Re: filmscanners: Grain in Color negative Film

[Roman Kielich® <panromek@bigpond.com>]

At 12:00 24/03/2001 -0500, you wrote:


>I'm not interested in the recipie, I'm interested in the food, and, to
>use the hoary old cliche, the proof is in the puddin.  There are other
>3rd party formulations out there, or at least there used to be, and
>some of them are apt to be different from each other.  They certainly
>are for E-6 and RA-4.

I am talking about commercial products sold by major suppliers, I am not 
talking about stuff published by E. Gehret and alikes. By analogy, you can 
drive your car on toluene or ethyl alcohol. How fast, and how far, it is 
another story.


>Not likely if you're at a good one, and that's the main point.

Labs, like people, some are good, some are bed. IT applies to mini-labs as 
well as to profi.


>Perhaps you've never seen variations in C-41 processing quality
>(including grain size) first hand?

to contrary, I have seen more than you can imagine, it is my profession and 
hobby for 40 years. As for grain, instead of unsupported anecdotal 
evidence, can you quote any scientific publication? How do you 
differentiate between bad processing and bad  films' storage? People tend 
to blame labs for their own mistakes. I have seen films with two 
Christmases, and holidays in tropics in between. How many X-raying, what 
about temperature, humidity, occasional fumes from fresh furniture, etc. 
Been there, done that. How many times customers are bitching about poor 
quality of underexposed films?
I know, that it is easy to maintain good quality in photo processing. Like 
in any quality process you have to measure, and plot, and respond when the 
plot goes outside the limits.

>  There's no absolute reason a
>mini-lab couldn't produce state of the art results, but personally I
>wouldn't bet the ranch on it.

I found the biggest problem is with poor color correction and film 
handling, not with wet processing.


>Dave




"Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It's already tomorrow 
in Australia".