Hi all - interesting thread and I thought I would chime in to correct in places and enhance the discussion.
We hear you loud and clear! We are addressing some of the oddities/shortcomings of our systems/info we dispense, in the next few weeks mainly with the introduction of a new website which is going to dramatically improve the order journey, give customers more information and allow customers to tailor their order to their preferences much more closely. This site has been long in coming - we've fallen out with 2 developers who couldn't deliver what they agreed to, and almost fell out with the latest one....but they pulled it round and we're very pleased with the result so far. We are at the final, and rather laborious, stages or populating it and entering sku's, images, text etc etc.
Another way we are continuing to invest in our business as it continues to grow: last week we commissioned Hostert Pro GmbH to build us a new B&W dip and dunk processor - we believe this will be the first machine of it's type delivered to a UK lab for probably at least 20 years, probably longer. This will replace our existing B&W processor which is now suffering from lack of manufacturer support and we want to replace it before our own parts stock dries up. the new machine will probably be delivered and installed in October.
This investment also expands our capacity - we will always expand capacity, rather than try and suppress demand (ie. by refusing business).
If anyone has any queries, I would always welcome direct contact either by emailing me to
matt.wells@ag-photographic.co.uk or call us on 0121 366 0016 and ask to speak to me.
Just addressing some of the points made in the thread:
.................When Asda used to do film the girl told me that she puts in fresh chemicals everyday early in the morning
So if any lab does your film when the chemicals are nearly exhausted, it will show in the quality of results from the neg.
I think there's a bit of a misunderstanding going on here. Commercial processors that we or any lab with any level of volume will be using have chemistry standing in the main processing tanks which is replenished from separate replenishment tanks. The chemistry doesn't get exhausted, as long as the rep tanks are filled. But if they run dry most processors would not allow further film to be fed into the machine anyway. Draining the main tanks and re-filling is something that happens only occasionally for routine maintenance and cleaning. As every film passes through the machine the tanks are automatically replenished exactly depending on the film area (which is measured by infrared or by the weight of the film) and the existing chemistry is pushed out through an overflow. So the tanks are continually being "turned-over" - there is a critical mass required as the tanks (particularly developer) should be fully turned over every, say, 1 - 2 weeks (varies, depending on chemistry). The problems start when this isn't happening and where the rep is then starting to oxidise too. As many labs and the likes of Asda have seen their volumes fall, this triggers complaints as the quality cant be maintained, so they pull the plug and stop processing as it's just too much agro.
So, probably the employee in Asda was topping up the rep tanks every day, but highly unlikely (and very undesirable for consistency, and expensive) to be draining the main tanks and re-filling - although a bit wierd to fill the rep tanks as a daily routine as the concentrates are designed to make a set amount (eg, 10L, the volume of the typical tank) and you fill the rep tanks as and when the level drops and triggers an alarm. And that happens randomly. So not sure how they could be adding fresh chemistry "every morning", it doesn't really make any sense.
The way to best consistency and clean negs is a good throughput, so the tanks are being turned over frequently. It can be monitored with Control Strips and analysed.
That's C41.
E6 is another ball game and requires very tight control and absolutely a critical mass. We run Fujifilm control strips every day and these are analysed on a densitometer. The chemistry is then tweaked and balanced by a technician who needs to be experienced to do this. It's very hard to deliver consistency in any other way, and, as E6 customers tend to be the most demanding (for good reason, many earn a living from their film, or they are advanced amateurs) you would hear very quickly if something wasn't right. Over the years we have won a lot of E6 business based on our consistent and clean processing, such as
https://www.brucepercy.co.uk/ who shoots almost exclusively on Velvia 50; and
https://www.transientlight.co.uk/ also mainly Velvia 50.
B&W sits somewhere in the middle. We recently were forced to switch our B&W developer because Fuji Hunt killed off Negastar - this was a really great all rounder, very similar to XTOL in this sense, but more efficient to use as a liquid concentrate. We have now switched to Tetenal Neotenal which, again, offers a good all round performance - which is what is needed when we're processing for such an array of different customers and we need a one size fits all. There have been labs pop up and offer different B&W developer choices. The big problem with this is it's totally impossible to offer such choice unless you're charging quite a lot of money for it. Anyone not charging a lot wont have costed their time properly! Obviously, such bespoke development would have to be via small tanks, or mechanised small tanks (eg. Jobo or similar), which are fine for the photographer doing their own development, but totally inefficient for a commercial service.
We had hoped to run an open day this year, but with the Covid crisis, this obviously hasn't been possible. However, once the new processor is installed and we have settled in with this, and if the covid situation has subsided, then we will arrange this and hopefully get some special offers from suppliers etc. as well as giving customers the opportunity to come and see our set up and how it functions.
They could just tell us, though - e.g., Ag spends a whole page banging on about MB and DPI, but never gives us the most useful numbers, the pixel dimensions:
Personally, for me, I want to know how much data is in a file, as it comes out of the scanner. Maybe this is personal preference and just the way I work. But it is an industry standard and you'll find many established labs work this way.
eg:
https://metroimaging.co.uk/price-list/#ccd
But we do understand that people like to work with the pixels - so we are addressing this. Our new site will give accurate dimensions and size information when you are selecting a scan option.
As far as Ag translucent sleeves are concerned, I bin them after transferring the negs to sleeves that fit a ring binder, which the Filmdev sleeves already do. As you say, it's all a matter of choice and long may we have that choice.
We will be introducing a choice of sleeving on our new site which will include a choice of 2 types of ring binder sleeves aswell as the standard sleeving.
This did make me chuckle. Esp when you go on their site to discover that every single medium scan is 18Mb. Be it 35mm, 645 or 6x9!
It does sound strange! This is all being addressed in the new site.
All the best,
Matt.