Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2005/10/02

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Subject: [Leica] Contact Sheets from Costco!
From: aaron.sandler at duke.edu (Aaron Sandler)
Date: Sun Oct 2 18:36:03 2005
References: <6.2.1.2.0.20051002195116.07ad0d50@imap.duke.edu> <000301c5c7b7$aed7d490$0300a8c0@vol5>

Hi Mike,

Yes, the Durham Costco...Cleanliness, I guess, depends on your 
standards...they are perfectly acceptable to me.  If I brush my negs off 
with my staticmaster before scanning, then I need to do only a little PS 
cleaning before printing (no digital ICE on my scanner).  I'd sometimes 
prefer cleaner, but that having been said, I have had _much_ worse done to 
my negs at University Photo in Chapel Hill, which is the closest to a pro 
lab that I know of in the area.  Not to mention what other one-hour lab 
travesties have been visited on me over the years.  And, indeed, what 
travesties I probably visited on others when I used to work in a one-hour 
lab in the late 1980's.  Anyway, I've been a Costco only kind of guy for my 
C41 developing for the past couple of years and am *usually* very 
satisfied.  I suppose there's really only one way to find out if it's as 
acceptable to you as it is to me...

If you do try them, I suggest you write down on the envelope that you want 
"All Automatic Adjustments" turned off for the scanning, or else you'll end 
up with very contrasty, overly-saturated (to my eyes, anyway) scans.  If 
you want to make any prints there, they have an on-line upload/ordering 
setup (at www.costco.com) complete with available ICC profiles.  I like 
their lustre paper, and you can also request "no automatic adjustments" for 
the on-line prints.  This results in some pretty decent prints.

And, no, I don't work at Costco...I'm just a satisfied customer...if you go 
there, mention my name and they might treat you slightly better...I'm in 
there a lot.  :)

Best,
Aaron

Michael Volow wrote:
>How nice. Since I am from Durham also I'll have to try this--I assume you 
>are referring to  the Durham, NC Costco. I had never used them for 
>processing. How clean are your negatives when they are returned?
>
>----- Original Message ----- From: "Aaron Sandler" <aaron.sandler@duke.edu>
>To: "Leica Users Group" <lug@leica-users.org>
>Sent: Sunday, October 02, 2005 8:04 PM
>Subject: [Leica] Contact Sheets from Costco!
>
>
>>Maybe I'm the last person in the world to discover this, but...contact 
>>sheets are not dead!
>>
>>I had been dreaming about being able to look over contact sheets of my 
>>recent rolls while sitting in a cafe, and wishing that the little 4"x6" 
>>index prints that the one-hour lab I use at the local Costco always makes 
>>were big enough to be useful.  I knew they could print 8x12s, so I 
>>thought there was no harm in asking whether they could make an 'index 
>>print' that size.  "Of course," they said.  So, today I got my first 
>>digital versions of contact sheets from my latest rolls and they're 
>>fantastic.  They're cheap ($1.50 each!!!) and, even better, they are 
>>slightly enlarged and easier to edit than a normal contact sheet!  What a 
>>revelation.
>>
>>So, now for my C-41 film, I will add the 8x12 'index print' to my 
>>standard order of develop and scan to CD with all automatic adjustments 
>>turned off. No prints, thank you very much.  Grand total (with tax) $7.50 
>>per roll, easy to edit, and enough quality for posting to the web.  Not 
>>bad at all...might even make up for the increasing film costs!
>>
>>Hope someone finds this useful,
>>Aaron


In reply to: Message from aaron.sandler at duke.edu (Aaron Sandler) ([Leica] Contact Sheets from Costco!)
Message from mvolo at acpub.duke.edu (Michael Volow) ([Leica] Contact Sheets from Costco!)