Lab recommendation?

[r.s. adams]

Acutally there are three things I want to do:

 

1. Say thank you to all of you who provided such excellent advice

and recommendations on a good stable light weight tripod and ball

head. Really excellent, thanks.

 

2. I want to produce some really top notch images and have been "out

of it" long enough to be out of touch with the latest technology (I

used to have great cibachromes made from trasparencies). So, what's

the best way to go? Negative to scan to digital print? Transparency

to something? Cost is not an object because the quantity will be

limited and the clients can afford, and want, the best.

 

3. Given your response to the above, can you recommend a lab that

has internet presence, and/or a good catalog and phone service

personnel where I could send my material to have such prints made?

 

I know it is asking a lot, but I'm at a loss at where to go for

really first rate prints.

 

Thanks again,

 

Scott Adams

[scott_eaton]

How big do you want the prints?

 

I've worked with all the above mentioned technologies and also did commercial custom printing for years. If you prefer to shoot slides I'd only consider going the digital route and having a drum scan > LightJet/Lambda digital print made if you want the assurance of the best possible print for your money and staying with the technology curve. Optical Ilfo/Ciba printing is dead, has been for years, and is also the most overhyped process I've ever had to work with in my experience.

 

West Coast Imaging or Calypso Lab in California both have a strong web presence and a high profile list of customers for this type of service. Expect to pay about $100 for a gallery quality 16x20. If you are going to go the digital option I'd also advise working with more subtle slide films and avoid the temptation to use the higher contrast and saturated film like Velvia and Kodak VC because they simply don't scan as well as they look on a light table.

 

For 8x10 and smaller I've had better results using 120 print films like Fuji NPH combined with the digital Fuji Frontier system (also a lot cheaper), but print films have always ruled in the proofing/portrait realm anyway and the Fuji Frontier exploits this with it's tuning for print films.