Hmmm.... First time I tried to post this it bounced, telling me it was an administrative request. Don't know what's up with that. So, let's try again...
Holy Cow Batman -- 30 sporrs postings in less than 24 hours! If traffic stays at this level, I'll have to enable the 'digest' feature on majordomo so folks can subscribe to the 'sporrs digest' as an alternative. NO, I have NOT done this yet, as I do NOT entirely know how (but could probably figure it out), and NO, I am NOT complaining -- I'm pleased that people are enjoying the list and making good use of it. The server could probably handle several thousand messages per day with ease. Anyway, on to the main subject... As for processing, here are my thoughts: Kodasux/Kodak does the best job on Kodachrome. A&I has MUCH better customer service, and is a real pleasure to do business with, but I do NOT like the end product, as I cannot get slides in A&I mounts to focus when projected, and the resulting slides seem to me to have more of a green cast to them than those processed at Kodak. YES, I have done experiments to rule out the possibility of the film as the cause of the green cast, which as we all know, certainly DOES happen with any KC that is not ripe (one of my biggest gripes about KC, but that's another story...) Sure, the horror stories of Kodalux scare the hell out of me, and I DO have my own extensive list of complaints about Kodasux, but what REAL options do you have? That's why all my KC goes to Fair Lawn; about all 5 rolls a year -- hee hee. I know a lot of folks out there say A&I is just as good, but man, to my eyes, it just ain't so. As for Fuji, hey, I don't care what the usenet geeks say, all E6 is NOT created equal. Now, I don't know if I buy that Fuji's magic CR-56 process is all that different from standard E6, but I DO know that any Fujichrome will look best if it is processed by Fuji. Yeah, the 2+ week turnaround is VERY annoying for something that can be processed anywhere in about an hour, but, IF you insist on the BEST possible quality, what other choice do you have? Again, A&I comes to mind, and their E6 work DOES look better to me than their K14 work, but you still end up with slides that won't focus, and they AREN'T quite as nice as what Fuji can do, and hey, they cost more too. Surprisingly (or not), in both cases, the BEST quality results are also the least expensive. Last time I checked, Kodasux mailers were about $4.29 and Fuji mailers were about $3.09 from B&H. David DOES bring up a very important point: DON'T ever send your Kodachrome to Fuji, or your Fujichrome to Kodak -- it just doesn't work. Plastic mounts ARE a big PITA as far as I'm concerned, and I avoid them at all costs. I suppose you COULD request that the film be processed, and returned to you uncut and unmounted (like you get for 120 slide film), and you CAN mount the slides yourself in cardboard mounts, though you'll NEVER get that pillow shape that Kodak slides have. Perhaps someone cares to comment about this? I've noticed that Kodak slides with the pillow shape focus just fine, but then again, so do Fuji slides which are essentially flat. But A&I slides which are also flat, DON'T seem to focus very well. What's up with that? Back to Fuji, I really DO like their results, as they make Fujichrome look truly beautiful. I would write up a review on Astia, but as I only have one roll of it back, I don't feel qualified yet, BUT, I would strongly suggest that you go try some, as the roll I got back had some of the BEST color of any film I've ever seen. I plan to do a LOT more experimenting with Astia just as soon as BN decides to run something that doesn't look like total @#$% (but that's another story...). One downside to Fuji is they DO screw things up every once in awhile. A friend of mine has, on two separate occasions, had somebody else's slides come back to him, and his slides got delivered to somebody else. However, in both cases, Fuji DID straighten this out, and he DID get both rolls of his slides. Of course, after seeing Joe's post, it would seem that Fuji is NOT alone in this capability. Finally, the only way to NOT be at the mercy of some lab, is to do everything yourself -- NOT an option for the KC shooters. I HAVE processed E6 before, and it is not THAT hard, but still, it IS expensive and time consuming, and you DO have to be VERY careful or your results will go to hell. Not a very realistic option for most folks. There's always B&W, but (sigh) nobody is interested in that anymore (sorry Warren, I meant publication wise). Jim Gilley [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.eesoft.com/rr --> SPORRS: Serious Photographers of Railroad Related Subjects X-Mozilla-Status: 0001 Content-Length: 1410
