Over the years we've used many photo labs, including Kodak and Fuji and some pro labs that we had varying degrees of success with. Prices varied, but quality varied even more. In looking for a lab we considered several criteria -- turn-around time, quality of processing, and service. We now use AGX film processing, owned and operated by Michael Lussier, for all our film processing needs. Why?
Let's talk about service first, by illustrating with two examples. Recently I was contacted by a major manufacturer to do an advertisement that could have been quite lucrative. They needed the images immediately, and as luck would have it I had just sent a batch of film to AGX that had the types of subjects the firm was looking for. I called Michael, as did the manufacturer, and we explained the dilemna. When the film was processed, Michael personally went through the film and picked a selection of images he felt would work based upon our descriptions and sent them to the client! Imagine your lab doing that?
Last fall, one of our participants on a Triple D wildlife model shoot used a new camera (he had switched from Nikon to Canon) which he was still unfamiliar with. The photographer normally shoots on an automatic mode with evaluative metering (NOTE: We advocate, and teach at our CNPC workshop) and, because he was using a new camera, he failed to see that his EV dial was cranked down to a +3 position as we shot the last subject of a five-day shoot. Now the question was, when did the dial get set to +3? Did it just happen, or had it been on +3 for the entire shoot? The photographer was in despair, as he assumed that everything he shot would now be wrong, and he'd be wasting the money for travel, lodging, the shoot fee, and the film -- a huge financial loss.
We suggested he send his film to AGX and have a strip test done on the film. Michael did this with some random rolls, made the corrections necessary in developing for any 'off' rolls, and corrected the photographer's problem. The result -- the shooter lost nothing and his film, and his shoot, were saved!
Michael's processing is clean and fast, with cardboard mounts that feel silky smooth and polished. Slides are returned clean, and are returned fast. Typically, if I Fed-Ex film to AGX on Monday I'll have the film back in-hand by Friday, a pretty important turn-around for us considering our travel schedule.
The above isn't an ad, but at the most recent NANPA conference several people asked me who does my film processing (after asking me if I've switched completely over to digital yet!), and everyone I spoke with was impressed by the service anecdote I just mentioned. I felt more should know of this as well.
You can contact AGX at:
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