Icon LA film lab - any experiences?

I realize most people in this forum develop their own film, and I hope to get back to doing this myself when I have more time.

But, for now, I am using labs.

Wonder if anyone here has used Icon film lab in Los Angeles? I see they make darkroom contact sheets, which is a big plus for me.

Of late, I have been using Richard Photo Lab for developing and scans. They have been reliable, but I miss having darkroom contacts. Also, I can get back into doing my own scans after getting a workflow going again after big computer/software revision. So just want developing and contacts.

I have had some negative experiences in recent years with labs who make darkroom contacts, but I don't want to get into slamming them here. Just looking for feedback about Icon LA.

Thanks.

I never used them for making contact sheets, but I had spotty results (literally) when using them to develop my negatives. Sometimes everything would be fine, other times my negatives would have scratches or other anomalies like drying marks or areas of uneven development. I eventually got tired of dealing with issues (not to mention the cost of developing and shipping) and started developing myself at home.

logan2z said:

I never used them for making contact sheets, but I had spotty results (literally( when using them to develop my negatives. Sometimes everything would be fine, other times my negatives would have scratches or other anomalies like drying marks or areas of uneven development. I eventually got tired of dealing with issues (not to mention the cost of developing and shipping) and started developing myself at home.

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Thanks for your feedback. There were quite a lot of bad reviews on Yelp, too. But, of course, it's the people with complaints who are more likely to post reviews.

I really need to deal with developing myself (the b&w at least). I had a darkroom a long time ago, but I need to reacquaint myself with film developing process.

I think they’re a great lab. Partial to them because a friend at a customer (A&I) of a startup (RTI) I used to work for moved there when he was dissatisfied.

So yeah, good people there.

Bill Burk said:

I think they’re a great lab. Partial to them because a friend at a customer (A&I) of a startup (RTI) I used to work for moved there when he was dissatisfied.

So yeah, good people there.

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Thank you for your input!

calico said:

Of late, I have been using Richard Photo Lab for developing and scans. They have been reliable, but I miss having darkroom contacts.

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How do you like the colors in JPEG files that appear in Richard scans? They are nice people and I respect what they do, but I've personally been disappointed with the "look" over the past year. I used different brands of Kodak color film in an Olympus point-and-shoot and a Nikon SLR. By contrast, a different speed of Portra shot with a Canon SLR, processed at a different lab, appeared profoundly different and better than those two rolls done at Richard. Too many variables, but I just can't bring myself to send another roll of anything to Richard.

multivoiced said:

How do you like the colors in JPEG files that appear in Richard scans? They are nice people and I respect what they do, but I've personally been disappointed with the "look" over the past year. I used different brands of Kodak color film in an Olympus point-and-shoot and a Nikon SLR. By contrast, a different speed of Portra shot with a Canon SLR, processed at a different lab, appeared profoundly different and better than those two rolls done at Richard. Too many variables, but I just can't bring myself to send another roll of anything to Richard.

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Hi multivoiced.

I've been happy with Richard Photo Lab's scans of color neg film. I use Portra 800 and Portra 160, usually in medium format.

I had them scan color positive film once (Provia 100F) and didn't like their scans. They looked washed out, not like the film. I suspect technician was trying to make it look like color negative film (which tends to be less saturated than positive film), as they usually work with color neg.

I've been happy with their scans of b&w negative film.

What I don't like is that they don't offer option of getting tiffs and Adobe 1998 color space, only jpegs and sRGB.

I also am not fond of the $7 extra charge to include rebate edge on 6x6 or 645 film. If you don't get the rebate, the 6x6 will be cropped in height, and I think the 645 will be cropped a little, too.

My own scans, on my Nikon LS9000 are better than theirs, but I didn't have time for scanning the last couple of years.

Since my original post above, I've gone back to LTI, my old film lab which makes darkroom contact sheets. Then I make my own scans -- very high res, Adobe 1998 color space, tiffs. But I still use Richard Photo Lab sometimes when I'm short on time. I keep in mind that I can still make my owns scans from the negs later, if I wish.

Do you ever send reference files when you order scans? I always send sample scan from previous work to show what I'm going for in terms of contrast, color balance, etc. Maybe that's why I've been lucky, so far?

I guess if you like the scans from the other lab, just stick with them. One problem, I think, is that one can never request the same technician (unless you pay for a pro account or something), and there is always personal judgement involved in making scans.

I've also used The Find Lab who did a pretty good job with scans, too.

But the scans I make myself are the best