Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/12/19

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Help on shooting available light pictures
From: Mark Rabiner <mrabiner@concentric.net>
Date: Sun, 19 Dec 1999 00:21:19 -0800

Nathan Wajsman wrote:
> 
> John,
><Snip> 
> > - Do I stop messing around with minilabs for development?  How to chose a
> > good lab in rural Oregon?  Are there reasonable mail-order alternatives?
> 
> This is the critical part, I think. Maybe Mark Rabiner can help--I think he
> lives in Oregon too.

I will post this to the whole group that we have a place here called U Develop
in Portland which I feel is the best place to have your C-41 ran. While picking
it up a few hours lather they often have a spare room available so you can
quickly cut up your negs into strips and stuff them into a page and knock out a
contact sheet. They will advise you on color corrections if you so desire. Once
you've knocked out your contact you are all set up out to knock out a few prints
at the same color setting or close. Their processor of course is dry to dry in a
couple of minutes. They have all the paper there you can get at a good prince.
They go 30x40 at least maybe bigger now. It is much cheaper than a custom print
and you end up definitely with what you want and you are much more involved with
the process of course as a printer of your own work. People there the first time
seem to walk out with something decent.
For a while it seemed that a rent a lab this was very rare in the USA as we
would have the assistants of famous photographers from New York and other major
cities here printing. Now half the major cites have a decent rent a lab. I can't
imagine that our U Develop would not be one of the best we've had a head start.
I've been printing there for 25 years my color and sometimes my black and white.
They even have an excellent direct positive system for slides which I like
better than Cibachrome which they used to have. And they are into all kinds of
digital stuff now too of course.
Mark Rabiner