Need a decent, cheap, no frills E-6 and B/W lab in BOSTON!!! Seriously!

rkennedy

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So after a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG absencen from APUG, I have finally found myself a grad student at the Museum School in Boston.

Should be a TON of good labs around right?

Right?

Apparently NOT!

Seriously. NOBODY can point me to a simple, run-of-the-mill E-6 and B/W lab that isn't either -

A) insanely pricey

or

B) so far away it might as well be New Hampshire or Vermont.

I am carless for the next 6 months, and even then I don't want to drive here (seriously....it is like Mad Max on the streets here....).

The only lab I found was some back-door one that was recommended by a guy at Hunts who said it would cost me $13.00 a ROLL to just DEVELOP some T-Max. Apparently the soup is mixed by blessed virgins raised in the shadow of Ansel Adams' own lab....

I mean I am working with a Holga for this stuff. When I was in Tucson it was $5.00 for a roll of 120/35mm. Sure, I should expect to pay more here, but THAT much more?

Any help here?

I just can't imagine that a city this big has bupkiss for labs....
 

arigram

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Try Campus Camera in Kenmore Square. Its close to the Museum School and many students from schools around use it.
 

TimVermont

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Stay far, far away from ColorWreck aka ColorTec. The Museum School doesn't have any in-house facilities?
 

arigram

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No, the Museum School doesn't, or atleast it didn't when I was a student there.
Regarding Colortec and CampusCamera, I think the latter sends the color stuff to the former but develops the BW in-house.
There is a BW-only lab in Newbury Street, close to the Tower Records but I can't remember their name and it was expensive.
I can't think of another lab right now, sorry.
Maybe you can ask in NESOP?
 

roteague

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No further than the nearest post office: http://www.calypsoinc.com/ Their prices can be beat, and you won't have to walk past your front door to pick the slides up.
 

removed account4

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near south station you will find spectrum color lab http://www.spectrum-imaging.com/ i used to bring work there, they do very good work ( if they are still there ) you might also look into dorian color lab in arlington or there is another one in the olde schwab mill, they both do very good work. there used to be a place off of newbury street called "black and white", maybe they are gone ... there isn't any place left i don't think, that does non-hardened fix/archival prints. amy hahn was the last one in boston but she closed her shop a while ago ..

good luck!

john

ps. is dave messina still there at the smfa ?
 

bill o

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If memory serves, Spectrum is just under $8 for a roll of 120, for E6 dev only.
 

removed account4

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bill o said:
If memory serves, Spectrum is just under $8 for a roll of 120, for E6 dev only.
Click to expand...


wow!
i guess that isn't so cheep ...
and my memory is from 1999 ...
 
OP
OP

rkennedy

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Campus Camera is gone. Priced out of their location and "hoping to come back," but I have a feeling gone is gone.

I found Black and White, but I figured the site was one of those dead sites that the hosting co. has taken over. There are all these Google ads on it when you click any link about ANY service! Check it out at Dead Link Removed

Plus the intro says...


When I see the words "online photo lab", and "We are an online photo lab (virtual), so we have several options for processing your prints." on a site that is just a bunch of Google ads....

Well...how can I take THAT seriously?

How in the hell can a major metropolitan area with a ton of art schools and artists and well, PEOPLE have such a lack?

And Dave Musinna is still there. Haven't run into him yet. Then again it has been just over a week.... I haven't seen him at any of the the "Meet the faculty" events they held.

Then again with a high number of MFA students acting like this was high-school, I don't blame him...

Guess I am getting grumpy in my old age...

Damn kids....
 

removed account4

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found black and white's website for you ..
looks like they moved and are on hunnington ave now ( maybe close to the smfa )

http://www.blackandwhiteinc.com/

ahh musinna, i had a feeling my memory was failing and i spelled his name wrong ..

john


 

PhotoPete

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Your neighbors at MassArt have a dropoff/pickup service come and do processing. I am sure you could slip your rolls in with them. Not sure of the pricing. The photo cage is on the 5th or 6th (I think) floor of the Kennedy bldg., which is the one closest to the #39 bus stop on the corner of Longwood and Huntington.
MassArt also has a complete (I think) E-6, C-41 and B&W photo lab. You might be OK to use those facilities as part of the "Colleges of the Fenway" consortium. Or you could just act like you belong there and would probably not ever be asked to produce any ID.

If you have the space, I have a portable 6x6 enlarger (comes apart easy and fits in a suitcase) and tanks and reels that you are welcome to borrow for as long as you need them. Also some less-than-great-but-still-usable safelights that I no longer use.
 

Robert Budding

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Dorian Labs in Arlington is very good. But they're a bit out of your way. But check with Hunt's in Kenmore Square - they used to send their E6 to Dorian.
 

PhotoPete

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Did I say borrow? I meant have. As in to keep and never return.
 

Jepaul20

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Boston Photo Labs

Hello,
I just recently moved to Boston and had to find a lab to do my C-41 processing. I have a few friends who have taught and lived in the area and they told me a few labs to go to, many of them listed in previous posts, however I found that many of the ones that were supposed to be really good had closed down over the past 6-8 months. I was also told to stay away from a place called ColorTEC (Look them up on google and you'll find many people calling them Color Wreck) The only place I have found in Boston who still does it all and very well is Color Services in Needham. (http://www.colorservicesinc.com/ ) They are also the lab that does the pick up and drop off service at MassArt which is on the 6th floor of the kennedy building. MassArt does not have its own lab. They pick up between 11am-1pm and return your film the next day M-F. Hope this helps.
 

bjorke

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That's a pretty solid list! You might want to also check on the Boston Street yahoo groups list -- streetshooters tend to burn a LOT of film so they need it cheap and no-frills too (and most of those guys have remained d-resistant, despite the predictable 'oohh, M8' fawning of the past week)

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