[Leica] processing- was a trip to Paris

["Rod Fleming" <rodfleming@sol.co.uk>]

Hi

Les wrote

>I'm not planning any foreign trips soon, but someday hope to travel to
England, Ireland, and Scotland. My plan is to shot color in digital, but I
shoot most of my stuff in B&W. How about this: take a small development kit
with you and soup the negatives in your hotel room each night. Buy the film
as you go and the chemicals also. Most of the chemicals can be used as
one-shot and you end up just bringing back the developed negatives. A
chaning bag, one or two stainless steel reels, and a one or two roll
developing tank couldn't take that much room in the luggage. Simply buy a
couple cheap plastic mixing jars at the local grocery/pharmacy<


There is no reason to take chances with X-ray machines if travelling to
Europe- just buy the stuff here and process it here.

There is simply no problem in UK either with getting materials at a good
price or getting top-quality lab processing, again at a good price and with
very fast turnaround. If all you're doing is C41 it's a piece of cake, as
there are countless thousands of minilabs who will do a "process-only" in
about 20 minutes, to a very high standard- if you're concerned, give them a
test roll first. Mono, changing bag and process in the room at night, or, as
with E6 tranny, go to a pro lab at the end of the trip, who will do the lot
for you in an hour.

When you decide to come, post the fact, and even if I'm not still around,
there should be some UK LUGgers who will help point you in the direction of
good suppliers and process houses.

Things are more difficult in France where materials are more expensive and
processing harder to find, but nevertheless there should be no problem
getting film processed at a pro lab in a big city like Paris. Surely some
list members in France can help. Even if it does end up costing more, what
price the trip of a lifetime?

Remember too that France is part of the Euro-zone, and the Euro (to which
the French franc is fixed) is a currency which continues to develop a
startling reputation for its weakness. Today the French franc is standing at
10.75 to the Pound Sterling, and the US Dollar has a similar advantage. I
can't see any evidence that the Euro is going to turn round and become a
strong currency within the next couple of months, despite the increasingly
desperate efforts of Brussels-based bureaucrats to talk it up. Indeed it is
the opinion of many more expert than I that the Euro will do well to end the
year 2000 at parity with the dollar.

(And let us take the opportunity to remind those based in the UK and USA
that this is a great time to visit mainland Europe, or at least those
countries in the Euro-zone..........To take France, again, as the example,
the French franc has dropped relative to the pound by over 25% over the last
four years, and has also fallen against the dollar. In real terms, Europe
has not been this cheap since the mid- '80's. Enjoy it while it lasts!)


Cheers


Rod