Any Experience with A&I Mail order lab?

[bmac]

I am starting to do some side portrait and wedding work after about 18 months off. I no longer have the volume of business for the "wedding lab" I was using, so I am in search of a good alternative. Has anyone used A&I lab recently for C41 processing and proof prints? How about with C41 B/W? I plan on doing a test run with them, but before I fork over the cost of 5 mailers (their minimum) I thought I would ask here.

Any other suggestions?

Brian

[Aggie]

Kevin up near Yosemite, knows the people who have a lab in Dublin. Ask him about their services.

[roteague]

I've used Chromacolor in San Diego for a couple of years; mainly for processing 4x5 E-6. They have good prices and good service and turn around times. There is no one locally that can do it this work for me, so I am forced to use mail order for processing. Their web address is: http://www.chromacolor.com/

[Aggie]

Found the info on the Dublin people.

E7-J 925-829-0222 Eric is the woner and Kurt the lab guy. When I was talking to Kevin about them, he said they do it the old fashioned way. Can even do the push processing you want. Takes me about 70 minutes to get to your part of the bay. They are a good 40 minutes from me, so about the same for you. Nice to be able to talk direct to the company rather than trust phone and mail.

[David A. Goldfarb]

I've used the A&I mailers quite a lot for E-6 and K-14 when they were doing it (including E-6 and even K-14 push processing) and occasionally for C-41 machine prints, but never for C-41 B&W, and I've been quite happy with them. The quality is just as good as the best NYC pro labs at about half the price using the mailers, but obviously with a longer turnaround time.

I recommend bundling mailers and sending them in a box. I usually use the small Priority Mail boxes that are about the size of a book or a VHS tape. Before then I sent them separately, and I've only lost one roll that disappeared around 9-11 during the anthrax scares, when postal facilities were being shut down.