Hi Jim,
I use only standard C-41 processing for color prints, nothing special like alternate processes... The big difference I find is the care of the people, and the quality of the processing machinery. For ex&le, one excellent minilab that I use has a nice Fuji Frontier machine and I get BEAUTIFUL results from them. They use fresh paper and chems and they take very good care of the negatives - but they charge $15.00 USD. Another lab I sometimes use, though I generally regeret it, is a local Costco store. They also have a Fuji Frontier machine, but they routinely scratch my negs and return to me dirty and bland prints - weak colors, and either too dark or too light. They only charge me $6.59 USD so it is a bargain, but not really because the pictures do not come out looking very good! Once in a while I will send out to the local Kodak lab that does overnight processing, but I get mixed results from them, even though they use the Kodak PerfectPrint system, I find my prints are often less than perfect.
Funny, I usually think of slide film as being 'fool-proof' from a processing perspective, but I just got back a roll of Kodak Ektachrome 100G that was ruined by the lab (Kodak). There was incredibly nasty reticulated grain everywhere and strange colors - they must have had chemical problems (or maybe I got a bad roll of film?) - what a dissapointment! I wish I had time to go back to doing my own processing...
The Agfa Ultra 100 is standard C-41 processed. The colors are bold and the contrast is high - not great for general purpose but a special film that I like to use when the light is flat, and there are not a lot of people shots to be taken.
Cheers!
- marc