Why do Ilford Harman take so long with 120 film?

[BrianShaw]

There are more than one... if Los Angeles is to be considered a part of CA.

Real B&W (silver) PRINTING may be a different story, though.

But this really doesn'thelp out the OP with the "Harmon problem".

[BradS]

And who is it? Just curious I do my own developing...

I develop and print my own medium and large format but send the tiny stuff out...just too many little negs for me to print. I used E&J in Dublin for years but they're closed. I've been sending 35mm and some 120 rolls to Swan Photo down in San Clemente (I think they go by several names). They do real B&W machine prints on RC paper at reasonable prices...perfect for tiny format snaps. The prepaid mailers from Freestyle go to Swan Photo.

[BradS]

There are more than one... if Los Angeles is to be considered a part of CA.

Real B&W (silver) PRINTING may be a different story, though.

Agreed. There are many places that do fine work but, I've only found one that will make real B&W machine prints. . There may, in fact, be many others...I kinda stopped looking when I found a lab that met my requirements. If you know of any, I'd be interested to her about them...never know when the current lab will follow the others.

(and, yes, I am aware of several good printers who'll make custom enlargements but, they typically will not D&P a whole roll of snaps)

But this really doesn'thelp out the OP with the "Harmon problem".

True....but, he's got a pretty good problem to have Wouldn't it be fantastic to be able to send film to Harman for D&P? different topic for a different thread though...

[ted_smith]

OK, OK, everyone getting all touchy and "why are you moaning you unappreciative so-and-so"....

For clarity

a) I stated "with the dev'ing your own film comments aside" meaning "Don't just suggest I do it myself". I have done it myself before, I have the tanks etc to do so but a) have screwed up one too many of my own films and I had never shot Pan F50 + before, so, given that the three rolls had what I hope to be good shots, I wanted Ilford to do them knowing they are very well placed to do it.

b) I was comparing my experience of Ilford using 35mm, where they are super good and pretty fast (less than 5 days usually). I had no benchmark to set 120 to, so this is why I asked the question, to see if it was normal. By the sounds of it, it is, and I should rightly be very thankful they are around to do it for me, as others have said.

c) The comment of "why don't you call them instead of asking here" - having called them twice already I didn't want to ring a third time and sound like a typical moaning customer, given the polite nature of their staff. I am sure there is a valid reason but I don't like to push these things verbally so thought I'd ask folks here.

So I'm not slagging off Ilford and I'm not a total baboon either. I just found that this time round their timescales with 120 were much slower than in previous instances of 35mm, but there is clearly a good reason.

Anyway, I think we've discussed the issue enough - hopefully they'll turn up in tomorrows post anyway.

[Simon R Galley]

Hi Ted,

Firstly, thank you for using our Monochrome Process and Print service, and sorry that you have not received the level of service, offered by and expected from HARMAN technology Limited :

I have spoken to the lab Manager and can hopefully shed some light on the 'delay'.

The lab closed over the Christmas period ( as per our website info ) as the lab is based at the factory it shares the same holidays etc. Post Christmas is actually one of our busiest times to receive work so we have high demand at present, whilst we have additional trained people we can bring in to help on these occasions we have a 'finite' output capacity which we have been working at for the last 8 working days. We should be 'back to normal' by the end of this week.

Does 120 take longer ? yes it can do, 35mm printing has a level of automation, 120 is done frame by frame by an operator, and we do tend to 'batch' 120. Normally ( even batching ) it clears within four days of arriving but in this instance it has been a little longer.

Our lab manager says that if you have an especially important deadline or that it is really urgent ( at any time ) just give them a ring and they will do their level best to get it to you 'ahead of date'.

So, apologies for this delay, you hopefully should not experience it again.

Simon ILFORD Photo / HARMAN technology Limited :

[madgardener]

You folks are very lucky to have a company like Ilford. Over here all we have is Kodak who could care less about the film buying public.

[AdClem]

...all we have is Kodak who could care less about the film buying public.

Over here we say 'couldn't care less'. Two countries separated by a common language?

[Terry Christian]

No -- "could care less" is simply bad grammar. If you COULD care less, then you're not quite apathetic enough yet.