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Matt5791 18th October 2015 09:00 PM

New Investments at Ag
 
We haven't started marketing it yet, but in the last week or so we have managed to get our Lightjet printer fully operational. This has been a long time in coming and a HUGE amount of fiddling around, but now enables us to expose prints up to 50"x120" at astonishingly high quality.

It also opens up the possibility to start offering the Ilford Galerie Digital Silver paper, which would make us one of only 3 labs in the UK offering this service (the other two being Ilford themselves, and Metro Imaging in London). But this service will come later on, when we are fully comfortable with all the regular C-Type printing.

In conjunction with this, we have taken the plunge and ordered a new Hasselblad Flextight X5 scanner last week - all very well having the best digital photographic printer ever made, but pointless feeding it with anything other than the best quality files! It's on the way over from Sweden and is expected here later in the week.

So we will be looking at some special launch offers, probably along the lines of free Flextight scan of any negative / transparency when any large print (16x20"+) is ordered from said negative.

I'll keep the forum posted.

John King 18th October 2015 10:27 PM

That sounds like a VERY impressive bit of kit, however I don't have the need for truly massive prints, I am quite happy with my 12x16's even if I have to work hard to get them

big paul 19th October 2015 11:34 AM

good luck matt hope it all goes well for you ,and I will be looking forward to updates all the best







www.essexcockney.com

paulc 19th October 2015 06:54 PM

I've got a 6x6 neg I'd like to have printed out fairly large, but it would involve a minor crop as well as colour matching to an existing print. Why is it, most labs don't publish prices for square prints ?

DaveInElland 19th October 2015 07:14 PM

Good luck Matt, and thanks again for the superb service this week it was truly awesome.

Matt5791 22nd October 2015 07:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaveInElland (Post 105157)
Good luck Matt, and thanks again for the superb service this week it was truly awesome.

Many thanks for that!

Matt5791 22nd October 2015 07:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by paulc (Post 105155)
I've got a 6x6 neg I'd like to have printed out fairly large, but it would involve a minor crop as well as colour matching to an existing print. Why is it, most labs don't publish prices for square prints ?


Hi Paul - these are our prices from digital file.

http://www.ag-photolab.co.uk/square-sizes-149-c.asp

Prices from film will be published shortly - they will be a little more, simply because of the necessity for film handling.

However, we do intend to do a special offer for print from film where we will be including a Flextight scan free of charge when a print from file over 16x20 (or 20x20 in square) is ordered. In otherwords, the prices on that link would be inclusive of the scan.

It's no problem cropping / matching to an existing colour.

paulc 22nd October 2015 11:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Matt5791 (Post 105237)
However, we do intend to do a special offer for print from film where we will be including a Flextight scan free of charge when a print from file over 16x20 (or 20x20 in square) is ordered.

When you do, I'll see about packaging the existing print and neg up - Your prices look very reasonable, and I'm almost tempted to go real big. Would probably be an idea to have a small section printed first to see what the grain would be like.

Martin Aislabie 31st October 2015 08:45 AM

How large a Neg can you scan in a Flextight ?

Martin

Matt5791 15th November 2015 03:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Martin Aislabie (Post 105437)
How large a Neg can you scan in a Flextight ?

Martin

It covers anything up to 5x4 Martin.

DaveP 15th November 2015 08:07 PM

Techincally I think you can go up to 5x7" if you buy the correct holder.

cndnlfartist 16th November 2015 08:05 AM

I have a friend with a Hasselblad Flextight X5 scanner, and he sure was raving about the IQ that it produces.
However, as far as I know he hasn't used it on any of my negatives yet, so I can't judge it for myself.

Oh, Paulc,
When I bought my Durst 138 enlarger, I bought it from a fellow that has his 6x9 negatives drum scanned and printed at around 48" x 110"
I was almost blown away by the image quality at just 5 feet away.
My Large Format would be better if you wanted to stick your face right against the picture and compare but at 5 feet it would take a good eye to tell them apart.

Mike O'Pray 16th November 2015 05:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cndnlfartist (Post 105701)
My Large Format would be better if you wanted to stick your face right against the picture and compare but at 5 feet it would take a good eye to tell them apart.

I can't speak for other friends here but I have got to that stage in life where my minimum focusing distance is about 5 feet. :mad:

If I forget my glasses then I apply my portable extension to my arms so the book is about 5 feet away.:D Beyond 5 feet I can match a hawk. ;)

Mike

Matt5791 23rd July 2016 08:23 AM

Hi all - just following up on this thread.

We have increased our stock holding again in many product lines, especially Ilford paper and chemistry.

The next plan is start showing on the website the actual stock levels we have available on the shelf - we are currently overhauling our stock room with new shelving etc and after this we hope to introduce the levels on the site.

On our lab side we have another Noritsu printer being delivered on 4 August and we have ordered a new Noritsu S-1800 scanner to complement this machine - this is currently being made for us in Japan. This is going to increase our capacity.

All thanks to continued customer support - thank you!

Nabhar 23rd July 2016 02:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Matt5791 (Post 105690)
It covers anything up to 5x4 Martin.

Just a minor clarification please - is this up to and including 5x4 ?

Thanks
JP

Matt5791 2nd August 2016 05:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nabhar (Post 109344)
Just a minor clarification please - is this up to and including 5x4 ?

Thanks
JP

That is correct. It makes a fantastic job of 5x4.

Roy in Silver 4th August 2016 12:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Matt5791 (Post 105133)
We haven't started marketing it yet, but in the last week or so we have managed to get our Lightjet printer fully operational. This has been a long time in coming and a HUGE amount of fiddling around, but now enables us to expose prints up to 50"x120" at astonishingly high quality.

It also opens up the possibility to start offering the Ilford Galerie Digital Silver paper, which would make us one of only 3 labs in the UK offering this service (the other two being Ilford themselves, and Metro Imaging in London). But this service will come later on, when we are fully comfortable with all the regular C-Type printing.

In conjunction with this, we have taken the plunge and ordered a new Hasselblad Flextight X5 scanner last week - all very well having the best digital photographic printer ever made, but pointless feeding it with anything other than the best quality files! It's on the way over from Sweden and is expected here later in the week.

So we will be looking at some special launch offers, probably along the lines of free Flextight scan of any negative / transparency when any large print (16x20"+) is ordered from said negative.

I'll keep the forum posted.

Hello Matt,
I just thought I would say thank you for providing that information to the forum. It prompted me to visit your website, which I found very impressive.
I am currently living in the US but when I return to England I shall certainly keep your company in mind for my processing needs.
It's so very reassuring to know that silver-based photography is in such excellent health, and being nurtured by an excellent company like yours.
All the best,
Roy

Roy in Silver 4th August 2016 12:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Matt5791 (Post 105133)
We haven't started marketing it yet, but in the last week or so we have managed to get our Lightjet printer fully operational. This has been a long time in coming and a HUGE amount of fiddling around, but now enables us to expose prints up to 50"x120" at astonishingly high quality.

It also opens up the possibility to start offering the Ilford Galerie Digital Silver paper, which would make us one of only 3 labs in the UK offering this service (the other two being Ilford themselves, and Metro Imaging in London). But this service will come later on, when we are fully comfortable with all the regular C-Type printing.

In conjunction with this, we have taken the plunge and ordered a new Hasselblad Flextight X5 scanner last week - all very well having the best digital photographic printer ever made, but pointless feeding it with anything other than the best quality files! It's on the way over from Sweden and is expected here later in the week.

So we will be looking at some special launch offers, probably along the lines of free Flextight scan of any negative / transparency when any large print (16x20"+) is ordered from said negative.

I'll keep the forum posted.

Matt,
I have a quick question, and probably a daft one. When you print from say 35mm film do you use an enlarger or do you use the high tech scanner and printer combination that you have described? (Sorry if it's an elementary question).
Roy

Matt5791 14th September 2016 10:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Roy in Silver (Post 109468)
Matt,
I have a quick question, and probably a daft one. When you print from say 35mm film do you use an enlarger or do you use the high tech scanner and printer combination that you have described? (Sorry if it's an elementary question).
Roy

Hi Roy,

We can do either - but traditional optical colour prints have a hard time competing with a high quality scan and then print on something like the Lightjet or Noritsu. They can have a certain purity to them - but then so do the digital prints if you get them right.

When it comes to black and white, then this is a different matter and traditionally exposed is a tough act to follow, although we can make some very nice black and white c-type prints. Once we get the Lightjet exposing the Ilford Galerie Digital Silver, then this will take what we can offer a step closer.


We also just bought the latest 44" Canon 12 colour inkjet printer - great machine for reproducing artwork like water colours etc. but completely blown out of the water by the lightjet or the Noritsu for photographic printing - despite what some people say. But there is a demand for high end inkjet - or "Giclee" as some people call them - on some of the exotic papers that are available, which is why we are building this side of things too.


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