Rob wrote; I find most prints from labs have whatever colour saturation the operator wanted to select and bears little relation to the film used. I have had overblown saturation on portra NC and washed out pics from Reala. When I scan Reala it becomes apparent that the prints from the lab were the fault though and my current lab usually does a reasonable job. I have found that on dull days Reala can be a bit muddy when rated at the 'normal' 100ASA but set the camera to 80ASA and develop as normal makes even dull days look fantastic!
One of the problems with mini lab processing is if it doesn't see a lot of a particular film it may not be balanced well for it. Most minilabs today have a unichannel system where they balance to a "base" film and the machine "corrects" for all other emulsions. If you give them something uncommon, like a pro portrait film or even Reala it may not have enough of a reference to do a good job. Agfa and Konica's Pro 160 films always gave the machines I worked on fits. Moral is if your lab doesn't do a good job with the film you are using either switch film or labs. BUTCH Each man had only one genuine vocation - to find the way to himself. Hermann Hess (Demian)
