Photo Labs in Calgary, Alberta

[tom_nevesely3]

I was wondering where you (people from Calgary, Alberta and Area)

get your film developed.

 

I've been going to London Drugs but I've had too many problems with

them scratching my negatives as well as cutting them inside the

frame. Yikes!

 

I'm looking for recomendations for a more "profesional" place that

will treat my film with care. Any thoughts?

 

Thanks.

[davidrwilliams]

Tom: I feel your pain, as I think I've been through most of the labs in Calgary. Recently I've been generally pleased with the processing and proofing work that Vistek does for me.

 

Ages ago I sent my film out to Winnipeg Photo who did a great job, but their service was painfully slow, expensive, and their depot location hours didn't work with my schedule, so I tried Costco for while. Costco was, well, cheap - until I noticed that their bone-headed operators consistently mis-cut the strips (cuts into the image frame, like you're experiencing) and denied any responsibility for damage to the films. Ya, right.

 

With a London Drugs nearby, I tried them for a while but wasn't happy with their hit and miss print quality, so tried a few rolls at West Canadian Colour, and then Nova Photo who used Kodak Royal paper and did a decent job on most films. However, after Nova messed up a number of rolls with dirty processor pinch rollers (and ended up cleaning and reprinting 10 rolls that had neg gunk showing up on the prints)...and then did had the same problem with the next rolls I processed with them...I was looking elsewhere.

 

Next was Camdale Photo, which was run by a couple of studio pro's that run a lab when they weren't shooting. They printed on Kodak Supra pro paper and did a reasonably good job, but their portrait-oriented bias for colour and density left something to be desired.

 

After trying a few others (Saneal, ABL, Photo Image 2000, etc..) next was Time Photo...the first proofs they processed for me (NPH Gen 1 on original Kodak Royal paper) were absolutely stunning - beautifully neutral, good colour, beautiful skin tones. Generally, their printing of Reala and NPZ were almost as good as the NPH, and led me to use and recommend Time to others for a few years. However, after they started having trouble with calibration and colour consistency (I believe this started when the Kodak Royal paper emulsion was changed and their lead Printer left), I was back to London Drugs for a while until (yet again!) seeing dirty negs and pinkish "silly putty" skin tones even off a Frontier.

 

Frustrated with London Drugs, and lamenting the quality I used to receive from Time Photo, a couple of years ago I tried Vistek and have been generally happy with them since. I've never had a dirty negative, the proofs are very consistent, well balanced and well exposed - their proofing of new NPH on CA glossy is excellent.

 

Vistek prints on Fuji CA Supreme glossy or regular CA semi-matt papers using a Frontier. To my eye, there's no difference (other than cost and speed) between their same-day, next-day and 4-day 35mm services. Their only spots on an otherwise spotless record were one roll of misplaced slide film (gave me someone else's slides in place of mine - but we got our films back to the right owners in the end)and when a couple of rolls of 120 NPZ that I had pushed that weren't loaded in the processor properly and were fogged part way into each roll's last frame.

 

Through this time, there's been a lot of change in the Calgary lab business. The Lab is gone, West Canadian Colour merged with Vistek (so the WCC lab that I tried several years ago is now the updated Vistek lab), The Camera Store is doing D&P work (contracting it out to Nova, I think) and Time Photo is now Don's Photo owned by the folks that run Don's in Winnipeg and Regina.

 

Anyway, these are the experiences that I've had over the past several years - I know it's very likely that some of the labs that I've tried have improved, but with Vistek doing a good job for me, I figure why take a risk?

 

I hope this helps - please post back with what you discover

[tom_nevesely3]

Thanks David,

 

I'll give Vistek a shot.

 

Cheers!

[jean_paul_samson]

If I may offer an opposing opinion, I used to use Vistek/West Canadian Colour for my

35mm film processing and printing (4x6 and 8x12). They are using a Fuji mini-lab for

printing. I have always had good results on my 8x12 enlargements, and their prices are

competitive to London Drugs. However, recently they have the sharpening turned way to

high when printing 4x6, and so the images tend to look "pixelated" and some textured

surfaces such as rocks can take a dithered appearance.

 

Like you, London Drugs's quality is much too variable, so I'd avoid them.

 

My current choice is Nova, which also uses a Fuji mini-lab, but they've tuned down the

sharpening on 4x6 prints. This results in a smoother, more pleasing image.

Unfortunately, their prices are signficantly higher than London Drugs or Vistek.