Peak Imaging Christmas Deadlines

To ensure delivery before Christmas your order must be received by us on or before the following deadlines. Please be sure to post early to allow for possible postal delays.

Thursday, 12th December
All services apart from the services detailed below

Monday, 16th December
Process & Print orders

Wednesday, 18th December
E6 Process & Mount / C41 Process Only

All work received by the above dates will be posted back by first class post on or before Wednesday 18th December. This is one day in advance of the Royal Mail last posting recommendations. Please note that we cannot guarantee Royal Mail deliveries and it is in your own interest to post work to us before the above dates.

We close for the Christmas and New Year holiday on Monday, 23rd December and re-open for business on Thursday, 2nd January 2003.

Print Turnaround Times back to Normal

During August and September print orders doubled compared to the same period last year. For the past two months we have been working a 24/7 week to reduce the backlog and we are pleased to announce the turnaround times are now almost back to normal. Thanks once again to all our customers for their patience during this exceptionally busy period.

The new range of Peak Points special offers have been put into place - check them out here, and see how much you could save on your favourite services over the next 5 months!

Extended Turnaround Times: while we are steadily clearing the backlog of work that has built up due to the substantial influx of orders (see news item below), some services are still subject to delays. We can only apologise once again for any inconvenience this may cause. Thank you all very much for your continued patience, and rest assured that as soon as we are in a position to return to our usual rapid turnaround times, we shall let you know immediately!

Please note that we are currently running extended turnaround times on all print orders.

This is not a satisfactory situation, we can only apologise and give you the reasons for the backlog. Our work is seasonal and September is our peak month. Like most good businesses we plan carefully for the future and try to maintain a safety margin in staff and equipment to ensure that we can cope with high workloads at peak times. However, during August and September orders coming into the lab have doubled when compared to the same period last year.

In a mail order operation such a dramatic increase is difficult to deal with. We cannot stop work coming in and we cannot stop or change ads which typically have a two-three month lead-time. At the moment we have a seven-day backlog for process and print orders and we are working 24 hour shifts and weekends to clear the backlog. There is of course the option to run films through our printers on automatic and if we took this route we would clear the backlog in a matter of a few days. However, we are in the business of producing quality prints and that requires a skilled operator viewing each frame and reprinting when necessary to get the best possible quality from each image. This is a labour intensive operation but the feedback we are getting from our customers is they want quality above all else.

The dramatic increase in orders and the excellent magazine reviews must mean we are getting it right most of the time and to some extent we are the victims of our own success. However we appreciate that this is very frustrating from the customer's point of view and we extend our apologies once again. We hope to get back to normal turnaround times a.s.a.p.

Eric Willoughby
Managing Director
Peak Imaging

Yet again Peak Imaging has obtained high marks and glowing reviews as Practical Photography continues its undercover Lab Tests. Of our Selective CD Archiving service, reviewer Dave Robbins wrote "Image quality was excellent, with natural colours...each scan is spotless and well-corrected". He concluded the review by awarding a mark of 89%, saying "High quality scans and well worth the money".

Our Process & Print with CD service received similar praise: it was noted that both turnaround and quality were "excellent" and after awarding a mark of 91% concluded that "Peak has done consistently well in our tests, so well done them!"

The reviews in full: Digital process, print & scan Digital scan to archive

In order to help you obtain the highest quality prints from digital files, we've issued this guide to calibrating your computer monitor. There's a brief version for those that have some experience in this field, and a more comprehensive step-by-step version for those that need it. As ever, we welcome your thoughts and comments on this guide - send them to imaging@peak-imaging.com.

The monitor calibration guide is here.

Once again Peak Imaging has achieved top scores for quality in this year's Practical Photography Lab Tests. In undercover tests featuring 17 well-known photo labs, Peak's printing was described as "top-notch".

Reviewer Dave Robbins said: "The work was returned in three days... the quality of printing was excellent. Colours were strong and vibrant and skin tones well reproduced, so our model looked healthy and natural. Whites were bright, blacks rich and the spotless pin-sharp prints were amongst the best in the test".

You can see the review here.

Another new Peak Customer Gallery entrant this month: Oxfordshire-based Stelios Vassileou - see some examples of his fine 35mm photography here.

Welcome to the new-look Peak Imaging website. We've endeavoured to maintain a similar layout to the previous site, as it appears that many of you have found it to be effective in delivering the information you need fast, and brought the look and feel of the site in line with our new 2002-3 price guide. We shall be updating and adding to this site on a regular basis in order to keep our customers informed of up-to-the-minute news, service changes etc., as well as providing other services relevant to the fast-paced world of modern-day photography. We hope you like it!

Today also sees the introduction of our new prices for 2002-03, which will come into effect from the 1st of April 2002. There have been some important pricing alterations to several key services, most notably with regards Professional Photographic Prints from Digital Files and Selective / Custom Made prints from negatives and transparencies. These changes have been implemented to provide a more cost-effective solution for those wanting quantities of prints. We are also introducing a new Process & Scan service - CD Archive Gold - for those demanding exceptional quality scans from their films at the time of processing.

Finally today, we've welcome a new contributor to our Customer Gallery. Check out Aidan Wallace's wildlife and landscape photography here.

Sheffield-based pro-lab Peak Imaging supported by Fuji Film sponsored the expedition, the largest of its kind ever undertaken by the RAF.

Peak and Fuji supplied Fujichrome Provia transparency and Fujicolor NPS negative film for the trip. Peak Imaging provided processing, printing and distribution services for the images, couriered back from base camp. Digital images were emailed back for printing, using satellite links, and all the images were printed on Fujicolor Crystal Archive Professional DII paper.

The team of 12 RAF mountain rescue experts led by Flight Lieutenant Ted Atkins climbed the mountain by the difficult North Ridge route to celebrate the millennium.  Everest is the dream challenge for many climbers, and the expedition included some of the most experienced mountaineers in Britain.

"The images we have received are spectacular and we are delighted that the RAF chose Peak Imaging to supply their imaging needs" said Eric Willoughby, managing director of Peak Imaging.  "With a name like Peak we felt this was the perfect sponsorship opportunity for us".