Anyone used North Coast Photographic recently?

[Moose22]

Has anyone used North Coast Photographic for b&w developing, and, if so, were you happy?

Thanks.

Alll the time. I was in there Wednesday with some color, but their black an white is great.

As Alan says, Clayton 76 dip and dunk and they're pretty good for clean negatives. I do most of my black and white at home anymore, but still use them for color and some black and white.

These are all their dev and scan:

 

[calico]

I used NCPS for some B&W recently, mostly as a test for the future. The 120, shot with a Hasselblad, looked great but the 35mm came back consistently underexposed and muddy, Shot with my F6 in program mode using a 24mm lens with a light yellow filter. It was an overcast day so I didn't really need the filter. I sent those negatives back for analysis. I need to know if it was the lab or the camera to proceed.

Thanks. Let us know what you learn about your 35mm negs....

 

[calico]

Yes and yes. They use Clayton F76+ developer similar to D76 Kodak for b/w.

LTI Lightside in NYC is also very good for b/w but they don't do E6 chrome's.

Thanks, Alan.

I used LTI for some years, then ran into problems. I had horrible residue on 120 FP4 negs which could not be removed. Imagine a fog all over your images. They were blaming Ilford. Ilford insisted it was a lab problem, which it sure looked like to me.

After spending a lot of time documenting the problem, phone calls to LTI, many emails to Ilford, it turned out the problem was that LTI was putting hardener in their fixer. When they finally figured out what had caused the problem, they never contacted me to let me know that they had figured it out, never apologized for my ruined negs or all the time I had spent on the problem. I did ask for some free developing as compensation, which they gave. But I had to ask, they didn't offer. And no apology, as I said. After that, I didn't go back.

Thanks for input on North Coast Photographic.

 

[calico]

Alll the time. I was in there Wednesday with some color, but their black an white is great.

As Alan says, Clayton 76 dip and dunk and they're pretty good for clean negatives. I do most of my black and white at home anymore, but still use them for color and some black and white.

These are all their dev and scan:

Thanks, Moose22.

Those are really nice-looking scans. I usually don't like scans made by labs. What film and format were they?

 

[Arthurwg]

Thanks. Let us know what you learn about your 35mm negs....

Yes, can't wait. Rather not shoot another roll until I know what happened. But my guess is that it's something I did.

 

[Moose22]

Thanks, Moose22.

Those are really nice-looking scans. I usually don't like scans made by labs. What film and format were they?

Portrait of my friend and his baby is Delta 100 35mm
Carlsbad and the traintracks are FP4 35mm
the coffee shop is MF and I THINK it's Pan-F 50

The portrait is from December, the PanF/coffee shop was 18 months ago. I just had them do a couple of rolls last month but I don't have any online to share. They were great. though.

I'm hit and miss on their scans. They use Noritsu scanners and do a good job in black and white, but I am sometimes not happy with color and landscape scans. So I do critical color scanning at home most of the time, and just get the econo scan for color stuff.

But I've had zero issues with black and white scans. If I'm in a hurry or don't have time to set up the scanning rig at home I have no problem paying them to take care of it.

They do my color prints, too, and do a fantastic job.

 

[calico]

Portrait of my friend and his baby is Delta 100 35mm
Carlsbad and the traintracks are FP4 35mm
the coffee shop is MF and I THINK it's Pan-F 50

The portrait is from December, the PanF/coffee shop was 18 months ago. I just had them do a couple of rolls last month but I don't have any online to share. They were great. though.

I'm hit and miss on their scans. They use Noritsu scanners and do a good job in black and white, but I am sometimes not happy with color and landscape scans. So I do critical color scanning at home most of the time, and just get the econo scan for color stuff.

But I've had zero issues with black and white scans. If I'm in a hurry or don't have time to set up the scanning rig at home I have no problem paying them to take care of it.

They do my color prints, too, and do a fantastic job.

Thanks so much for all of that info.

I've never been happy with scans from labs, even labs with great reputations. Have been getting darkroom contact sheets at current lab, so I can see what is worth scanning, then I scan myself on my Nikon LS9000.

But I'm changing labs now due to some issues with current lab, and I think I'll try North Coast Photographic because of all the good comments here. As they don't do darkroom contacts, I'll try their large scans. I shoot b&w most of the time, so I'm glad to hear you like their b&w scans (and I like your samples, too). If afterwards I feel I have to do my own scans to be happy, in future I could just get the small scans for reference, like you do with your color film.

Thanks again.

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

Thanks, Alan.

I used LTI for some years, then ran into problems. I had horrible residue on 120 FP4 negs which could not be removed. Imagine a fog all over your images. They were blaming Ilford. Ilford insisted it was a lab problem, which it sure looked like to me.

After spending a lot of time documenting the problem, phone calls to LTI, many emails to Ilford, it turned out the problem was that LTI was putting hardener in their fixer. When they finally figured out what had caused the problem, they never contacted me to let me know that they had figured it out, never apologized for my ruined negs or all the time I had spent on the problem. I did ask for some free developing as compensation, which they gave. But I had to ask, they didn't offer. And no apology, as I said. After that, I didn't go back.

Thanks for input on North Coast Photographic.

Sorry that happened to you. I haven't used LTI in awhile. When did that occur?

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

If I recall, North Coast Photo developed these 35mm Tmax 400s. I scanned at home.

Removing ground brush with fire - 35mm Tmax 400

New Jersey Forest Fire Department clears bush by burning. Near Craig House, Monmouth Battlefield.

www.flickr.com

 

[AnselMortensen]

I have had NCPS develop & print 35mm B&W film, and the results were great.
As a matter of fact, I mailed them another roll yesterday.

 

[Huss]

Yes, can't wait. Rather not shoot another roll until I know what happened. But my guess is that it's something I did.

Arthur did you check my suggestions?

 

[calico]

Sorry that happened to you. I haven't used LTI in awhile. When did that occur?

Started June 2020, continuing into early 2021.

That was also when Ilford was having the mottling problem in low-ISO films, so I was dealing with that simultaneously. But the residue on the film was a totally separate problem.

 

[calico]

If I recall, North Coast Photo developed these 35mm Tmax 400s. I scanned at home.

Removing ground brush with fire - 35mm Tmax 400

New Jersey Forest Fire Department clears bush by burning. Near Craig House, Monmouth Battlefield.

www.flickr.com

Thanks.

(I hope all the little animals in that brush escaped the fire!)

 

[calico]

I have had NCPS develop & print 35mm B&W film, and the results were great.
As a matter of fact, I mailed them another roll yesterday.

Thanks!

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

Started June 2020, continuing into early 2021.

That was also when Ilford was having the mottling problem in low-ISO films, so I was dealing with that simultaneously. But the residue on the film was a totally separate problem.

I hope that the problem was because of Covid and they resolved the problem?

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

Thanks.

(I hope all the little animals in that brush escaped the fire!)

They do these preventive fires annually. They are controlled and burn very slowly into the wind. So any animal there could escape except I suppose insects.

 

[calico]

I hope that the problem was because of Covid and they resolved the problem?

Had nothing to do with Covid. As I mentioned, the problem was that they were putting a hardener in their fixer, and this caused residue to form on FP4 negs. A lot of residue. They were in touch with Ilford, so maybe Ilford helped them figure out the cause of the problem.

The residue did not appear on Kodak negs they developed for me. I don't know if it's because Kodak film did not react to the hardener or if it's because they didn't add hardener to fixer for those films.

I assume they stopped adding hardener to the fixer for FP4. I haven't been using them.

 

[MattKing]

I wonder if they were trying to use hardener with Ilford Rapid Fixer, which it isn't designed for, rather than Ilford Hypam Fixer, which is designed to be usable with hardener, if so desired.
By itself, FP4+ is perfectly compatible with fixer containing hardener - thousands of users of Kodafix fixer can attest to that.

 

[calico]

I wonder if they were trying to use hardener with Ilford Rapid Fixer, which it isn't designed for, rather than Ilford Hypam Fixer, which is designed to be usable with hardener, if so desired.
By itself, FP4+ is perfectly compatible with fixer containing hardener - thousands of users of Kodafix fixer can attest to that.

I don't know. Was only told the residue occurred because they were putting hardener in fixer.

 

[Arthurwg]

Arthur did you check my suggestions?

Yes.

 

[Arthurwg]

After talking to the lab I've concluded that it probably wasn't the lab but rather my use of old, expired T-Max 100, and a yellow filter on an overcast day. I'll be sending them more shortly.

 

[MultiFormat Shooter]

After talking to the lab I've concluded that it probably wasn't the lab but rather my use of old, expired T-Max 100, and a yellow filter on an overcast day. I'll be sending them more shortly.

Please let us know how the next batch turns-out. I'm considering sending some B&W to them, in addition to my E-6.

 

[Huss]

They do these preventive fires annually. They are controlled and burn very slowly into the wind. So any animal there could escape except I suppose insects.

Unfortunately the massive wild fire that is still burning in New Mexico is the result of a controlled fire getting out of control.

 

[Arthurwg]

Unfortunately the massive wild fire that is still burning in New Mexico is the result of a controlled fire getting out of control.

I'm about 25 miles from the fire. Had a good scare two weeks ago when it was just 25% contained, fanned by continuous high winds and heading in my direction. I was ready to evacuate. Now it's 65% contained and we are less worried. 3100 firefighters are doing a wonderful job.

 

[Huss]

Speaking of NCPS… I last used them a couple of months ago. They developed some Lomo Metropolis for me and it came out waaaay grainier than from other labs. So that is my one demerit.