A&I Lab to halt E-6!

<p>Per their website http://www.aandi.com/fp.html, as of December 23, 2011, they will no longer process E-6. All mailers must be in by this date. Got to get going with some slide film to use my last one!</p>

<p>What?! Why are they halting E-6? Did I miss something?</p>

<p>This is not new news; it has been known to be in the plans for quite a while. E6 lines are dropping like flies. Several things may be contributing: the relative lack of "need" for transparencies, and the cancellation of Kodak's duplicating film. Without the volume continually goiong through the macjhines there is no way to maintain high standad of quality... and it isn't financially worth keeping the E6 equipment running. Too bad for us who like and still find a use for transparency material, but welcome to the new world!</p>

<p>I have been contemplating a return to film (large format) so I haven't payed attention to processing yet. Of course, I was planning on shooting print film as it has, if I remember correctly, a larger exposure latitude. Just a little shocked, I didn't realize that E-6 processing had gone downhill that much.</p>

<p>Just to help you avoid further shock -- finding lab to process LF C-41 isn't that easy anymore. A&I and a few other still do it, but...</p>

<p>Fortunately, my local camera store (B&L of Carbondale, IL, bless them) still do both C-41 and E-6, but we're a campus town.</p>

<p>However, I'm ashamed to admit that these days I find it easier to scan C/N than slides, and have made very little use of the E-6 service. The trouble is that so many are like me, they like to know it's there, but really aren't shooting it very much any more. :(</p><div></div>

<p>Brian, you're killing me here. The nearest camera shop (about an hour drive) processes MF in house, and I think he said he can send out LF. Of course, who knows where he is sending it to....</p>

<p>Go Salukies!</p>

<p>For those mystified, Heller's comment relates to the Egyptian racing hound that is the mascot of the university teams - located down here in the "land of Egypt" = Southern Illinois</p>

<p>Thanks Heller :)</p>

<p>For another topic raised in my post on the Ricoh Hi-Color camera -- the sewing machine in the picture is apparently for stitching panoramas.?</p>

<p>Southern Illinois, eh? According to my buddies in Chicago, you don't exist (yes, this is tongue in cheek).</p>

<p>JDM... my local lab, that did everything except LF C-41, just closed despite being across the street from a large university. I suspect the university may have "gone digital" but don't know for sure.<br>

(BTW, I worked in Sparta for a while and lodged in Mt. Vernon. I liked So IL but was very happy when the project ended.)<br>

Zach... sorry to make you cry. I'm crying too. I'm now starting to use mailorder labs whereas in the past I could just send my courier (my beautiful bride) and get my processing done in just a few hours.</p>

<p>There used to be a song used by the state tourism board in ads in Chicago:<br>

"Just outside Chicago, there's a place called Illinois"</p>

<p>Historically and still today, about half our undergraduate student body is from Cook County.</p>

<p>This shows why Kodak keeps dropping E-6 emulsions: less and less places to process them properly. They're down to just E100G and E100VS anyway. Fuji has apparently been dropping some E-6 emulsions as well, but they are less crisp about what has been discontinued. Fuji has the unrewarding victory of E-6 market share as the market evaporates.<br>

Kodak wasn't kidding when they said that Ektar 100 was the replacement for their E-6 films...</p>

<p>Well, this is not good news in general for slide shooters like myself. However, AI was always way over priced - like twice what other specialist pro labs like TheSlidePrinter / Denver Digital Imaging was/is. And more than twice what the Fuji slide mailers run, which is done by Dwaynes Photo, also a pro lab, even though they do mass processing.</p>

<p>I've been contemplating shooting some E-6 in 4x5. Are there good options out there? I can do my own B&W, but I'm not going to do color (I have well water that sucks and I don't have great temp controls). I guess I'd better send my one shot roll of 120 E-6 to A&I soon (that's who I've been using; I just don't do that much color).</p>

<p>Here in Australia we are seeing just the reverse. Slide film sales are up but you now go to a specialist lab that does it by hand. And lets face it, you can do your own black and white.</p>

<p>I've been shooting E6 35mm slide film since 1983, actively since 1989. I've just gotten over the death of Kodachrome, and now Kodak is about out of the E6 business. I loved E100GX for its slightly warmer shadows vs. E100G. I used to shoot E200 and E100SW as well. Fuji Provia 100F is OK, but I much prefer Kodak E100GX as it has better highlight detail and scans better too. Now even ebay has no E100GX available. I bought a 20 roll brick on ebay just a year ago for $90, wish I'd bought more. I used to get bricks of 20 rolls of it for free from work (Kodak would send out 20 pack bricks to us, and we had no use for it, so the editor would just give me one or two). </p>

<p>I love shooting slides, and even better, I love viewing slides. They have a special look that digital will never have. Tomorrow I'm going out with my Nikon F100 and a couple rolls of E100GX to capture some of the last views of the fall foliage. </p>

<p>The issue for me isn't that you can get E-6 processing, for now, but that you can get it for film sizes larger than 35mm. Local labs don't do 120 and 4x5.</p>

<p>While not the same quality as the professional labs, E-6 can be done at home quite reasonably. I've used the Tetenal kit and it works well. I have no idea how long the slides will last but right out of development they look great and are easily scanned. Once scanned they can of course be printed, which can last forever. And if you need to digitally project, a file from a scanned slide is just as good as a digital camera file. </p>

<p>Yeah, I know it's not the same as a good old fashioned slide show, but I've been making mental notes on what I'll do when the bad day comes. While i hated Kodachrome I lamented its loss. My real heartbreak came when Astia died.</p>

<p>It was the decline and potential loss of E-6 that killed film for me, more so than the decline of 220 and some particular emulsions along with the closing of so many local labs. While I'm happy with digital, I lament the decline and loss of components of the film industry. In my personal view, most of this is change but not progress.</p>

<p>I currently have Velvia 50 in my F4 and my Pentax 67. I will be sending it to Panda Lab in Seattle for processing. The staff at Panda is friendly, helpful, and do excellent work. They have produced beautiful 20 x 25 inch prints for me from 6x7 Velvia slides. They have also processed my 6x7 b&w film including printed proofs, with excellence.<br>

http://www.pandalab.com/</p>

<p>Been pretty happy with the results, prices, and turnaround with North Coast Photographic Services in Carlsbad, CA. They also do decent scans (~25 Mpixel for 6x6) for about $12/roll at time of processing. I think they use dip-n-dunk too.<br>

http://www.northcoastphoto.com/</p>

<p>Second the vote for NCPS. They've been doing an excellent job for me, both on E-6 and C-41.</p>

<p>JDM, I did Grad school in "Little Egypt" and glad to see B&L is still going strong. Say Howdy to Lyle next time you're at the Photo Dept. Now I know where to send my E-6 when Allied Photo in St. Louis stops processing it. But so far they've been doing a great job with my crazy re-incarnated AGFACHROME. Also known as "Rollei CN 200 Digibase".</p><div></div>