Experience with Cinelab, months of delays?
 

Cinelab is still on the recommendation list for high quality film transfers.

I used them a few years ago via the recommendation here for a 35mm transfer, and everything went well. But after I passed the recommendation to a friend last year with a bunch of 8mm/Super 8 film, things have gone sour. They've now had his film on hand for *8 months* with hardly any contact besides an occasional excuse.

The last time I can find Cinelab mentioned on these forums is in 2019. It seems important to share this experience here since I think many may fall into the same trap given how much we trust this site as a resource.

At this point I think he may demand everything sent back to him. I see Cinepost is also recommended, but it would be really nice to hear from anyone with *recent* experiences with labs they trust!

There is no excuse for even a month without a clear explanation for the delay, He shouldn't waited 8 months to get his stuff back, it might be too late now and they lost them.

I don't have any recommendation but I just want to warn you to stay away from legacybox.

He is an incredibly patient person and I think this project was just on his backburner. I have the same fear as you. They do seem to reply occasionally with another excuse, so I'm hoping all is not lost.

Regarding legacybox, you are not kidding. I had a family member "helpfully" send me a USB stick of some 8mm transfers he had done (bless him) and wow they are... not great.

People too often throw around the word "excuse", when it's actually a "reason". So I'd want to know more before casting judgment here. Also know that some people are just obstinate, and refuse to accept a reason -- essentially a "Karen" or a "Chad", as Redditors often refer to these people.

And then not all video projects are the same, so that's a variable against project timeframes. So again, I'd need to know more here.

COVID-19 was also a monkey wrench for many small businesses, followed by the "Great Resignation" of people quitting and job hopping. Video is a specialized field (at least when done well), and the loss of a single person can be a major setback. Filling that void may prove difficult, at least in the current economic environment.

LegacyBox is a horrible service that ruins (and loses) customer tapes/photos, bad reviews are everywhere online. But the first few pages of Google are all glowing reviews. Legit reviews are buried. Why? Well, I'm pretty sure they pay for fake "reviews", be it bribing mommy bloggers or using Fiverr, or whatever. Most people do not realize the online shenanigans that can happen online. A lot of these fake "reviews" are obvious BS, as many actually show the low quality work, yet accompany glowing gushing text. I recall one review recently, on a mommy blog, where you could actually see how bad the quality was on an iPad from a distance. And yet, she was ridiculously positive.

Cinelab always did good work.

I did hear some "recent" 2021 positive feedback on Cinepost, from a tape client.

The biggest issue with a quality transfer is getting wetgate.

On the topic of "what to look for" in film transfer, there's a lot of posts in this thread: http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/vide...-film-dvd.html

We do telecine (including 8mm and Super8) and to do it properly it's a slow process. We have a custom-built telecine running our own software and we can end up with very long queues for telecine services, we're into about 3 months at the moment. We use a mirrorless Panasonic camera body and lens for our telecine so they're essentially 'as good as you'll get' frame by frame scans to grain point.

It's not our main trade, we only have a single machine but it can take up to 6-8 hours to run a 7" roll for best quality - we do communicate this to customers, but fast telecine usually results in bad outcomes, trust us, we've tried! We only do dry-gate but as mentioned, this isn't our main business, we don't really promote the film but we'll handle it when asked by domestic customers.

8 months without contact or a hefty discount I wouldn't accept though, if this were my business we'd be severely discounting the work now if not offering it to the customer for free.

We're actually going to discontinue film when the current queue is satisfied, we don't have the time to dedicate to it, and telecine is very low margin work for what domestic customers are prepared to pay. We charge around £50 inc for a 7" reel and to be honest, it's not enough for the work involved.

Mistakes happen in business, but they don't seem very good at resolving them?

Again, I don't think we have a clear understanding here, cannot yet cast judgment.

As you mentioned, film work is slow.

And as you allude to, finding a competent service for film (and video in general) is only going to get harder. So be careful of burning bridges, or getting too hoity-toity about what you (the customer) thinks should be done. And those thoughts are too often based on nothing.

Extreme discounts, especially free work, are often completely out of the question for a small business. That's just unreasonable.

I'm extremely pro-consumer, but the idea that "the customer is always right" is bogus nonsense. Too often, people pick sides without knowing all the facts. It could be the customer, the company, both, or neither, at "fault" for a delay.

And again, we're living in weird times, and for the past 2 years now. So more understanding than usual needs to be given.

I think that's very reasonable.

Customer expectations can be difficult to manage, it's part of the learning process. I've been the director and run businesses for about 5 years now, I've still got a tremendous amount to learn and there have been a few humps both commercially and with customers, it's all part of the rich tapestry I guess.

One expectation we've found difficult to control with the film is terminology, we offer '4K' scanning, however, some customers take this to mean that their grotty old bit of 8mm will look like 4K television just as one example.

Film is a pain, I've got no passion for film, it only came about due to one customer a few years ago and we thought we'd offer it as an adjunct service, it was too popular! I'll happily play with videotape all day, but I just don't have 'the bug' for film, luckily one member of the team doesn't mind it.

We have tried offering Wolverine scans as a budget option, which ended up cannibalising other sales so we withdrew it and just use the 'Frankencine' as it's known here, it's made out of various bits and pieces, but it scans very nicely.

Film done properly is slow though, unless you want something that looks a little better than an old fashioned VHS telecine.