Cheap 4x5 E6 Processing

[mike_lewis3]

Hi,

I am embarking on a 4 week trip where I plan on shooting at least 150

4x5 E6 slides as well as some medium format, and I am kinda tight on

money after buying all this film and I was wondering if anybody knows

where I can get it done cheaper via mail-order or locally

(preferably). I am in the Rochester, NY area and the lab at my school

charges $2.00 a slide and that adds up.

 

Thanks,

Mike

[steve_renwick]

You may be luckier than you think. The local shop here (SF Bay Area) charges $3.00 per slide.

[john_shriver]

$2.50 each around here.

[frank.schifano]

It might be cheaper if you DIY. Look around for large volume (1 gallon or better) E6 kits. Freestyle has a 1 gallon kit for around $76 that will do 128 sheets of 4x5. That works out to about $1.53 per sheet when you factor in the shipping costs and you use the kit to its capacity. If you already have the equipment to process B&W film, this could be a viable alternative for you.

 

A link to the product description:

 

http://www.freestylephoto.biz/sc_prod.php?cat_id=1002&pid=4704

 

The instruction sheet in pdf format:

 

http://www.freestylephoto.biz/pdf/AristaE6.pdf

[art_arkin]

My local pro lab here in London charges some 3.50 UK pounds a sheet. $2 is not just good, I think its incredible!

 

Simple solution is shoot less or organise the exposed sheets meticulously and process them in batches over a period.

 

Or as someone else suggested, DIY. Sink some dough into a basic Jobo, use it for a while and sell it on. If you buy carefully then you probably wont lose a penny, in fact you might make a few. There is always a demand for these processors.

 

But at $2 bucks a sheet... far out!

[mike_lewis3]

Thanks all for your input. I've thought about the DIY way, but hell, I have a tough time getting consistant results with B&W developing.

 

I found a lab called Calypso Imaging (http://www.calypsoinc.com) that is $1.30 a sheet with free shpping on orders over $80... so if I get 200 sheets of film processed I'd save like $140... which is a lot of money.

 

(They also say free pushing and pulling, but this feature is useless to me)

 

Has anybody used this company before? Are they reputable? I think it might be worth sending my film out to get processed (and wait a little longer).

 

Thanks again,

Mike

[john_shriver]

Well, I'd sure send Calypso a few sheets first, before commiting the whole batch to them.

 

E-6 isn't cheap chemistry, and current low volumes (shrinking demand) make it hard to keep a good line running. You may get what you pay for...

[john_castronovo]

Here in NJ we normally charge $2.10 a sheet for two hour Q-Lab processing using hanger type processing, so your local source isn't bad at all. Whatever you do, be sure that you don't wind up going to a place that uses a roller transport processor. Dip and Dunk hanger machines are the most reliable for cut sheet film. Considering that your order would not be done on a two hour basis, I can give you a discount. Contact me directly and we'll discuss the details.

 

John Castronovo - tpi

1-800-242-3686

[michael_halberstadt4]

I've been happy with Calypso thus far. But they just moved to Santa Cruz, and I'm hoping

they still offer good quality e-6 processing at the low prices they have in the past. Though

the quality of local processing in the Bay Area (New Lab) is very good, the pricing is just

way too high for those of us who photograph for non-commercial reasons.

 

What surprises me is that few labs offer substantial discounts for non rush service. From

my understanding of how all this works, it is far better to have constantly full racks in the

processor at $1 sheet as opposed to the handful of sheets per day at $3 each. Labs are

presumably already paying to staff the e-6 processor, and monitor the chemistry, costs

that don't go up much if they have more work. Reasonable processing prices would keep

many of us using film, which is also in Labs interests.