Best place to get E6 developed?

[Mr Magoo]

If you want a lab with large volume, then Dwayne definitely has a very large volume of E6 processing.

Do Fuji mailers get sent out to Dwayne's, or does Fuji still process E6 in-house? I've been a longtime customer of NCPS but I thought I'd try out other labs for my first rolls of 120 film. Most of the labs I've come across have been mentioned in here too.

 

[dscottjorgenson]

If I may ask a side question... does modern Ektacrome fade or turn blue as it ages? Any E4 or E6 I shot back in the 70's had all faded or turned blue, or both before the 80's were over. Anything Kodachrome, even from the 50's never degraded one bit.

I've been shooting Fujifilm Velvia (now Velvia 50) in medium format since 1997 - stored (some mounted in Wess plastic mounts, most unmounted) in archival PrintFile or Vue-All sleeves, in binders, at room temperature, in moderate-to-low humidity, all the while (same room in the same building, even).

The results? With some of my oldest mounted images (25-plus years of age, say) I have, for the past few years, begun to notice a very slight shift in the magenta direction. It is very subtle so far, and not noticeable unless comparing with an unaffected frame from the same original shoot. With my unmounted images, I notice no change of any kind.

The reason for the difference? I think it might be because the mounted images have their surface exposed to air more than the unmounted images, which are in contact with the archival plastic. But I'm not a chemist and I'm just supposing. (Its not the mounts themselves; if it were, I'd think the film surface in contact, or closer to, the mount plastic would be more affected than the film surface further away, but that's not the case. The magenta shift is even throughout the film surface.)

Anyway, other than this, there is no other degradation in any of the film, the oldest of which is now 28 years of age: no loss in contrast yet, no fading, no etc.

Take it for whatever its worth!

 

[Taylor Nankervis]

None, not ever, not even a single roll, of my Velvia 120 images have been mounted. One continuous sleeved strip, cut into rows of 3 for sleeving in archival sleeves, with vetting carried out to determine which frames will go to scan and printing, in which case individual frames are excised and mounted in poly card masks with instructions printed verso for the lab to follow.

Gepe still make glass slide mounts, and these are best for long-term storage over cardboard or plastic. There is another player in that market whose name escapes me at the moment. (Matin??).

Cardboard might be nostalgic, but it is a product of antiquity today.

Who doesn't like a wander down memory lane?

Cardboard-mounted Kodachromes in my files date back to 1977, and long before that to around 1965; photographs shot by my two globe-trotting aunties; PanAm planes, smoking and boozing in First Class, Trooping the Colour and Tattoos were favoured subjects for their Kodachrome (using Minolta SRT101b cameras) Kodachrome's peculiarly ... normal ... palette of reds, blues and greens endures admirably to this day (everything is in dark storage). Sadly, Ektachromes from the same era (60s to 70s) have long ago faded to grey.

 

[John Salim]

Gepe still make glass slide mounts, and these are best for long-term storage over cardboard or plastic. There is another player in that market whose name escapes me at the moment. (Matin??).

I think you'll find Gepe stopped manufacturing all photographic products about 4 or 5 years ago Taylor.

John S

 

[Pioneer]

I usually do my own now but when I just have one or two rolls, or am not in the mood, I send mine to Blue Moon Camera. They do a great job for me.

 

[dscottjorgenson]

...
Gepe still make glass slide mounts, and these are best for long-term storage over cardboard or plastic. There is another player in that market whose name escapes me at the moment. (Matin??).
...

Yes, Matin, from Korea. In fact they're the only player remaining in that market, so far as I know. I have a few of their 6x4.5 and 6x7 mounts and they're not bad, but I still prefer the Wess mounts (out of production now for several years at least). Both are glassless mounts, which can expose the film to a little more air even when the mounts are sleeved, and so I think that's what that very slight color shift I mentioned is attributable to (at least that's my theory). Indeed, I have binders of mounted sleeved images where the sheets are packed close together, and I could swear there is no color shift on the oldest images there, compared to binders where the sheets are less packed and hang more loosely (hence more exposed to air), and where I think I notice the shift in some of the images.

These mounted slides are the ones I use for labeling (title, location, date) the images I scan and print. Most of them have identical, or very close, companion originals unmounted, since its my style to shoot duplicates whenever possible (but of course its not always possible in certain conditions like rapidly-changing light, clouds, wind, surf, etc). I probably should have invested in glass mounts way back then, but they were significantly more expensive and money was tight. Oh well - despite the shift, they are usable still, and meanwhile all of them have been scanned and backed-up - and with film, its just a matter of time anyway, no matter what we do! - or at least that's what I tell myself