[Leica] Obtaining Color Prints

["Bud Cook" <budcook@ibm.net>]

I suspect that I'm part of a minuscule minority that's only interested in
slides for projection.  The reason I'm into slides is that the alternative
of obtaining prints from color negative or color reversal film seems very
expensive.

Do LUGgers simply send their film off to Kodalux or some other automated
service to obtain prints.   I've tried that and found that the results are
pretty poor compared to a projected slide.   My wife likes prints so she's
been having them made for a long time.  She's tried a lot of sources and
found that Kodalux is about as good as anybody else she's tried.  However,
even film shot with Summicrons won't produce prints that are noticeably
better than those from a good P&S.

I've had a few Cibachromes made but I can't afford to have a professional
lab make prints for me.  I've looked into setting up my own color lab but
found that it would take a lot of time and money to do that as well.  Just
thinking about trying to maintain liquids at a fixed temperature gives me a
headache.

Now there is a third option (digital) but that's not cheap either if the
goal is to have better than drug store quality results.

So where do LUGgers get prints made?  At what price?  What kind of quality
are you getting?

TIA,
Bud Cook