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Atlanta Photo Processors and Suppliers Sunday, November 12, 2006 | 12:30PM

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It’s been tough for me to shoot around here lately because Atlanta is a beautiful place during the Fall. The leaves are turning, the skies are brilliantly blue, and it’s rarely been overcast or cloudy. These are just not the conditions I want to work in. Sure, it’s pretty, but I don’t want my photos to be pretty. And the fact that I’ve been working exclusively with color lately has made it all the more challenging.

I got a box of 8x10 Portra 160NC a few weeks ago and took a few sheets up to Dahlonega (duh-LAW-ni-guh) in the foothills. There was ONE shot I wanted to come out, and it was fogged. I really don’t know what happened. We light tested everything… the school’s 8x10 camera, the film holders. The only thing I can think of is that the processor made a mistake, but I use E-Six Lab, and they’re very professional, and they cater to the pro photography community (they’re one of few).

Which brings me to my point. While Atlanta appears to be a great place to sell and see photography, the photo supply and processing businesses in the city are a bit lacking. There are a few exceptions and I’ll mention them first:

E-Six Lab, as I said before, has been great. They can process up to 8x10 C-41 and E-6 film. They carry a few films in stock (up to 4x5) but not much variety. They are a pro lab, so counter service is usually quick and easy. Their biggest two problems (imho) are not exclusive to them: turnaround time on C-41 film is too long, and they are closed on weekends. I worked at a pro lab in Austin, and I know how long C-41 takes to process. E-6 takes an hour, and they guarantee your chromes in (I believe) 2 hours, but C-41 gets no such guarantee. C-41 takes 10 minutes if I remember correctly… possibly even 5 minutes (it’s been a few years). However, they are still quicker than their competition, even if they are a little more expensive. (What do you expect from a pro lab? You get what you pay for.) They are by far the most accommodating photo-related business in town.

Moakler is the only other photo lab in town worth anything. Their prices are better than E-Six, but their abilities are fewer. They cannot process anything larger than 120 film (perhaps 220, but not 4x5 or 8x10). They suffer from the same problems as E-Six: slow turnaround on C-41 and closed on the weekends. You can see that this could be a real problem for pros and students alike. I’d never heard of such a thing before moving to Atlanta. Austin labs were only closed on Sunday, and though I understood that, it was still a bit of an inconvenience at times. But come on… Saturday? Moakler’s counter presence is very courteous; it seems to be a mom and pop shop, so attention can be very personalized. From my experience, that means they aren’t quite as quick with getting you in and out the door. Even the receipts are hand-written. But again, their prices are better than E-Six. Moakler is also closed on the weekends.

As a side note, Moakler is about a mile closer to SCAD-Atlanta than E-Six, and I’d say E-Six is less than 2 miles from school. So you can tell that one big advantage to our location is proximity to the stores. [Moakler is now out of business.]

PPR, or Professional Photo Resources, Inc., is the last good photo place in Atlanta. You’d never know it by the facade, but inside is some pretty good service with fairly knowledgable staff who actually want to help pros and students get what they need. While they don’t stock 8x10 film, they have most of the smaller formats in a variety of flavors. They also have equipment sales and rental. While I’ve used neither of these, they’ve instilled confidence after a brief chat with one of the head guys there. Also, they weren’t hesitant to send me elsewhere for something they couldn’t supply. I love that kind of generosity. The downside? Don’t expect to find things like chemistry or photo paper there. It is clearly a commercial pro supply store, and how many commercial pros are printing in the darkroom anymore? However, they (along with E-Six) have proven to be the most accomodating to SCAD-Atlanta’s photography department, so we will be using them to supply students. It will help their business and mean that we can actually find things in town without having to order from B&H online. PPR is one block away from E-Six Lab. Talk about convenient. Also, they are only closed on Sunday.

Quality Camera Company is a phenomenal supplier of large format and rare photo equipment. They are a block away from Moakler, and you have to be let in the door by a person. They are primarily an internet/eBay business, but being in Atlanta means you can see equipment in person before buying, or just purchase in person. I haven’t bought from them yet, and their prices seemed a little high, but their stock is amazing. And I mean that… they have incredible things in that little store (which is actually more like a small, high-security house). I will probably do business with them eventually. One caveat: they are hard to find. The building says “QCC”, vertically and in black cursive letters, but because it’s a house, it’s hard to tell you’re at the right place.

Wing’s Camera’s staff was helpful and nice, but they didn’t carry much of what I needed. I actually couldn’t tell you what you would go there for besides buying an old enlarger. I wanted to buy a Hasselblad they had for a long time because it was a great price, but it recently sold. They have these used equipment fairs occasionally, where independent sellers set up shop out front. That could be cool for camera/equipment collectors. They also have limited paper/chemistry supply. No major complaints about them, just not a whole lot to buy there.

KEH, the internet photo equipment reseller, is located in Atlanta, West of Interstate 75. It’s a bit difficult to find, and I only went there to see if they’d buy my Leica and lenses (they didn’t). There’s plenty of information about them online. They were fine.

And now the bad:

Topping the list is Showcase. These guys just plain suck, and I have no problems saying that. Truly lackluster service every time, awful employee knowledge, inadequate supplies (for a store that appears to be for pros), bad attitudes. It’s like they don’t want business from anyone except for soccer moms. They tease students with what appear to be good stocks of paper. I don’t consider my preferences to be exotic, but here are some things that are, apparently, too outrageous to carry: any RA-4 (color printing) paper (not inkjet paper, which is what they thought I meant…); 8x10 film of any kind… actually, any real variety of film; 16x20 glossy warmtone fiber paper from Ilford. And can they order it? No. Will they supply things that we will need next quarter? No. The only way they will order something is if the school can guarantee that the students will buy all of it. They are awful, and the only thing I’ve ever bought from them was Kodak Warm Sepia Toner (which is hard enough to find and impossible to ship), so there… one point for them. AVOID AVOID AVOID otherwise. (BTW, their lab didn’t even know what RA-4 paper was… even after I explained that it was what they were printing with in the background.)

Jack’s Cameras/Camera Doctor. I like quirky people. Even though they tend to try my patience, it’s usually entertaining to talk to them. This was my first experience at Jack’s, and while I found the guy a bit abrasive, he was nice enough. And though he’s knowledgeable, it’s all self-taught, so he’s a bit of a prick if you use actual photographic terminology. (How dare I? And believe me, I wasn’t being elitist when I asked him questions.) On my second trip, I brought him my Pentacon Six-TL—a camera I bought as an undergrad for square, medium-format photos with a good, fast lens (Zeiss Jena, 80mm, f2.8). The camera cost me $220 on eBay, and while it worked for awhile, it now sucks and has shutter issues. They took the camera in and said they’d call in a few weeks. He mentioned giving me an estimate, but didn’t. So a few weeks passed and I finally received a call. Estimated repair cost (to get it working like new [not what I asked for, but whatever]): $400. That’s fine, because it seems reasonable, even if it exceeds the cost of the camera. Either way, I’m not going to pay that, and I said this. He immediately tries to justify this price and gets very agitated that I would mention the original cost of the camera. I acknowledge that it’s fair, but that I am not interested in such a costly repair. So I ask what I will owe for the trouble-shooting, and he says, essentially “nothing”. Good, right? Wrong. I express amazement that he won’t charge me, but thank him for his generosity. This is apparently very offensive behavior, as he’s “been doing this for 30 years” and doesn’t “need [my] money” and “knows what [he’s] doing”. Wow. So I ask when I can come pick it up, and he tells me, very rudely, that it’s in a box completely disassembled (What?? Why?). He’ll call me when it’s ready. I ask if I’ll owe him for reassembly, and he again gets offended. I just don’t understand how a business can run and not charge for things like this, but whatever. I’m happy that I don’t have to pay, and ticked that I get berated for OFFERING to pay for a SERVICE. Forget that. Oh, and it’s been several weeks since this phone call, and I still have no camera back. Really, avoid this place. I want him to go out of business. That’s how bad I loathe the guy now. Read some other reviews here and here.

Finally, Wolf Camera or Ritz Camera (same company) are based out of Atlanta. They used to have a huge store here, but it recently went under and they moved to a small location on Piedmont. It’s called Wolf Camera Ultra. Though they were nice, they were pretty much like most every other Wolf Camera you find in the malls. I get the impression that their old store was a great place, but that’s not the case here. They do offer processing, but I haven’t tried it out and probably won’t. I once worked at a Wolf in a mall for literally 3 days. It was so awful I just called in on the fourth day and said I just couldn’t do it anymore.

So now the breakdown:

1. E-Six Lab - great service, variety of service and staff
2. PPR - best for supplies and quality of service.
3. Moakler - better prices than E-Six, but a bit slower and less variety of services.
4. Quality Camera - pretty high prices for large format equipment, but should be a great resource. Mostly online.
5. Wing’s Camera - nice people, but not much in the way of product offerings. Decent selection of some odd used equipment.
6. KEH - almost exclusively online used photo equipment sales.
7. Showcase - SUCKS.
8. Jack’s Cameras - Pretty much evil.

So what do we need? A place that carries a wide variety of photo supplies. Everything from darkroom chemistry and paper (B&W and color) to rentals to used and new camera sales to strobes to presentation supplies (think Printfile) to film. That place should also have a stellar lab that processes up to 8x10 C-41 and E-6 film, makes digital AND film enlargements, has a 1-hour turnaround on C-41 film of any kind and 2-hour turnaround on E-6, makes enlargements up to at least 40 inches wide, has a digital print lab (Epson) and has outstanding customer service. All of this plus a student discount would be unbelievable. Oh, and at least be open on Saturdays if not Sundays as well.

Hopefully this sheds a little light on the Atlanta photo processing and supply scene. If you have some suggestions, rebuttals or other comments, please leave them. And to these businesses: I welcome your responses.

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TheBain | Monday, November 13, 2006 | 2:17PM

TheBain | Monday, November 13, 2006 | 2:26PM

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