Can existing film equipments be used for digital erra?

Thanks for the long reply.

I just found they have Noritsu QSS-150LZU with QSF 430L-3U.

Do you think these are any good?

And what would be the salary for a good photo processing person?


Barney wrote in message .. .
(jaekim) wrote in news:91d0d16b.0406120528.43a5db48
@posting.google.com:

Hi.

I am a person who really know nothing about photo equipments.

I just have this one digital camera, and I really went to photoshop
couple of times in my entire life!!

Well.. The thing is that I am just about to buy a 1 hour photo shop,
and
I am wondering if those expensive looking photoshop equipments used
for
film processing be used to print digital camera output.

Today I went to walgreen, and they seem to have one big printer that
is connected to a device that can accept degital storage, and the same
printer seems to be used for film processing & printing too.

Are all photoshop printers be adapted like this?

In other words, can any photoshop printers be connected to this device
that somehow reads digital media to print?

If not, is there any equipment that let you use existing printer for
that?

Gettin in touch with a company that sells commercial photo equipment
would be a good place to start. Learn about the eqipment that's out
there and the equipment that's currently being used.

I worked in a one hour photo lab for five years. During that time, many
things changed and so did some of the equipment and types of services.
I've seen business go down because of equipment break downs and at least
two really bad managers. (There were seven different photo managers and
three(!) area photo managers during my five year stay. It was inside
what used to be a Smith's then turned into a Fry's. When Fry's took
over, so did the support for the photo lab in many different ways. I
quit about 2 1/2 years ago. I recently learned (about a week ago) that
the lab was finally shut down. It turns out that the rumors of itclosing
turned out to be true.

Your case could be different. Make sure the equipment runs good all the
time, that the machine is ballanced correctly (nothing like complaints
all the time that the color it wrong!!) Keep up with the latest...another
words, when people start to ask if their pictures can be emailed to them,
start looking for a way to offer that service!!! I know that some people
here is not going to like to read this next part...even so, here I go!!!

If customers start asking for services such as color matching from other
prints or if this or that can be done, suggest a pro lab that offer such
work (unless you really have the time for it and I still would not do it
if I were you). You have to remember that you are a one hour lab. Some
of the managers could not get that strait in their heads. It got so bad
at one point that I would get in trouble if I did not print each neg on
manual (another words "one at a time" or color correct or control the
ligting for each shot). Printing one at a time around Christmas time
does not cut it nor during every any and all busy days!!! The place is a
one hour lab, not a pro lab!! It always changed with different managers.
When the equipment is set correctly printing one at a time does not
matter. The prints usually look really good when the equipment is set
right and printing on auto. Getting the prints done within the time said
is so much more important than bothering with the small stuff. That's
what the pro labs are for!!!!

The only time I would print manually is when the customer would mention
about some shots inside a building towards windows and was worried if
there was enough light inside something like that. Those shots always
had great views through the windows and black looking rooms. Taking the
time to lighten those up really helped and made the customer happy.

I would also only offer 4x6 (as some labs do) because changing paper all
the time slows one down. We offered, 4x6, 3x5, 5x7 and APS and I was the
only one in our "team" that could get it all done ON TIME because I
busted my ass (and printed on auto) all the time. If you can have at
least two people working during the busy hours and days that are busy,
then fine, offer all of that other stuff then the two can help each other
out all day if they want. There were times that we even had 3 people
working behind the counter (on Mondays when people bringing in their
party pictures and weekend stuff). Once Fry's took over, so did the cut
backs on help and hours.

Only offer what you can afford (time wise) to offer and add services such
as digital services when people ask and most of all, remember that you
are a one hour lab. Hell, when we got this Kodak machine for people to
make copies of their own pictures, we had to stop everything we were
doing and help them out, no matter how big or small their project was.
People's pictures would start getting late because of this. I could go
on and on and on. Before they closed the Photo Dept, I understand that
they did switch the policy that the customer help themselfs to that Kodak
machine (like people do at Kinko's). Sometimes managers would take my
till because they needed to open up another register and then customers
would come up to buy a roll of film or buy their prints and I would have
to send them to the food line!!! One time a customer took her photos and
walked out of the store without paying because it was not worth it to her
to wait in line!!! Other times I was asked to stop what I was doing,
grab the till and "work on register 4". At that point NO ONE was working
the photo lab!!!!!

The first 3 1/2 years working there was great. It just got worse the
longer Fry's owned it and more of their managers took over. Oh, we used
to have fuji techs fly in from TX to work on that equipment. Once Fry's
took over, they had the own people who normally work on the coolers and
other electrical equipment to work on the photo equipment. One time I
remember they sent them out to CA for a one week crash training course in
Photo equipment repair. I would always complain the the color was too
blue and to these eletrical guys, they could not see what I was talking
about!!! It just goes on and on and on!!!

I finally quit after 5 years,

Barney

They have Noritsu QSS-150LZU with QSF 430L-3U bought in 1998.

I wonder if these equipments are competitive enough.

(jaekim) wrote in news:91d0d16b.0406141222.45f60ca0
@posting.google.com:

Thanks for the long reply.

I just found they have Noritsu QSS-150LZU with QSF 430L-3U.

Do you think these are any good?

Sorry, I do not know anything about that equipment. I did however visit
http://www.noritsu.com/ and I was impressed with what I saw. Though I
have no idea about the actual model you mention. I know the equipment is
expensive (about a 100 grand or more) though I would say that if you can
handle both film and digital images you would at least be able to start
competing.

I'm usually impressed with the latest and greatest equipment as they are
usually easier to work with, do more things and produce better looking
pictures. So I would take a look at how old the model it is that your
looking at and compare it to what the new stuff is.

One thing that improves with the newer equipment is the way the chemicals
are added to the machine. Some time ago I think one had to mix a few
things before adding them to the machine. On the Fuji equipment I used
to work on, we only had to add a certain amount of water with the
chemicals. On the newer equipment, water is automatically fed to the
machine and the only thing you have to worry about (chemicals wise) is
that you have the canisters of chemicals (or what ever they are)
connected to the machine. I think those types add the right amount of
water to the chemicals. All you have to do is connect a full chemicals
canister when it runs out (I'm just assuming since I have not worked with
the ones that do that).

And what would be the salary for a good photo processing person?

I actually forget how much I was making an hour over there. It started
out lower then slowly went up. After about 3 or 4 years working there I
was making around $9 or $10 an hour maybe a little bit more. The
managers were making somewhere between $11.50 or $12.50 or a tiny bit
more. You have to remember in this case that Smiths was a union store.
When Fry's bought it out, (a non union store) had to go union with the
buy out. Fry's was not used to paying the higher wages so they did their
best to control it the best they could. I think I started at about $5 or
so.

I bet you that the people at Wallgreens who operate the photo equipment
don't anything too close to $10 or $12 an hour. The thing I would do is
go to a few places in your area and inquire about what is being paid.
I'm sure the wages are different than what pro labs are paying. So it
really depends on what your doing. Our local Walmart has a photo lab.
You can check there too if you have one.


Barney

jaekim wrote:

Thanks for the long reply.

I just found they have Noritsu QSS-150LZU with QSF 430L-3U.

Do you think these are any good?

For that model specifically, no idea. However Noritsu are 2nd
class citizens in the minilab world with Agfa, Kis and Fuji at
the top and Noritsu near bottom:
http://tinyurl.com/yqnc9


And what would be the salary for a good photo processing person?

Local factors probably play into that, so ask around at local
processing locations. It is not a high paying profession here
even in the better labs...

--
--e-meil: there's no such thing as a FreeLunch.--

(jaekim) wrote in
m:

They have Noritsu QSS-150LZU with QSF 430L-3U bought in 1998.

I wonder if these equipments are competitive enough.

Noritsu's US website doesn't contain a whole lot of information, but
I eventually managed to find a list of current minilab equipment. Neither
of these units were within that list. This doesn't necessarily mean that
they're beyond the point of being maintained/repaired or of finding parts,
but it increases the risk.

I found http://signaturestudios.tripod.com/n...noritsuad.html,
and from the specs listed, I would have to say that these machines are
strictly film. They're capable of handling medium format negatives, which
can be hard to find, but not digital - I suspect they would have listed
this capability if the machines actually had it.

If you were planning on competing with the local drugstores and
department stores to handle snapshots and one-hour business, you would
likely have to upgrade the machines pretty soon, which would mean a
significant investment, bare minimum in my guess would be $80,000, possibly
much higher. I have not priced the new machines recently, but the chances
of finding a digitally-capable processor in the 'used' market is pretty
slim, and they won't be that old so the price will remain high.

And you may now know why the business is being sold...

On the other hand, these machines *appear* (bear in mind, I'm only
going on the specs from that website above) to be geared towards handling
pro films, something that can be hard to find. Thus you have the
opportunity to garner the professional photographer's business in the
region, and specialize in quality film processing while others are turning
more towards digital. In time, this may mean you're the only business in
town that does quality film handling.

But this will not be easy. Pros will dump you in a heartbeat if your
product isn't absolutely top-notch, and when they find a lab they like,
they stay there (at least until that lab screws up). So your staff would
have to be well-trained and experienced, and quality-control would have to
be your first and foremost consideration. Forget about speed, pros aren't
interested. They want it right, and the first time, too.

You can't afford a staff that keeps turning over - new people will
take too long to reliably produce good results. So your payroll costs will
be higher than most minilabs. As long as you can provide the results, you
can justifiably charge more for your services and cover payroll (and higher
material costs, etc.).

From the nature of your questions, I have to respectfully assume that
you're not experienced in the professional end yourself, so I have to say
that this is very tricky. You should definitely be looking very seriously
for experienced people to run things for you, because this is not something
you can afford to learn as you go. Moreover, you have to consider the
competition in town - too many pro labs, or minilabs, will mean you can't
get enough of the market to sustain yourself, even with excellent quality
work.

So step carefully. And find a partner ;-)


- Al.

--
To reply, insert dash in address to match domain below
Online photo gallery at www.wading-in.net

thanks for the reply! ^^

Yah. the machines are strictly for films.
80,000 dollars is just too much for me.

Actually the guy asks for $170,000 for the business based on the gross
income of 8000 per month. ( This photoshop is doing a lot of passport
and some picture packages. )

The town the photoshop is at is kinda low income residential area, and
I think that's why the film sales are pretty strong.

Currently they are doing about 2-3 digital printing using Mitsubish
cp8000 printer, and the rest is films.

To prepare for digital trend, once I buy the photoshop, I was thinking
about buying just a better printer that can print enlargement.

I mean what would be the advantage of buying these expensive digital
minilab over using just computer and good quality printer?

Do you think this would be too slow process?

I heard that digital printers takes about 4min before printing.



I found http://signaturestudios.tripod.com/n...noritsuad.html,
and from the specs listed, I would have to say that these machines are
strictly film. They're capable of handling medium format negatives, which
can be hard to find, but not digital - I suspect they would have listed
this capability if the machines actually had it.



If you were planning on competing with the local drugstores and
department stores to handle snapshots and one-hour business, you would
likely have to upgrade the machines pretty soon, which would mean a
significant investment, bare minimum in my guess would be $80,000, possibly
much higher. I have not priced the new machines recently, but the chances
of finding a digitally-capable processor in the 'used' market is pretty
slim, and they won't be that old so the price will remain high.




And you may now know why the business is being sold...

On the other hand, these machines *appear* (bear in mind, I'm only
going on the specs from that website above) to be geared towards handling
pro films, something that can be hard to find. Thus you have the
opportunity to garner the professional photographer's business in the
region, and specialize in quality film processing while others are turning
more towards digital. In time, this may mean you're the only business in
town that does quality film handling.



But this will not be easy. Pros will dump you in a heartbeat if your
product isn't absolutely top-notch, and when they find a lab they like,
they stay there (at least until that lab screws up). So your staff would
have to be well-trained and experienced, and quality-control would have to
be your first and foremost consideration. Forget about speed, pros aren't
interested. They want it right, and the first time, too.

You can't afford a staff that keeps turning over - new people will
take too long to reliably produce good results. So your payroll costs will
be higher than most minilabs. As long as you can provide the results, you
can justifiably charge more for your services and cover payroll (and higher
material costs, etc.).

From the nature of your questions, I have to respectfully assume that
you're not experienced in the professional end yourself, so I have to say
that this is very tricky. You should definitely be looking very seriously
for experienced people to run things for you, because this is not something
you can afford to learn as you go. Moreover, you have to consider the
competition in town - too many pro labs, or minilabs, will mean you can't
get enough of the market to sustain yourself, even with excellent quality
work.

So step carefully. And find a partner ;-)


- Al.