hey moira,
i've always preferred deluxe (it was called soho lab a year or so ago, and soho images before that). len (who has sadly left) was often really good at sorting things out, quietly mentioning when he thought you could get something cheaper round the corner, etc., etc. since the takeover i've found them at times pretty difficult to deal with - everyone's perfectly nice, but if you're not bringing in a lot of cash or paying full commercial rates, they don't have the same time for you as they did a little while ago. the reason i still use them is that their technical staff are of the old school, and seriously amazing.
i've heard a few people say their stuff has gone missing at ilab, or the quality hasn't been up to scratch. i've got no idea, but i've only used them occasionally because of that - if you're sending them 400' or something, or 100' as i've occasionally done, it's just easy to lose in any commercial lab. both labs do 16mm, both will also scan to sd/hd/2k. deluxe famously no longer prints. i think it might only be deluxe that now does b&w baths, and they only do them once or twice a week. no idea about technicolor.
one thing i would say: presumably the deal with fuji is the complete16 package? if so, remember that the scan is only to sd. fuji will tell you that labs will happily upgrade for a fee (sometimes i've been told by people in those labs that they won't). the situation is that they will upgrade it, but firstly the fee is quite high, and secondly, they put the upgrade through as a separate job, which means it's subject to minimums. so you need to put enough stuff through the lab at once that the upgrade to the scan alone costs over £150. for small things, it's pretty annoying.
another thing is that the fuji package is used by students quite a lot, and people often say the labs just don't take it as seriously as they should - that your stuff's more likely to get lost or scratched. so it's important to send it in with a properly filled-in camera report, so they know it'll be assessed by someone 'serious' when they send it back to you, and they take more care over it.
obviously the above is a bit of a mix of personal experience and what i've heard from others, and it's quite hard to go on that when you're dealing over the telephone. i hope some of it's useful though
edwin
Hey folkshas anyone used Deluxe,
Technicolor or Ilabs (ilabs) in London?we've a potential stock/developing/printing deal with Fuji in Dublin & can use either of the three - any pointers?cheers Moira
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Received on Sun Jul 10 2011 - 09:18:13 CDT
