Personal Processing

Hi there,
i am also one who is pissed off with receiving scratched negs, although i carry neg insurance, it is still time and effort to get what you originally wanted!!

which got me thinking..........

so tell me if you think that this this is a good idea.
What i want to do is start up a nice little processing plant at home where i can develop my film without scratching it!!!
Eventually what i have now thought to do is to offer this service to everyone else where yours truly hand processes the film. by doing this i would be able to give options like Push/Pull, Cross processing etc.
This whole idea would be a completely hand touched and bespoke service.
although i am unsure as to what i should offer in terms of processing, which is where i need your opinions!

C41 & B&W will be on offer, but who out there would like an E6 service?
i will acommodate films 35mm,120,220 and 5x4

However (dont shoot me on this) what i would do with the films would be to scan them in, colour correct (will have an option to leave this out as i know some people prefer the first result) and place them onto a CD for you. i have not thought about supplying prints at the moment, but what i would offer would be inkjet prints upto A2+ using an epson 3800, with a variety of papers and test strips. this printing would be at a later stage should demand be there.

the P&P, would consist of a CD in Jewel case, and negs in a Neg bag

I Reckon around £6 - £7 inc P&P for the Dev and the CD, it will be a fixed price so there will be no difference between which format you send.

tell me what you reckon also is there much of a demand for E6?

I would be interested in trying out a C41 and E6 service if you set this up. Not B&W though as I do this myself.

£6 - £7 seems reasonable.




Steve.

What you would be providing is essentially one service of many provided by the other pro labs out there - the key thing is that they offer other services along side the processing so as to make their general offer more attractive. Most of your customers would have other requirements in addition to process and scan, such as print. Ultimately, unless you are substantially cheaper, it would be difficult to see why anyone would choose your service over an established pro lab.

In terms of price, ultimately I think you will find it hard to charge less than the established pro labs for the pro service you are offering, especially when you add up all the time, materials etc. and then adding in a margin on that - I think you will find time is the biggest overhead.

Time will be a particular issue if you are not using something like a Noritsu to scan. Also I wouldn't want to process on a commercial scale in a Jobo or something.

If you are serious, I would hunt around for the right gear because this is the only way it will work and allow you to be competitive.

Matt

Matt5791 said:

Ultimately, unless you are substantially cheaper, it would be difficult to see why anyone would choose your service over an established pro lab.

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The way to be successful is sometimes to be different. Most pro and semi-pro labs offer packages rather than personalised service. If you could tailor your service to individual customers' requirements you could be successful.

Are you looking at this as a commercial venture? i.e. to profit from it? Or just to effectively pay for itself so you can justify owning the equipment for your own use?

Either way, good luck with it.




Steve.

What the hell is "neg [ative] insurance"?

What the hell is "neg [ative] insurance"?

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Ensuring the negative.

Sigh. Yes I know THAT!!

I just wasn't aware that "negative insurance" was something you could buy, like life insurance or homeowners' insurance!!

Some labs seem to employ the famous slasher Freddy Kruger. The best labs are careful and only rarely is something marked or scratched. The point is even the best will once in a great while scratch something. When you are the worker doing your own there is noone else to be mad at.

Steve Smith said:

The way to be successful is sometimes to be different. Most pro and semi-pro labs offer packages rather than personalised service. If you could tailor your service to individual customers' requirements you could be successful.

Are you looking at this as a commercial venture? i.e. to profit from it? Or just to effectively pay for itself so you can justify owning the equipment for your own use?

Either way, good luck with it.
Steve.

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Don't disagree that it could easily be successful, and good luck.

I just think that this service would be out gunned by all the other pro labs who also give a personal service - places like the Darkroom, Palm Lab etc all use dip and dunk machines (at least I know Palm do) and give a very personal service.

The question is what are you offering that the others are not - the answer is that you are infact offering less.

Don't work for nothing!

If your goal is for profit you will need volume. You will need highly automated processing equipments to deal with volume. Or your cost of labor and cost of chemicals will quickly derail your home processing business. Your enthusiasm of doing it will wear out quickly once you scan a dozen rolls of negatives. I have all the equipment at home to do all these (C-41 and E-6). I have a highly automated Jobo ATL processor. I wore myself out quickly in processing a dozen rolls of films in a day. Scanning of them wasn't too bad because they were my own films. But I can not imagine if I were to scan films for others. I would wish to be able to press a button then walk away and come back a few hours later.

Home processing for your own films is fun if you have a right volume, not too many nor too few rolls for a day's time. I do result in many absolutely beautifully processed negatives in addition to many ruined ones as well. It is fun to do. Cost of films and chemicals (mostly C-41 for me) are really affordable. It's well within a few hundred bucks a year. No more than $300 for sure. I can crank out easily 50 rolls of 220 C-41 films a summer depending on the number of trips I can make to nearby national parks each month. Cost of gas is far higher than cost of films and processing chemicals. But if you love photography and love to shoot with films that's the way to achieve a highest level of enjoyment of this hobby. I'll say go for it and forget about making profit from it. You can do it for friends sometimes. But it's mainly for yourself.

If you've costed it up and reckon its for you, good luck to you. I would say that working for your own enjoyment, and working for customers can be very different, and the one can reduce the enjoyment of the other.

I restore vehicles as a hobby. I won't work on other peoples cars for payment, except for favours or bartering of skills.

By that I mean, I'll do some welding for someone, if they help me pull an engine. Keeps things easier IMHO

Hi Ruaridh,

If you can process E6 Super 8 cleanly and reliably at £7 per 50', I'm in.

kevs