[PRCo] Printing 616 negatives

[Bob Rathke]

Fred,

I was at the local camera shop today, and asked them your questions.

They asume that their lab (Kodak) makes prints from rolls of paper, since sheet paper hasn't
been used by the big labs for years.  They showed me their price book, and it states that
they can make any common size print from 35mm, 110, 120, 127, 616, etc. negatives.  A
3-1/2"X5" B&W print from a 616 negative costs 59 cents, and takes about a week.  This
compares to 19 cents and 2 days for a 3-1/2"X5" color print made from a 35mm Kodacolor
negative.  The price book notes that some negative sizes (e.g., 616), when printed
full-negative, may not proportion out to the print paper size.  If this is the case, they
recommend that the customer specify the next largest paper size, and then accept one of the
dimensions not being full paper size.

The camera shop also told me that the lab is set up for daily procesing of 35mm color print
film, but they process slides and make B&W prints only one day a week.  So, depending on
which day of the week you drop off your slide film or B&W negatives, they could be returned
to you anywhere from 2-10 days.

And current "paper" causes another problem (in addition to the lack of contrast and
brightness adjustments): the "paper" is not paper, and so my "Photo by" ink stamp smudges on
the slick paper, and never really dries.  My solution is to use "Indexing" ink which is the
ink used to imprint product information on plastic containers.  However, because Indexing
ink dries so rapidly, you have to re-ink the pad every couple of minutes.  And if you get
any of this ink on your fingers, it takes three days of washing to get it off.  I use this
stamp on my PRC photos (just wanted to get this e-mail on topic).

There is also a custom lab near my office, and they offer to make contrast, brightness and
color corrections, but they charge double for this service.  They print from any size
negative, but they make only 8"X10" and larger prints.  The last time I checked, a standard
8"X10" print (B&W or color) was about $7, and with custom corrections it was around $15.
They may use sheet paper at this lab.

Bob 8/4/01





"Fred W. Schneider III" wrote:

> Bob:
>
> Are the Qualex black and white prints machine made or hand made?  The
> machines print onto rolls of paper (3 1/2 inches wide, 5 inches wide or
> 8 inches wide and permit not printing controls, i.e. dodging (holding
> back certain parts of the negative) or burning (darkening an area in
> relation to the rest).  Of course, hand made prints with an enlarger
> allow all sorts of controls, not just those I mentioned but even masking
> (you could sandwich the negative with a separate piece of film stock on
> which red dye has been placed to lighten certain small details).  This
> is a technique I've used to lighten trucks under cars.
>
> Fred
>
> Bob Rathke wrote:
> >
> > I continue to get B&W prints made from 616, 120, 4X5" and other large format negatives
> > through a camera store here.  They send them to the Qualex (Kodak) Custom Lab. I know
> > of several stores in the Chicago suburbs that use the Qualex lab.  It takes about 10
> > days, and the B&W prints cost more than comparable size Kodacolor prints, but the
> > results are good.
> >
> > Bob 8/2/01
> >
> > --------------------------------
> >
> > "Fred W. Schneider III" wrote:
> >
> > > He used to trade prints with scads of people.  Unfortunately, A) there
> > > is no longer a camera store in Pittston; B) Kodak no longer makes
> > > contact papers for 616 size negatives, 3) Kodak no longer makes any
> > > contact papers except in a very limited number of contrast grades (2 and
> > > 3 or 2, 3 and 4) -- the very high contrast and low contrast papers have
> > > joined the dinosaurs; C) Non one has made 616 and 116 film for thirty
> > > years, and other tools that went with it, such as negative carriers for
> > > enlargers and printing machines are no longer manufactured.  This simply
> > > means that you cannot take a 616 negative to your local camera store and
> > > even get it printed any longer And people like myself who can handle
> > > them are getting older and more tired.