Re: filmscanners: Repro house skirmishing (long)

[Bill Ross <ross@cgl.ucsf.edu>]

        .. rotten light. I shot it on CN, no problem. I explained this to the 
        commissioning magazine and asked if they could cope with dig. They 
        said yes, I shot it... and then they changed their minds and asked 
        for prints. I got a bunch of prints done by my lab, and sure enough, 
        they were not very nice. ...
        ... and 2weeks later client phones whingeing about the cost. 
        Why have I charged 15GBP/scan? He seems to have expected them 
        to be 'free', since they are when done by their repro house. 
        If he'd known he would have asked for the negs and had the repro 
        house do it. Well, yes, except it was about 4hrs work for me, 
        plus CD etc, and besides, what the repro house would do would 
        be 'straight' reprography whereas what I am doing is interpretive. 

How about printing from tarted-up scan to e.g. Lightjet or
in-house Epson or emulsion, & charge a 'blind' fee for "remedial 
darkroom work"? Then the repro house gets to do 'the scan' and 
hopefully everyone is happy. ... but I see you've had this idea
already:

        So the next question is : where can I get really good R-type or 
        similar prints made from digital files, in London, often 
        overnight? I'm not happy with my own Epson 1200 output (good 
        though it is, there are spectral anomalies, and I don't 
        know if the dither pattern will interact badly with a fine 
        halftone dot screen). 

Maybe worth further investigation of augmented Epson technology,
but what about getting a Fujix process printer alone or with others
and start a side business. Price seems to be $US 12,000.

Bill Ross