This thread has made me think over the weekend about our film services , The following blather is only about professional labs with long standing reputations and history.
This is directed exactly to **please suggest a Good , Reliable Photo Lab** I will try not to swear or be unpleasant.
I have to say that under no circumstances would I feel comfortable running a mail order business, even if I could figure a way to pay my staff and rent and still offer $3 film runs.
I think if I ran my operation out of my home, had unlimited time to do the work and concentrated soley on this service then I am kind of sure I could make a living for my family.
What a concept, I imagine there are many here who could do this , so why not give it ago, I am sure there would be lots of people here willing to give you a shot at processing their film.
For my lab it is not a matter of looking down on 1 roll customers , rather how can my doors be kept open with that turnaround. For us we are printers of photographic works therefore I want to concentrate on this. We do process film for those clients wanting us to print therefore the film room is much a loss leader rather than an income generator. As stated in a post earlier we do other things that are the cost savers for our clients.
Last fall my film technician went to Asia to assist one of our clients from Europe, Nigel then brought the film directly back to the lab and we processed. This saved our client one commercial return flight from his home and one week away from his home. We are doing this again this fall, and a couple of planned trips next year.
We are in the process of making a new film processor, see Jobo last legs thread, but the most significant feature of this processor, is that it is on wheels and able to be stored or tucked away when not in use.
Film is not dead, this forum proves it , but the days of commercial jobs by professional photographers are dead, dead, dead, in Toronto and many large markets.
Those doubting that are either ill informed or not in the game.
I encourage anyone here to try to service the niche need, that seems to be required for this membership.
the list of quality operations that I listed , though still running film, they will ultimately not be around, or not willing to process film, the commercial world has gone digital , sadly a lot of labs that fell off the face of the earth were owner operators who were just not ready to invest in the digital world, it is expensive, my decision came around 2002 , I was early 50's too young to retire and for me I made investments with my business partner to work in both worlds, analogue and digital, the learning curve was steep and expensive. We feel it was worth the effort but time will tell.
Use it or loose it , is a phrase that I think apply's to film, there will come a time when the market place will say to the Big Manufacturers , it is time to only do short runs, it is time to stop coating this product, it is time to invest more in digital.
I think we all understand this , one way will be for those of us that want film around to still buy fresh, learn to process in home darkrooms and have fun, I do not think that there will be many professional labs willing to do so within 5 years, I hope I am wrong but the best E6 C41 lab in my area now only offers minilab processing. If they screw up, they will high rez the film and fix in PS.
It really is a sign of the times to me.