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Lon Lon Rabbit posted:Thanks, will dig around online and then see what the big camera shops have when I'm in Kyoto tomorrow. Yeah, digitization can be pretty pricey, especially if it's not the bottom-of-the-line minilab scans. It does take more time/effort, but a scanner usually pays for itself before too long. I usually scan the first batch and walk away to do something else, then work on retouching those while the rest are scanning. edit: and have a beer or two while I'm doing it, makes tedious poo poo go by faster. Pompous Rhombus fucked around with this message at 18:51 on Apr 9, 2011 |
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Apr 9, 2011 18:48
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For basic processing/scanning, are any of the minilab type places generally considered better or worse? I'm planning to get a V500, but that's a paycheck or two away, so I'm looking at just paying for photo CD processing for my first few rolls while I figure out this film thing. I'd prefer to just go somewhere local (which means a chain store around here) rather than a mail-order service, for faster feedback on whether I've got my metering right. My main concern is that they not gently caress up my negatives for when I get a scanner later on and can rescan any keepers I have. Any suggestions? (Don't say Costco, cause I don't have a membership there.)
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Apr 10, 2011 02:17
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Beerios posted:For basic processing/scanning, are any of the minilab type places generally considered better or worse? I'm planning to get a V500, but that's a paycheck or two away, so I'm looking at just paying for photo CD processing for my first few rolls while I figure out this film thing. I'd prefer to just go somewhere local (which means a chain store around here) rather than a mail-order service, for faster feedback on whether I've got my metering right. My main concern is that they not gently caress up my negatives for when I get a scanner later on and can rescan any keepers I have. Any suggestions? (Don't say Costco, cause I don't have a membership there.) Haha, I was going to say Costco. Anecdotally I've heard they do a good job, although I don't have a membership there either. I'd just wait and save for the V500 personally. I haven't noticed any real difference in quality with the different mini-labs, they're all pretty much crap web-res. Watching the "techs" truck my negs around like freight made me wince, there were usually some scratches when I got them back.
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Apr 10, 2011 02:49
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Maybe I'll give Ritz a shot then. I've heard they tend to at least take better care of their chemistry than most drugstores and big box stores, so hopefully they're also a bit better at handling the negs. I do want to be sure I'm not underexposing before I shoot much more, since the camera is new to me, so I think I'll take the risk of some scratches vs potentially wasting a few rolls of film.
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Apr 10, 2011 03:17
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Lon Lon Rabbit posted:Thanks, will dig around online and then see what the big camera shops have when I'm in Kyoto tomorrow. Just to let you know, the Epson scanners go by a different naming system in Japan. I have a V600, but it's sold as a GT-X820. I personally found it cheaper to buy one from Amazon.co.jp than somewhere like Yamamda Denki. COD home delivery is pretty cool too if you don't have a car.
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Apr 10, 2011 03:44
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MediumWellDone posted:Just to let you know, the Epson scanners go by a different naming system in Japan. I have a V600, but it's sold as a GT-X820. That sounds so much cooler but is so much confusing, just like everything else from Japan.
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Apr 10, 2011 04:07
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Pompous Rhombus posted:Haha, I was going to say Costco. Anecdotally I've heard they do a good job, although I don't have a membership there either. I'd just wait and save for the V500 personally.     Click any of those to peep pixels. They stand up to the scrutiny. All but the last are as they came from the lab (last photo is a B&W conversion + bit of tilt correction.) They can go much higher if you want to pay a few bucks more. They scan to JPG or TIFF, with or without unsharp mask (I never use USM.) They have quality scanning equipment + processing that handily bests any consumer scanner. Along with their B&W hand developing Tuesdays and Thursdays I will never have a reason to develop/scan my own non-mounted slide film. I feel blessed.  I don't know if they do mail order; their site's kinda in the dark ages and not fun to navigate. I've been kicking around the idea of taking Dorkroom orders in to them, if there was enough interest and regular business, it could motivate them to start doing mail order in earnest. pwn fucked around with this message at 08:50 on Apr 10, 2011 |
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Apr 10, 2011 08:40
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pwn posted:Along with their B&W hand developing Tuesdays and Thursdays I will never have a reason to develop/scan my own non-mounted slide film. I feel blessed. Will they do requested chemistry for B&W dev? If so that's pretty awesome.
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Apr 10, 2011 12:04
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I've never asked. They might, if they were supplied with it.
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Apr 10, 2011 13:46
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pwn posted:I've never asked. They might, if they were supplied with it. Oh, if not that would be your reason to develop at home.
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Apr 10, 2011 14:49
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Ferris Bueller posted:Oh, if not that would be your reason to develop at home.
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Apr 10, 2011 14:54
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That's awesome, pwn. When I lived in Thailand I didn't have the poo poo to develop my own B&W, so I gave it to the (pro) lab that did my scans. They did an amazing job, my Tri-X at home never seems to have the same tonality :-\
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Apr 10, 2011 14:58
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pwn posted:Sorry, I thought you were asking a sincere question. In that case, I understand the benefits of home developing, and if you're comfortable being that hands-on with every step of the process, go for it. It was sincere, because if they did that is beyond awesome. It's cool just to find a place that will hand dev commercially.
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Apr 10, 2011 15:02
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After searching around a little more, I see that Target's labs pack the developed negs in individual sleeves instead of just tossing them all into the same pouch like most 1hr joints. That alone is encouraging, so I think I'll give them a try, and I might even end up going there for process-only after I get my scanner if they can consistently avoid trashing my film. I'll keep looking around for a decent independent place, but the only one I'm currently aware of in Pittsburgh is Bernie's Photo on the North Side, which is an awful store with terrible prices and worse service, and I'm afraid the processing side of the business is going to have the same "we're the only game in town so gently caress you" attitude (something that seems all too common around here). I don't feel like patronizing that sort of business, so I'll go with mailers if I have to. On the other hand, I'm definitely going to try out the processing services at Allen's Camera outside of Philly next time I'm out there (I have family nearby whom I visit several times a year). It's an awesome store in every other aspect so I'll try doing a few rolls there and see how it goes. Beerios fucked around with this message at 15:26 on Apr 10, 2011 |
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Apr 10, 2011 15:24
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MediumWellDone posted:Just to let you know, the Epson scanners go by a different naming system in Japan. I have a V600, but it's sold as a GT-X820. Thanks for this. Was wandering around Yodobashi today confused and unable to find any of the models mentioned earlier, booted up my phone and found your message. I also couldn't find them on Amazon last night, but now I can! The prices seem about 1000yen cheaper on Amazon, so not much, but better than nothing. Do you think I'll get enough workable data with a V600 so I can salvage some of my lazily metered shots in lightroom?
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Apr 10, 2011 17:02
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Lon Lon Rabbit posted:Thanks for this. The V600 + a good program like vuescan or silverfast should allow you to use multi exposure to get all that shadow detail.
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Apr 10, 2011 17:06
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Moist von Lipwig posted:The V600 + a good program like vuescan or silverfast should allow you to use multi exposure to get all that shadow detail. Rad. Any point in getting the professional edition of Vuescan (free updates for life, twic the price)? Scanning software seems like the kind of thing that would hopefully just work and not really need continuous updates. EDIT: Oh wow, somehow missed the whole thread about scanners. Thanks for all the help everyone! Might be back in here in a few paycheques to get started on doing some home developing. Lon Lon Rabbit fucked around with this message at 17:22 on Apr 10, 2011 |
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Apr 10, 2011 17:16
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Lon Lon Rabbit posted:Rad. Well the pro version lets you scan RAW/DNG files so you can use them in lightroom, which is pretty awesome. I mean you can use tiffs in lightroom but the RAWS seem to have more latitude. EDIT: *Blow dust speck off film* *Spit gob on negative* 
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Apr 10, 2011 17:21
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Lon Lon Rabbit posted:Might be back in here in a few paycheques to get started on doing some home developing. It's pretty much all set-up cost (check Craigslist or whatever its more popular Japanese equivalent is), but once you get that out of the way it's quite cheap. A bottle of HC-110 lasted me like a year. Altogether you can probably get started for $100-150ish, but it's really handy if you can find someone getting rid of their old stuff and can snag everything in one go. May not be as many great deals over there as in the USA though, I know Japanese people still shoot a fair amount of analog so demand is probably a bit higher. Moist von Lipwig posted:EDIT: Love my Rocket Blower 
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Apr 10, 2011 21:42
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$100 - $150? These are US prices, so probably a bit more in Japan, but... -2 Reel plastic tank: $19 -Changing Bag: $~15 (Not needed if you can lightproof a room, or make one yourself) -Powder to make a gallon of fixer: $4.99 -Powder or Liquid developer concentrate (D-76 clone): $5 Everything else (laundry clips, empty gallon jugs, thermometer) you probably have lying around your house. Moist von Lipwig posted:I mean you can use tiffs in lightroom but the RAWS seem to have more latitude.
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Apr 10, 2011 21:55
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Lon Lon Rabbit posted:
Apart from recovering from the cost of the scanner, there's no reason not to start developing after your next pay check. Like Reichstag says, you can started for around $100. The most expensive part is getting the tank + reels, and that is a once off purchase. Fixer lasts for ages and a bag of Fuji Super Prodol can be picked up from a Kitamura for the price of a beer. The actual developing process is quite easy as the temps and times don't need to be 100% spot on. Honestly, there's really nothing like the feeling of unwinding that first roll of developed negatives off the reel.
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Apr 11, 2011 01:39
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This guy says you can start B&W for 50 bucks; http://chromogenic.net/develop, I'm unsure of how much more color costs. I looked it up sometime last week, because I would like to start developing my own film, I just need a good scanner.
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Apr 11, 2011 01:52
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That's cool, for some reason I thought the chemicals cost a lot. I have a new camera arriving today or tomorrow that I want to get the hang of, first, so I'll get a few rolls through it and developed by someone else to make sure I'm metering everything ok with it then give my own developing a try.
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Apr 11, 2011 03:25
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Speaking of developing chemicals, nobody answered my earlier questions. 1. Can I re-use developer? 2. Can I re-use stop bath? 3. If I re-use fixer (99% sure I can do this), should I dilute in some fresh stuff, or just use one batch a few times then make new? 4. How many times can fixer be re-used? Also, these discussions always seem to concentrate on two chemicals (developer, fixer) but the step-by-step instructions I've seen always include three (stop bath). Have you guys been pouring in fixer right after pouring out developer? MediumWellDone posted:Honestly, there's really nothing like the feeling of unwinding that first roll of developed negatives off the reel.
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Apr 11, 2011 03:59
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Well, it turns out that the Target I drive by every day doesn't do photos, so in the interests of seeing what the hell I'd shot already, I dropped my film off at Walgreens for processing and a CD. The good news is that the negatives came back individually sleeved and the ones I pulled didn't have any dust or scratches visible to the naked eye. The bad is that they only bothered to scan at 1545x1024  but at least that was enough to confirm that I don't have any light leaks and the only underexposures were my own fault. Now I really want that scanner badly, cause editing JPEGs is just no drat fun. 
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Apr 11, 2011 04:08
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ExecuDork posted:I agree with this - it's quite fun, even if you can't really evaluate your pictures as 24x36mm negatives hanging in your bathroom. My first roll was 120 film. Felt good. Recently I've been shooting a lot of 135mm and it just doesn't feel the same. I'll be remedying this next weekend. To answer your questions 1. Don't do this. 2. I just use water, so I'm not sure. 3. You can re-use fixer until it gets depleted. Then just mix up a new batch. 4. There is test to check the fixer's potency in the write-up on the first few pages of this thread. Also, don't pour fixer down the drain. MediumWellDone fucked around with this message at 10:34 on Apr 11, 2011 |
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Apr 11, 2011 05:01
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Yup you can reuse stop bath, some even have convenient indicators like turning a different color when it's all used up.
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Apr 11, 2011 06:25
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i just use water as stop bath and reuse my fixer. v  v
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Apr 11, 2011 08:30
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guidoanselmi posted:i just use water as stop bath and reuse my fixer. v Ditto, have always used just water. And echoing earlier poster, fixer needs to be disposed of at a proper facility, don't pour it down the drain.
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Apr 11, 2011 11:35
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Fixer can be reused, a lot. 1 Gallon can be used for dozens of rolls of film. Indicator stop bath is nice but honestly, it was staining my fixer yellow so I stopped using it.
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Apr 11, 2011 11:45
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Clip testing fixer 4lyfe yo.
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Apr 11, 2011 12:39
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Pompous Rhombus posted:Ditto, have always used just water. And echoing earlier poster, fixer needs to be disposed of at a proper facility, don't pour it down the drain. When I first started processing I did a lot of searching (and posted a few times here after that) about what to do with spent fixer. For a lot of people dumping out fixer seems to be ok because of the quantities (I maybe develop like 2 rolls/mon on average). Otherwise, the best solution was putting steel wool in a spent fixer tank where Fe exchanges for Ag - so you can just pitch the spent steel wool and dump out the 'iron water.'
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Apr 11, 2011 18:16
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guidoanselmi posted:Otherwise, the best solution was putting steel wool in a spent fixer tank where Fe exchanges for Ag - so you can just pitch the spent steel wool and dump out the 'iron water.' Whoah. Seriously?
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Apr 11, 2011 19:03
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HPL posted:Whoah. Seriously? Never done it myself but the chemistry sounds right. Just use the finest grade steel wool you can get to maximize the surface area, and make sure it doesn't say stainless.
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Apr 11, 2011 20:16
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I've head the same about steel wool. I'm going to try it soon. Now, a question! The lovely lab in NYC always returns my film with crap on it, and I'm tired of endless content aware filling it out- How I clean slide film? Would Re-Final Rinsing clean it up or do I have to buy some pec-12 film cleaner?
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Apr 11, 2011 21:13
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Wash it with a wetting agent, dry it in a dust-free space
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Apr 11, 2011 22:15
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Soooo Final Rinse! (by Kodak)
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Apr 11, 2011 22:31
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evil_bunnY posted:Wash it with a wetting agent, dry it in a dust-free space Yeah, a few drops of Photo-Flo is all you need. run it between the pads of my thumb and index finger (no fingernails!) to get the gunk out, then hang it to dry in the shower.
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Apr 11, 2011 22:32
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Photo flo on slide film? Would that mess up the special Final Rinse?
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Apr 12, 2011 00:11
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the "special" final rinse, or stabilizer, is usually just water with a small part of formaldehyde.
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Apr 12, 2011 03:01
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