Re: Scratches was Re: filmscanners: Dust removal software?

[RogerMillerPhoto@aol.com]

If you don't have a good lab near you, check the yellow pages phone directory 
on the Internet and locate a lab that caters to commercial, portrait, and 
wedding photographers.  Call or write them for prices and procedures.  Many 
of them will pay shipping charges both ways for photographers who send them 
large volumes, or they may share shipping costs with you.  All such labs 
accept sheet film, medium format film, and 35 mm transparency film.  Most 
will also accept 35 mm C-41 film.  The prices will be a bit higher (maybe 
much higher for 35 mm C-41), but the quality will be outstanding and you 
won't have scratch or dust problems.

I once had a wedding customer on a tight budget who insisted that I process 
the film at COSTCO (a discount 'wholesaler' with very cheap film processing) 
instead of my regular pro lab.  The negatives were all scratched and the 
scratches were clearly visible in the prints.  I have used COSTCO on occasion 
for 35 mm C-41 processing and on many occasions for 35mm slide processing 
when I wanted to run a cheap test.  In 100 percent of the cases, the film was 
severely scratched.  In order to keep prices low, the film has to be 
processed on a roller transport system.  And in order to maintain profits in 
a low margin business, the equipment maintenance is reduced and scratches 
result.  I'm surprised that COSTCO's customers don't complain about the 
quality, but I guess if you are willing to use a point-and-shoot as most of 
them do, quality isn't much of a concern in the first place.

I have received 35mm E-6 film from my pro lab that, on close inspection with 
the right lighting, showed a very faint scratch.  It couldn't have been cause 
by the lab because they use dip and dunk.  I suspect it was caused during 
manufacture or else the felt strip on the film cartridge caused it.  But that 
type of scratch doesn't show up when I scan it with a SprintScan 4000 nor 
have I ever seen it in a Cibachrome print.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again:  If you are really serious about 
your craft, you'll attack the dust and scratch problems at their source 
rather than try to compensate later with ICE or the clone tool.

In a message dated 9/2/2001 4:05:34 AM Pacific Daylight Time, 
harper@wordweb.com writes:


> My local experience has been that E6 are generally treated very well.  I
> haven't had problems with E6 films getting scratched but there have been a
> couple of times slides have turned up with thumbprints on them.  Colour neg
> film is a completely different story.  If you've ever watched the way staff
> throw the films around it's a wonder the scratches aren't worse.  I've
> switched to a different lab that handles the films better, but even so the
> C41 films are much more likely to be damaged because of handling during
> printing.  I could get away from that by dev only and then scanning, but
> prints are a handy guide to which photos are worth the time and hassle of
> scanning.  Also - please bear in mind that we don't all live in areas where
> there's a wide choice of labs!  There's lots of minilabs in my area, but
> only one lab which does E6.  Most of the minilabs are set up for the tourist
> trade and IMO treat films very poorly.  I'm just glad I found *one* place
> that does treat the films reasonably well!
>
> Rob
>
> PS I had one lab claim that the scratches made by their gear were caused by
> my camera - I have processed B&W film myself by hand and it had no
> scratches.  I took my business elsewhere.