baths stay intact for many many many processing cycles. If the replenishment schedule is off, the activity of the solutions either depletes causing underdevelopment or understabilization, or builds up causing overdevelopment. Test strips (film or paper) have to be run periodically at intervals dependent on the volume of material processed. The strips then have to be analyzed. There is a margin for operator error in that last step, and with the less-trained staff at a consumer lab the likelihood of error is higher. Pro lab = consistency. Consistency = peace of mind. Paul Chefurka >