HELP START A MEET-UP FOR INDY PHOTO LABS!

• Help Start A Meet-Up for Independent Photo Labs! –

THE PLOT to organize a sociable get-together for independent photo labs some time this year has THICKENED! Neil Taylor of the UK's minilabhelp forum has now launched a new web site specially to organize and promote the idea. If you think it's a good idea and would like to attend, speak up and say so. Get along to the new www.minilabhelp.org.uk forum and have your say, TODAY!
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Expressions of support in principle for the proposed conference have been voiced by trade organization, the PMA, and by supplier www.photomart.co.uk. The organizer, Neil Taylor of minilabhelp.com, says: "I would say that networking with others is going to prove vital to the survival of our independent stores. We all learn so much when talking to others, and always come away with new energy."

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INDEPENDENT PHOTO LABS GET TOGETHER!

• Independent Photo Labs Get Together! – A plot is afoot to organize a sociable get-together for independent photo labs at a watering hole in the North West some evening this year. The conspiracy sprung up on the minilabhelp forum this month, and is gaining ground. Forum Admin, Neil Taylor, is soliciting expressions of interest, and if the number of lab people who want to go reaches critical mass, a meet-up WILL be organized! The idea is for the indies to network, share ideas, experiences and information (and buy each other drinks!). If you'd be interested, get onto the minilabhelp forum and pledge your attendence!

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UNLOCKING THE POTENTIAL OF PRINT!

• UNLOCKING THE POTENTIAL OF PRINT! – by Parinita Salian

Not just for photo books, digital printers are opening up new business lines for high street minilabs. Parinita Salian visited KAZ Digital Photo Store in East London last week. They've been a test site for EXENUX, the new digital printer from www.photomart.co.uk. EXENUX is ideal for photo products, but when she visited KAZ, Pari found the (typically adapatable) minilab had been using it for much more! [expand story >>>]

EXENUX is a digital printer that can work with a wide range of media weights, from 55gsm to 400gsm, in sizes up to SRA3+ and even 1.2m banner lengths.

I was greeted at KAZ by Seloua, the store manager. She told me she'd been using EXENUX to do quick printing for customers and local businesses. "This printer has single-handedly increased my business by 70%" she said. She had just finished printing some invitation cards, and moments later had a job of business cards coming out behind them. I watched the sheets whizzing from the versatile new machine.

Seloua has two graphic designers working in her store. They do all her Photoshop work, and also prepare designs for printing. Andy, the senior designer, told me "I am so satisfied with the results from this machine. Business cards, stationery, invitation cards – it can do just about anything. And there's none of the jamming or waste we used to have with other printers." [add comment]

DRY LAB - AN IDEA WHOSE TIME HAS COME?

• DRY LAB – An Idea Whose Time Has Come? – Those who went to FOCUS on Imaging from the photo lab sector this year probably noticed new dry labs being offered by Fujifilm, Kodak, KIS/PhotoMe and Noritsu. The Fujifilm and Noritsu offerings are (hardware identical) inkjet systems, but the Kodak combo is primarily thermal (conceptually similar to the Mitsubishi Flexilab package, available here for some years already). And that prompts PhotoWeek! to ask this question, Just what is a dry lab anyway? [expand story >>>]

Conceptually, dry labs need to be a superior substitute for current minilabs. Brand manufacturers strive to present them as exactly that. Fujifilm are marketing their Dry Lab 400 as just another member of the venerable Frontier family. To be a dry lab, any solution has to aim to be functionally equivalent to a minilab, and needs to represent a similar economic proposition. Minilab buyers are resistant to dry labs that can't approach the cost-per-print of wet labs.

But are dry labs really so certainly the heirs-in-waiting to the minilab inheritance, or is the whole concept of a minilab redundant in future photofinishing? Can we predict with confidence how long consumers are going to continue to get 4"x6" prints from retail outlets – for another decade, for longer?

Dry lab is a concept that predates the digital revolution. The original promise of dry lab for the manufacturers was that it would enable minilab sales to penetrate even further into the retail market – back in the days when expansion was impeded only by resistance to wet process! But minilabs are rolling back out of retail anyway, and it's not because of chemistry. With the new economics of declined print volumes, retail can't afford to give minilabs their floor space anymore. ASDA has had to replace some of their in-store photo labs with kiosks, for example. But even kiosks may be just a transitional technology, with the consumer ultimately returning to home printing.

There's another possibility. The small-footprint machines that could replace wet labs may have already crept into photo shops without us recognizing them. Minilabs these days are for doing work in small batches, run every half-hour or hour. Given the right software, this kind of work can be layed up on the wide-format inkjets that most photo labs already have. Schools photographers work this way now, using RIP facilities to output whole jobs on wide-format. In some ways, the right software RIP can enhance an inkjet so much the RIP could be considered a 'soft' minilab! So ponder this – future 'minilabs' may be neither wet nor dry, they might just be soft!

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