Experience with Cinelab

Post by **El Jeffe** » Wed Oct 11, 2006 3:31 am

Anyone had any bad experiences using these guys? I sent in two undeveloped rolls of Kodachrome on Sept. 10th for process and telecine. I sent the film USPS and then they had to send it to dwaynes for the processing. I had two more rolls of film I needed to send in(sent Sept. 25th) and I wanted to speed it up and called them. I asked if I could overnight fedex it to dwaynes and then have dwaynes overnight it to them. That was fine with them. I called on October 2nd and they had just received my other two rolls of film from dwaynes. They still had done nothing with my other two rolls of film except get it processed. So I asked them to telecine all of them together and put it all on one tape and overnight it back to me with the fedex account I provided. The guy said it would probably be done by that wednesday.

So now it's October 10th and still no word from them. I have never wanted to see a bill from anyone so badly on my credit card. This is my first time trying out these guys since alot of people say they are fast and a good price with descent quality. I guess I will call them again tommorrow, which will be like my 5th time calling them in the month it has been.

Post by **super8man** » Wed Oct 11, 2006 4:31 am

From the details you have given, it doesn't sound like anything to worry about yet - heck, just dealing with multiple shipping is a pain I am sure for these small jobs (meaning think about the lab's $$$ customers, etc and who gets priority). In other words think about it from their perspective. Also, the USA just finished a holiday monday where nothing got done since Friday PM at best I am sure... (wrote this for others outside USA)...

Anyhow, just call them - no sense posting bad PR unless it really is bad...it's not like anyone said "we have lost your film" or anything.

Heck, I was surprised to read you got fast service to and from Dwaynes by the film xfer place - that alone is "cup half full" in my mind.

keep us posted!

Post by **El Jeffe** » Wed Oct 11, 2006 4:38 am

super8man wrote:From the details you have given, it doesn't sound like anything to worry about yet - heck, just dealing with multiple shipping is a pain I am sure for these small jobs (meaning think about the lab's $$$ customers, etc and who gets priority). In other words think about it from their perspective. Also, the USA just finished a holiday monday where nothing got done since Friday PM at best I am sure... (wrote this for others outside USA)...

Anyhow, just call them - no sense posting bad PR unless it really is bad...it's not like anyone said "we have lost your film" or anything.

Heck, I was surprised to read you got fast service to and from Dwaynes by the film xfer place - that alone is "cup half full" in my mind.

keep us posted!

Ya your right, I guess I am just a lil excited to get the film back so I can finish the project. Did a 9 day timelapse so I am a lil ancy!

Post by **Evan Kubota** » Wed Oct 11, 2006 5:12 am

seems like it would have been easier to send the film directly to Dwayne's and have them fwd it to Cinelab if possible.

FWIW, I've had S8 transferred there once and it took 1-2 additional days over 16mm transfers.

Post by **twotoneska** » Wed Oct 11, 2006 6:03 am

I've never had transfers done there, but I have had a lot of film developed there, and they did a great job on all of it, except for losing one roll. Luckily, it was only a test, and nothing to important.

Post by **Super8kid** » Wed Oct 11, 2006 2:13 pm

I send cinelab all my processing jobs from the UK, and they usually give me a pretty quick turnaround! The prices arn't bad either!

I would avoid their transfers though - not the best ive seen :?

Steven.

Post by **steve hyde** » Wed Oct 11, 2006 5:39 pm

I've had mixed experiences. On one hand they are nice, work fast, ship fast and are generous about shipping in-house hard drives etc. On the other hand the transfers are sloppy, low on luminence and on one occasion the colorist transfered some of my color reversals as black and white....

I'm now sending my color reversals to Clive Tobin in Spokane..

Steve

Website · Post by **BigBeaner** » Wed Oct 11, 2006 9:31 pm

Just give them a call. They'll know.

Post by **Patrick** » Thu Oct 12, 2006 2:20 am

I admit I can be impatient too. I won any ebay auction recently and I asked the seller a question regarding payment details as soon as the auction ended. Five days later, there is still no reply from the seller. And without this information, I can't forward the payment. Although part of me thinks that something is wrong, the rational side of me knows that the right thing to do is simply wait and be patient.

However, being the impatient person that i am sometimes, I re-sent the same message after the second day of waiting!

Post by **Patrick** » Thu Oct 12, 2006 2:33 am

Damn! I just read in the terms and conditions of that particular ebay auction that the successful bidder must 'complete the sale within 5 days from the date of sale notification.'

Oh well - this delay is no fault of mine. Ive done all I could.

Post by Ed » Fri Oct 13, 2006 8:16 pm

I'm just about all ready to have my film sent out to be processed and transfered and I was goign to send it to Cinelab. Are the transfers really not that great?

Post by **Evan Kubota** » Fri Oct 13, 2006 8:59 pm

I've been very pleased with the 16mm transfers I've had there. The super 8 didn't look so great, probably because of excessive grain reduction that reduced the sharpness. I think you should give it a try if it's 16mm. You'll probably be satisfied. For S8 I'd look at sending it to someone with a workprinter. I would certainly not enjoy paying full rates for a Rank somewhere else.

Website · Post by **BigBeaner** » Fri Oct 13, 2006 9:14 pm

If you're not sure just look at the clips evan provided and the photos I posted here. I really wish I could afford to do a sit in as thats probably the best way to get what you want (I did some tweaking to conform all the shots) but really, where did this rumor of Cinelab=bad transfers start?

Post by Ed » Fri Oct 13, 2006 10:33 pm

I'd be getting the super 8 footage transfered there. Does anyone have a Super 8 clip, or even stills that were transfered by cinelab?

Post by **steve hyde** » Fri Oct 13, 2006 11:52 pm

Ed wrote:I'd be getting the super 8 footage transfered there. Does anyone have a Super 8 clip, or even stills that were transfered by cinelab?

...not online.

An alternative posthouse that does excellent work at a comparable price near you is CinePost

http://www.posthouse.com

They don't have in house processing like Cinelab (unless they have something new) call them....

Steve