PhotoStudio13 discontinuing Scala process

dmtnkl · Dec 6, 2021

It looks like PhotoStudio 13 in Stuttgart is going to discontinue its well known Scala service at the end of the year. You can read the announcement here.

It is still not clear whether they are completely stopping black and white reversal processing or if they are planning to renew the service sometime in the future.

As a side note, the service was mostly working through mail with prepaid vouchers/envelopes that covered the cost of processing and shipping the developed film back to the customer. So i would imagine that customers who now have a bunch of these vouchers will either get a refund or will simply get an option to use them for some other service? Would be interesting to find out.

In any case, it is not very good news for commercial black and white reversal. For me personally, it was a good place to get a first taste of black and white slides before taking the step to start processing at home. One lab less, one that was quite friendly, reliable and also provided comprehensive guidelines on how to expose different films for their process and what kind of results to expect.

AgX · Dec 6, 2021

I guess this means it is time for Fotoimpex to offer reversal processing themselves for at least their films.

AgX · Dec 6, 2021

The reason for the cancellation of Scala processing is that Photo Studio 13 has been sold.
The new owner, who already runs a photolab at same city, does not want to take over the Scala processing.

dmtnkl · Dec 6, 2021

I don't know if there is any truth to this, but i remember reading that they are using some specialized processing equipment designed and supplied by agfa specifically for this process.

Would anyone know if this is the case?

Edit: I found this post. It seems like it is a Refrema system tailored to the process. Would be interesting if someone could take this over.

Lachlan Young · Dec 6, 2021

dmtnkl said:
I don't know if there is any truth to this, but i remember reading that they are using some specialized processing equipment designed and supplied by agfa specifically for this process.

Would anyone know if this is the case?

I think it used a re-exposure reversal step and never went to chemical reversal. Thus you would need a fairly specifically designed processor - likely not a million miles off how the K-14 machines worked, or Agfa's old reversal process (which didn't go to chemical reversal either as far as I know) will have required.

dmtnkl · Dec 6, 2021

Lachlan Young said:
I think it used a re-exposure reversal step and never went to chemical reversal. Thus you would need a fairly specifically designed processor - likely not a million miles off how the K-14 machines worked, or Agfa's old reversal process (which didn't go to chemical reversal either as far as I know) will have required.

This is correct. I asked them in the past and they confirmed that the actual reversal happens during a re-exposure step.

As already noted in my previously edited post above, Team Adox indicated some time ago that it is a Refrema System specially built for this process.

AgX · Dec 6, 2021

Photo Studio 13 used encapsuled dip & dunk processors.

Lachlan Young said:
The Scala process they use is the last of the Agfa ones which is pretty highly evolved - not sure if it's a chemical or light fogging step, Bob Carnie has stated that when he looked into setting up a Scala line in the 1990's, it was a light fogging step, but I understand there was a change around the millennium to remove dichromate from the bleach & a few other changes too - so it may have moved to stannous chloride for reversal.

Raghu Kuvempunagar · Dec 6, 2021

I hope Studio 13 can make their Scala process public now that they're discontinuing it. Dr. Wood announced last year that DR5 would be made public and it would be interesting to compare the two processes and learn from them.

dmtnkl · Dec 7, 2021

I contacted them and got a reply today. They are going to shut down the whole company. It's not just about the Scala service after all.

Raghu Kuvempunagar · Dec 7, 2021

dmtnkl said:
I contacted them and got a reply today. They are going to shut down the whole company. It's not just about the Scala service after all.

What is this "Handover of photo laboratory operations to Prolab Fotofachlabor GmbH on January 1st, 2022"?

https://www.photostudio13.de/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Informationsschreiben.pdf

AgX · Dec 7, 2021

see post #3 and #9

The lab has been sold and the new owner, who, as I already stated above, runs already a lab in the same city, will close the premises of Photo Studio 13.

perkeleellinen · Dec 7, 2021

What black and white reversal labs are now left in Europe?

dmtnkl · Dec 7, 2021

Raghu Kuvempunagar said:
What is this "Handover of photo laboratory operations to Prolab Fotofachlabor GmbH on January 1st, 2022"?

https://www.photostudio13.de/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Informationsschreiben.pdf

They informed me over mail, that they are shutting down the company.

They also sent me a smaller, translated version of the document above. After about 70 years of being involved in the photographic industry, the owner decided to retire. Some of the people and all the services will be transferred to Prolab. Prolab will also continue to accept existing developing vouchers that have already been sold by Studio13.

The exception to all that is, of course, the Scala process.

dmtnkl · Dec 7, 2021

perkeleellinen said:
What black and white reversal labs are now left in Europe?

- Arka Lab in Paris. The website seems to indicate that they have the capacity to fulfill foreign orders as well.

- Klaus Wehner in Paderborn used to sell his own reversal kit and accept mail orders from within Germany as well. He had an excellent reputation for high quality results, but if i remember right he explicitly recommended sending him only a few specific films for optimal quality. I do not know if he still offers the service.

- There is a small lab in berlin that offers reversal but i think they only fulfill local orders. From what i have heard, the quality is not very good.

richyd · Dec 7, 2021

That's a shame. I've done quite a bit of reversal processing in the past. With original Scala films I could never quite get the results and consistency I got from PhotoStudio 13. Superb service too. I only hope the machinery and process can be taken over - else at least published. They had very short development times compared to any home based procedure so would be interesting to know the chemical details. Still have a few rolls of real Scala left.

Tom Kershaw · Dec 7, 2021

richyd said:
I only hope the machinery and process can be taken over - else at least published. They had very short development times compared to any home based procedure so would be interesting to know the chemical details. Still have a few rolls of real Scala left.

I agree it would be informative to know the details of the original Scala process. My successful DIY reversal processing does involve fairly lengthy development times, which is common as you mention yourself.

Raghu Kuvempunagar · Dec 7, 2021

AgX said:
see post #3 and #9

The lab has been sold and the new owner, who, as I already stated above, runs already a lab in the same city, will close the premises of Photo Studio 13.

dmtnkl said:
They informed me over mail, that they are shutting down the company.

They also sent me a smaller, translated version of the document above. After about 70 years of being involved in the photographic industry, the owner decided to retire. Some of the people and all the services will be transferred to Prolab. Prolab will also continue to accept existing developing vouchers that have already been sold by Studio13.

The exception to all that is, of course, the Scala process.

Sadly this also means that there will not be a comparative evaluation of the original Scala process and @ADOX Fotoimpex's Scala reversal kit on the two Scala films available today.

AgX · Dec 7, 2021

dmtnkl said:
- Arka Lab in Paris. The website seems to indicate that they have the capacity to fulfill foreign orders as well.

- Klaus Wehner in Paderborn used to sell his own reversal kit and accept mail orders from within Germany as well. He had an excellent reputation for high quality results, but if i remember right he explicitly recommended sending him only a few specific films for optimal quality. I do not know if he still offers the service.

- There is a small lab in berlin that offers reversal but i think they only fulfill local orders. From what i have heard, the quality is not very good.

- Foto Weckbrodt in Hannover process Adox films in small tanks

- Schwarzweiss-Fotolabor in Düsseldorf

lantau · Dec 7, 2021

I dropped off film at PS13 in early November, when they told me about it. I didn't post, because I thought the International crowd here wouldn't be interested. On German forums it was discussed, already.

The lady at the lab mentioned a lab in Berlin doing b/w reversal, but I believe she wasn't sure what process they use.

That lab was mentioned on a German forum, which I don't normally frequent. Not much information on their website. I don't know the name right now, I'm typing on my tablet. Price is apparently €15, a lot more expensive than the already pricey Scala process at PS13.

Foto Weckbrodt has discontinued their b/w reversal service, apparently.

What am I going to do with my leftover Delta100 and Tmax400 (rollfilm), now? I used these only with Scala, and the Adox kit isn't exactly economic with 120 film, even if we had working dev times.

PS13 offered excellent service and exceptional prices. E6 will be considerably more expensive for me, going forward.

Tom Kershaw · Dec 7, 2021

lantau said:
What am I going to do with my leftover Delta100 and Tmax400 (rollfilm), now? I used these only with Scala, and the Adox kit isn't exactly economic with 120 film, even if we had working dev times.

You can reversal process film yourself: Successful processing of Adox HR-50 as a transparency without the Scala kit

Lachlan Young · Dec 7, 2021

Tom Kershaw said:
You can reversal process film yourself: Successful processing of Adox HR-50 as a transparency without the Scala kit

The 'official' Agfa process has effectively long been disclosed - in a patent that seems defensive against future approaches to first developers. However, no replenishers or starters are disclosed. At the end of the day, as long as you access and develop all the silver (without accidentally causing monobath effects as some highly solvent FD's seem to be able to cause in very fine grained materials) and use a bleach that's not so aggressive that it strips the emulsion, you're probably going to get pretty good results. The Agfa process will have been well optimised for replenished processing, and was probably adjusted for best possible speed/ sharpness/ colour with Scala 200x. I'll leave you all to fight over why they used metol rather than a phenidone...

AgX · Dec 7, 2021

lantau said:
Foto Weckbrodt has discontinued their b/w reversal service, apparently.

Still listed at their website.

Raghu Kuvempunagar · Dec 7, 2021

lantau said:
What am I going to do with my leftover Delta100 and Tmax400 (rollfilm), now? I used these only with Scala, and the Adox kit isn't exactly economic with 120 film, even if we had working dev times.

It's unlikely that Adox reversal kit will do well on TMax 400.

Tom Kershaw said:
You can reversal process film yourself: Successful processing of Adox HR-50 as a transparency without the Scala kit

HR-50 is a much easier film to reverse than TMax400. No surprise that you could reverse HR-50 with the first developer you used. However, TMax is a different beast. Your first developer will not give good results without significant amount of halide solvent and that makes reversal processing a little complicated.

Lachlan Young · Dec 8, 2021

Raghu Kuvempunagar said:
It's unlikely that Adox reversal kit will do well on TMax 400.

I think it will probably do just fine. If it works with Scala 160, most regular BW films should reverse well in it. Adox just aren't likely to be able to hold your hand through narrowing down an FD time - as they effectively stated last time this all was brought up.

lantau · Dec 10, 2021

AgX said:
Still listed at their website.

If I remember correctly that was part of the discussion. But they stopped. And in any case it was a process in a Jobo tank. Not quite the same as what we are just about to loose.

PhotoStudio13 discontinuing Scala process

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