I agree, I have had similar experiences here in Australia. One of the best "tests" you can do that takes no time and costs nothing is to ask what profile they use/accept. I have tried several different labs with digital printing gear ie the ability to output a digital file to photographic paper. The large pro labs where you understandably pay an arm and a leg for either Pegasus or Durst Lambda (IMHO the Rolls Royce of digital printers) which are great for larger prints, murals and poster size etc. Or if you need large quantities quickly in smaller sizes, multiples etc, labs using either Fuji Frontier 350 or 370 printers are the way to go. In Melbourne which has a population of around 2.5 million, there are only a few of these labs around, all in minilab type setups. However unlike the Agfa or kodak equivalents the Fuji people are generally well trained and understand the equipment they are using. (a kodak lab I tested running a digital system 88 rolled their eyes and asked me what a profile was when I asked what they were using!) The Frontiers as I understand it don't actually "use" or understand profiles. Any profile you supply is stripped off when its put into the printer, but it is actually internally in Srgb. Every Frontier I have tried also has a standalone computer system running PhotoShop with a knowledgable operator. The results you can get are excellent and even their full roll scans are very good with practically no correction or spotting required. I think that as with any lab you get the best results if you build a relationship with the operators. Fuji have obviously put a lot of thought into their system, to the stage that it doesn't matter what you supply them with, negs, transp, medium format, digital files, prints- you can get back whatever you want, and their Crystal Archive paper is excellent. They have got their act together and can treat your CD, memory cards or emailed Jpegs just as if they were negs but with negligible or no subject failures, even with tricky Industrial stuff under mixed lighting. People, portraits etc are are breeze. And no, I am not a Fuji staffer, just a working professional who has spent a fair bit of time and money over the last few years checking out the labs and the new technology they have been implementing and how it can fit into my workflow.
Frank Styevko > If you are having repro problems, don't give them adobe 1998 files just > convert tham all to srgb. This normally solves most problems as they are > not colour savvy and use the default settings on their computers which > is srgb and don't convert when stuff is imported into photoshop. > > I always ask if they know what adobe 1998 is, if there is a pause they > get srgb files. =============================================================== GO TO http://www.prodig.org for ~ GUIDELINES ~ un/SUBSCRIBING ~ ITEMS for SALE
