I'm parochial, critical and quality conscious, based on very long experience with many labs mostly in Melbourne, and remain loyal to those that provide service when it is required and on time. My present lab is PRISM Colour at Abbotsford Street, North Melbourne. E6 done Tues and Thurs; C41 virtually every day. Wisely, no traditional wet darkroom B&W work, but a lot of stunning digital colour and mono products coming out from film scans onto exotic Ilford and Kodak media. If you're doing colour digi work and own scanning, you'll be expected to have a working knowledge of Adobe and perceptual colorimetrics, as they charge for lengthy intervention on files that are mismatched in whatever detail. PRISM is cheap and efficient with a large pro client base; check out Alex Pavlou Photography (wedding pro) down a few hundred metres on the corner of Chapman Street.
I was a loyal Lab-X customer, but since they vanished(!!), I've been using Bond Imaging, near Richmond Railway Station, and they have been great - no problems, same price as everyone, friendly, lots of services, and fast - email me when a job is done. Also, they appear to be the only lab left in Melbourne still doing C41 processing for sheet film.
I've never had a problem with roll film processed at Vanbar in Carlton, either, but they are SLOW (three days for C41), and (minor point) I hate the way they tape up the rolls so tightly - makes the film really difficult to flatten for printing or scanning...
I used to use Bond's when I was living in Melbourne and Geelong. In fact I've been using them since 1983 when I got my first MF camera. I can't remember ever having a problem with them.
Mike
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