Hi all at Filmwasters. Great to meet all who dropped by on Wednesday, many thanks for coming by.
Basically, with the lab, our first consideration is quality, very closely followed by turnaround - of course turnaround does need to be as fast as possible because I do feel that if 1. Supplies of product are reliable and fast; and 2. lab turnaround is reliable, quality and fast.....people will use and shoot more film. But the results have to be right.
Since we took over Peter's lab we have massively increased the throughput of film - most of the film going through before was E6 35mm from a hardcore of customers who don't even own a computer. We have added a ton of C41 & B&W + more E6 too from a different customer base. We have done this with the launch of the new website (which took me weeks and hundreds of hours to build......) and by marketing to our existing customer database. The equipment we have can more than cope, but there have been times recently when I have considered putting on a night shift, or at least a shift up to 10pm or something, simply because of the volumes being received.
So there have been a few glitches in terms of getting emails out etc. and answering the phone. However I am confident this will settle down.
But, as I say, quality is the prime concern and the main reason for this is if someone is shooting film, chances are they are an enthusiast/professional/artist etc who have high expectations and need the best. Before launching the lab I heard of too many moans and complaints about other labs related to quality. Whilst we don't want to hear any complaints about us at all - If I have to hear one, I would much rather it was related to speed than quality.
But I am confident we will be able to offer both quality and speed - and infact do manage this most of the time at the moment.
What I do say is, if you have a deadline or need lab work completed as quickly as possible, please let us know on the back or your order because we can then make sure it's turned around immediately on receipt.