Ilford processing leaves you grey.... (Ilford)

Member Name: hot_rock_chick

Product:	Ilford
Date:	07/06/03 (853 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: It comes in a nice box, 5 day turnaround

Disadvantages: Terrible terrible contrast, Missing prints, Not cheap!

As a black and white photography student, I tend to use Ilford films and Ilford papers for most of my processing and they normally give very good results. (There are already two very good reviews on dooyoo about Ilford film and papers). This is a review of the processing service, the 'mailer' where you pay for the envelope and send your film off.

The presentation is excellent, the pictures come in a sturdy cardboard box with a little compartment at the bottom for your negatives. However, the photographs I have received have come out in multiple shades of grey. These included four rolls of film (I trused them four times because as I far as I knew Ilford are the king of black and white!).

1) Delta 100 - came out a shade or orangey grey, no defiante blacks or white and only 20 pictures were included.

2) Ilford pan F 50 - only 8 pictures included, all pitch black.

3) SFX - a infra red film, but no special effects here despite following the rules, using a red filter etc. Distincly grey again.

4) Ilford HP4 125 - slightly better but nevertheless, the pictures lacked any dynamics, the prints I received from Jessops was better than this.

When I used the negatives from these films and processed them in the darkroom, the results were much better, but hey, I don't always have the time or the patience, or the money to hand print every photograph myself!

I certainly will not be using Ilford processing again, might buy my own darkroom instead.

Summary: