About Clark Photo Labs

The Wogster wrote:


I don't know about the quality of the chemistries, is it a little guy in
the back room mixing it up, where the consistancy may be debatable, or
is it that they buy the 50L jug from someone else and rebottle it, or is
it that they have an actual plant making the stuff, somewhere (most
likely in China).

I forget the name but there is a large company in the west end. It
wouldn't suprise me if they're mixing up the stuff.


Dry chemicals, naw, then you need to keep even more stuff around, and
you need a scale to weigh the stuff. From what I can tell, there is
some hazardous stuff in there too.

I wouldn't want to eat the stuff but it's all reasonably safe with normal
handling. My scale cost me something like $10 off Ebay.

http://www.bonavolta.ch/hobby/en/pho..._chemicals.htm







I saw that, they have the Kodak ones too, again in large sizes. I
wonder if they have smaller amounts available, but not listed. What
chemistries are you using?

Fuji fix and bleach. I make up my own developer and stabilzer. I make up
the exact volume I need for the tank I'm using so nothing to go bad. For
RA-4 I'm using the Foto-chem kit.



This creates a problem though with multi-part chemistries, suppose your
making a 5L and you need 25ml of part A and 250ml of part B, to get down
to a 1L batch you would need some way of storing 20ml, there are very
few 5ml bottles around.....



Spend some time in the grocery store. Maybe a small spice bottle? Odds are
something can be found.

Nick

Lloyd Usenet-Erlick wrote:
On Mon, 03 Jan 2005 14:35:43 -0500, The Wogster
wrote:


Lloyd at @the-wire. dot com wrote:

On Mon, 03 Jan 2005 11:12:42 -0500, The Wogster
wrote:

... and take 8 hours to make one friggin'


perfect AgBr print. The mental health aspects alone will far and above
counteract the fumes from stop-bath and fixer.



jan305 from Lloyd Erlick,

Don't forget the beneficial effects of quietly
trickling water ...

regards,
--le
________________________________

Yup

Hey Lloyd, you might know this, so I'll ask here, reply publicly or
privately, up to you.

Know where in the heck one can get some C-41 chemistries, in Toronto,
that aren't the Kodak 25 Gallon size. I know Unicolor makes a 1L kit,
and so does Agfa and Paterson, but where can you get them? Henry's
downtown has one Agfa kit, that has about 5cm of dust on the top, and
they are not know for good prices on this stuff.

Mix my own, same problem, how to get the stuff in smaller quantities,
'cause I don't have room to store big containers of anything, besides my
significant other, wouldn't be happy about having some of the
ingrediants lying around.....

W




jan705 from Lloyd Erlick,

I don't do any color work, so I'm no authority. But I
would try the following sources because they are very
good at what they do.


Thanks Lloyd, I'll try to give these folks a call next week.


W

Signal Chemical
12 Carlaw St.
Toronto ON
416-461-8181
-signal is a general chemical seller, but they are
attuned to the photo market. they make fixers for mini
labs and such, so I'm guessing they will supply C41
materials too. Definitely phone before you go down
there, and try to talk to their chemist named Stan. He
is extremely helpful; I think he's into photography.
They like cash.

__________________________
west camera
514 queen st west
Toronto Ontario M5V 2B3
416-504-9432

Peter, the owner, is extremely helpful and will try to
do anything required, as long as he can be a capitalist
about it! (I've always had reasonable prices from these
folks, and in fact find them the best place to buy 120
format TMY.) They have a C41 lab in their shop, so very
likely they could provide.


________________________________
Here's another, which I've found excellent for many
specialty chemicals, but they are not necessarily into
kits of photo materials (they might like to be, you
never know; I do know they will talk to you sensibly).

Nymoc chemical supply
24 McGee Street
Toronto ON M4M 2K9
(416) 465-1929




Again, I never work in color so I really have no
certain answer to give. But these are good sources for
many things photographic, so they're good to post.

regards,
--le
________________________________
Lloyd Erlick Portraits, Toronto.
voice: 416-686-0326
email:
net: www.heylloyd.com
________________________________

Lloyd Usenet-Erlick wrote:
On Mon, 03 Jan 2005 14:35:43 -0500, The Wogster
wrote:


Lloyd at @the-wire. dot com wrote:

On Mon, 03 Jan 2005 11:12:42 -0500, The Wogster
wrote:

... and take 8 hours to make one friggin'


perfect AgBr print. The mental health aspects alone will far and above
counteract the fumes from stop-bath and fixer.



jan305 from Lloyd Erlick,

Don't forget the beneficial effects of quietly
trickling water ...

regards,
--le
________________________________

Yup

Hey Lloyd, you might know this, so I'll ask here, reply publicly or
privately, up to you.

Know where in the heck one can get some C-41 chemistries, in Toronto,
that aren't the Kodak 25 Gallon size. I know Unicolor makes a 1L kit,
and so does Agfa and Paterson, but where can you get them? Henry's
downtown has one Agfa kit, that has about 5cm of dust on the top, and
they are not know for good prices on this stuff.

Mix my own, same problem, how to get the stuff in smaller quantities,
'cause I don't have room to store big containers of anything, besides my
significant other, wouldn't be happy about having some of the
ingrediants lying around.....

W




jan705 from Lloyd Erlick,

I don't do any color work, so I'm no authority. But I
would try the following sources because they are very
good at what they do.


Thanks Lloyd, I'll try to give these folks a call next week.


W

Signal Chemical
12 Carlaw St.
Toronto ON
416-461-8181
-signal is a general chemical seller, but they are
attuned to the photo market. they make fixers for mini
labs and such, so I'm guessing they will supply C41
materials too. Definitely phone before you go down
there, and try to talk to their chemist named Stan. He
is extremely helpful; I think he's into photography.
They like cash.

__________________________
west camera
514 queen st west
Toronto Ontario M5V 2B3
416-504-9432

Peter, the owner, is extremely helpful and will try to
do anything required, as long as he can be a capitalist
about it! (I've always had reasonable prices from these
folks, and in fact find them the best place to buy 120
format TMY.) They have a C41 lab in their shop, so very
likely they could provide.


________________________________
Here's another, which I've found excellent for many
specialty chemicals, but they are not necessarily into
kits of photo materials (they might like to be, you
never know; I do know they will talk to you sensibly).

Nymoc chemical supply
24 McGee Street
Toronto ON M4M 2K9
(416) 465-1929




Again, I never work in color so I really have no
certain answer to give. But these are good sources for
many things photographic, so they're good to post.

regards,
--le
________________________________
Lloyd Erlick Portraits, Toronto.
voice: 416-686-0326
email:
net: www.heylloyd.com
________________________________

On 2004-12-30 10:24:49 -0500, "Jeremy" said:


"Michael Weinstein" wrote in message
news:2004123000531475249%notreallymeNOSPAM@ixnetco mcom...
On 2004-12-29 12:31:11 -0500, Joe Pucillo said:

Wasn't it Ryan who said...
Funny you should mention, I just went to both Clark's and York's web
sites and they are INDENTICAL, especially the "about us" page.


Clark, York, Mystic (and maybe a few others) are all part of District
Photo in the DC suburbs. District Photo also runs Qualex (supermarket
"Kodak" processing) and other markets.

Where they all used to be separate (and Mystic was the best, by far)
now they're all just the same as dropping your film at the grocery
store.

Find a good local lab - you won't get the lowest price, but that's
really not the most important thing, is it?

I got a mailing from "what used to be Mystic," a new company IN Mystic,
CT under a new name (I think it's ABC but not sure) telling the story
of how the old Mystic was bought out by a Maryland company and even
though the film is mailed to CT it is then trucked to Maryland for
processing. So the old Mystic is gone. The old FACILITIES are under a
new name with what sounds like most of the old people, just not under
the name Mystic. But it IS in Mystic, Ct. I wish I could remember the
new name for sure.
--
Michael | "He's dead, Jim."


Mystic sold out to Clark/York/whatever, and as far as I know, they have laid
off their employees and film is processed along with the other stuff by
District Photo, in Maryland.

The Postal Service has a service where they "sweep the PO Box," meaning that
they take all the film that was received at the PO Box and put it into an
Express Mail bag and ship the whole bag to Maryland. They can arrange to do
this once a day, or several times a day, whatever District Photo wants.

So you send your film to Connecticut, thinking that it is being processed
there, but it goes to Maryland by this circuitous route.

Check to see where the prints are returned from. I'd bet that it comes from
Maryland.

I know all that. There IS a new lab at the old facility in Mystic,
actually processing film in Mystic. They make a big deal about that and
make a point of telling everyone that the old "mystic labs" are now in
Maryland and their mail is shuttled off there. But ABC IS in Mystic and
processing the film there. Has anyone tried them?
--
Michael | "He's dead, Jim."