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M-Alchemy

M-Chrome (negative to slide)

M-Chrome (negative to slide)

$14.99 USD
$14.99 USD
Sale Sold out
Film Stock (See product description for details)
Number of Passes
Additional Copies (of final pass)

Please fill out our Google Form to report details about your order, as well as submitting your order here.

Mercury shooter?  You can receive two free M-Chromes per month for photos taken with your Mercury camera.  See "Mercury Shooter Perk" below.

Schedule: We process ECN negatives (which we recommend as the source for M-Chrome slides) on the first Monday of every month.  We process M-Chromes on the second Monday of every month.  Therefore, if you process your negatives with us, you will receive your digital scans in time to make choices for M-Chrome the following week.  It is also fine to process your negatives yourself or at a different lab (at the risk of increased dust baked into the negatives, and thus the slides), and ship them to us. Shipping details can be found here.

Introduction to M-Chrome

This is our revolutionary, experimental new process to make slides from negatives. M-Chrome utilizes Hollywood's process for making 70mm IMAX film prints for theaters, applying it to still photographs for the first time.  We use custom-built machinery along with specialty film stocks and developing processes to produce this unique result.  Unlike photo lab processes from the days of old, we do not re-photograph anything, so there is no discernible generation loss.  We contact print the positives, for full resolution and quality.

The M-Chrome process is not meant to replace slide film (which we develop).  When conditions are right for slide film (bright sun, outdoors), we encourage you to shoot that format.  M-Chrome, however, allows you to obtain slides from more difficult shooting conditions: indoors, dimmer lighting, non-daylight light sources, non-standard colors, etc.  In addition, M-Chrome opens up far more possibilities for BW slides. An additional benefit is the ability to make as many copies of your slide as you wish.

You will have some limited ability to alter both color and exposure in your resulting slides, giving you more flexibility over your final slides. Use our Google Form to indicate your preferences.

Every M-Chrome we make has to be "printed" to stock, developed, evaluated, settings adjusted, and printed and developed again, just to obtain a first image.  Hence the cost of the procedure. M-Chrome is more like darkroom printing than it is like slide processing. (Though we do have to use special processing chemistry as well.)

One downside to M-Chrome is that, despite utilizing a full clean room specially built for the process, it is inevitable that a few small specs of dust will make their way onto your film.  It simply isn't possible to eliminate all dust, even given our extreme measures.  This is an unavoidable side effect of printing negatives to positives (just like darkroom paper printing). However, the main factor determining the quality of your final slide is actually the condition of your original negative. Dust, fibers, and scratches "baked in" to your original negative will usually be visible in your slide. Negatives developed by M-Alchemy will generally exhibit far less dust/fibers than negative developed at home or a standard lab, because all of our medium format negatives are dried in the very Clean Room in which we "print" M-Chromes, minimizing the opportunity for dust and fibers to affect for your negative.

We accept Color and BW negatives from approved film stocks, film sizes, and formats.

Approved Film Stocks:

  • Kodak Vision 3 cinema film: 250D, 500T, 50D, 200T (including Mercury versions).  We highly recommend that you develop your film ECN-2.  C-41 developed negatives can exhibit slightly shifted colors and increased contrast that can crush shadow and highlight detail.

  • Ilford HP5+ BW

  • Mercury Murnau 100 BW (70mm)

  • Kodak Double-X BW
You can submit non-approved film stocks using the appropriate option when you order.  It is a bit more expensive, and we cannot guarantee the results. In the future, we will work toward adding your most-requested choices to the approved list. Let us know!

Film Sizes accepted:
  • 65mm (recommended)

  • 70mm (note that we will trim your negatives a bit, but not in the image area)

  • 120 (note that 120 film doesn't align as well in our machine, so there is an increased chance of a non-centered image; this is not usually a problem, but something to be aware of)

  • 135 (similar alignment issues)

Formats accepted:
  • Any single image with a width up to 120mm (i.e, from 645 up to 6x12)

  • A stereo pair with a width up to 120mm
The price quoted is per slide, which includes either a single image or a stereo pair.

Mercury Shooter Perk:

If your submitted negatives were shot on a Mercury camera, on Approved film stock, and on 65mm or 70mm film (the easiest for us to align during the process), you will receive the M-Chrome service for free!  Up to two M-Chromes per month (standard 2-Passes).  You will still be charged shipping, and for any extra copies you order.  Just select "Mercury Shooter Perk" under "Film Format" below.

BW vs. Color Ouput:

We can print to color slides or true BW, with the following options:
  • BW neg to true BW slide
  • BW neg to color slide, enabling tinting/sepia effects
  • Color neg to color slide
  • Color neg to BW slide
Number of Passes:

Our standard process includes two passes.  The first utilizes standard exposure and color settings based on your film type and observed density.  The second pass is made by evaluating the results of the first pass and adjusted to your preferences (as reported on your Google Form).  You have the option of ordering further passes, and we recommend that you do so for particularly complex images (tricky color balance, underexposed, overexposed, etc.). We generally return your 2nd and higher passes to you.  First passes are generally marked up and discarded, but if they turn out particularly well, we will try to preserve them and send them to you.

Copies:

If ordered at the same time as your initial printing, copies are very inexpensive to add.  We will make the additional copies of your final pass.  If you wish to order copies later, you'll have to order a standard M-Chrome (which will result in two copies), plus add any more you wish.

Film Return:

Shop will charge you return shipping when you place this order.  Be default we ship only your new M-Chrome slides; we will hold your negatives in the lab until you specifically request their return. This allows you to order new passes or copies in the future. Negatives can be returned free of charge with any M-Chrome or other order.

Mounts and Frames:

We have cardboard mounts for 645 slides and 6x6 slides for use in 6x6 projectors and our mono slide viewer, cardboard mounts for 6x7 projectors (and our mono slide viewer) that hold 6x7 and IMAX slides, cardboard mounts for MF3D slides, and a special snap-together frame for 6x12 panoramic slides.
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