Over the years The Icon has gone downhill faster than any other film/printing lab in all of LA. I've been a full-time photographer for almost 2 decades and have solely gone to The Icon for all of my film development, scanning and printing services. I've sent countless other photographers and producers here. I and am so disappointed to say that their production quality and customer service has become so poor, I've finally thrown in the towel and will never return. Some of the issues I've encountered in the last two years: Numerous rolls damaged in their processor or scanning workflow, prints lost in the shuffle or never delivered on time, and zero communication from their "customer service representatives". The recent fast employee turnover rate comes to no surprise as no one seems to know what they're doing anymore. The majority of staff are all suddenly under 25 years old and there's a "new technician" or counter clerk every week I go in. Just yesterday a man named "Aaron" called me (claiming to be one of the owners, when I personally know the owner Ramesh and Rathin) and tried to solve a problem we were having with some prints. He was completely incompetent and lied about his position at The Icon. With love and respect, I hope they get it back together one day but if you have any care whatsoever about your film, prints or customer service, save yourself the time and money and go literally anywhere else. read more

I was referred to this place from another company I called regarding photo slides development so I'm super happy and excited to see what surprise is in store for me with pics! Jordan was very nice and helpful. Color slides were $3 dollars each and the disposable camera was about $20. Very professional place and looking forward to seeing what took me so long to develop. I hope it's a good surprise and not one I've been avoiding. The disposable was found after two decades of being in a box.....lol!! read more

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Intense prices compared to competitors. $20 an image to scan, $3.99 with others. Might suggest to look elsewhere

Good film scans. You dont realize it kinda a huge building inside. 10/10 :) Come again

Luis Diaz is an arrogant sack of s**t & unfortunately he's a part owner so no repercussions will be had. Came in after 4 rolls came back blank to ask for an explanation and instead Luis Diaz began getting loud & in my face. When I asked why he's getting loud when I'm being respectful & just needed an explanation he exploded and became even more aggravated. Ended up getting a refund from a different sales associate but nonetheless, after coming here for 10 years, never again. 0/5 stars read more

Excellent service and friendly staff! Job was finished within time frame quoted. Recommend!

Had to call this place 3 times to get any sort of information on my order. Dropped my slide film off a week before, was promised that the film would be shipped off to me by the following Monday, did not provide me with tracking until the following Thursday after I called them for a third time, and USPS shows that they still haven't shipped out the order on Friday. If you value the photos you've taken on your rolls, do not send it here, the fact that it's even in doubt whether I will get my rolls back is reason enough for me to never transact with this company again. The rolls I sent in had photos of my swearing into the California Bar, a milestone in any attorney's career, now they're potentially gone forever. [Update]: Received my order a week late after they finally dropped off the package to USPS despite lying to me about having dropped it off prior. Slides looked like they cross-processed it, very obvious color-shifts. My guess is there's C-41 chemistry residue that doesn't get flushed out before they put in E-6 chemistry. Same conclusion, would not recommend. read more

It is such a shame to write this. I used to be a true believer. Gerard is no longer with us, A & I went to the north valley... Icon was the spot where at least I knew I was going to get something 100% right the first time. They're expensive but it was worth the price and the hour-long drive. No longer, I'm afraid. And if you doubt me, just check out the snarky responses customers get from the manager on here. One of the perks of paying so much more than the average cost of developing was the fact that they held on to your negatives FOREVER. So if you forgot to pick them up, they would always be there when you remember. Understandably, this policy was not sustainable so they recently started throwing out materials after 30 days. The only problem is that they do not call or email before throwing them out. Does this 30-day window also apply to re-prints due to lab error? Yes... the answer is yes. And they will not call or email before doing so. So, not only does my previous client have 4 rolls of excessively dark digital prints but the dark room re-print of the most important image from her wedding + the associated negatives are gone forever. Guess I'm going to start using A & I again. They're on-par with how Icon used to be but will not print digital prints a couple stops darker than the negatives or throw your negatives and prints away without calling/emailing you first. My favorite part of the process was the "I'm just customer service" when I was explaining why I can't ever bring my work there again. Oh yeah - also - my previous job was completely ruined by them, too. I had multiple rolls on top of each other on a brownie roller-upper-thingy that sits inside the camera. I told dude that there were two rolls on there. Not only did he PULL THE FILM OUT OF THE BAG IN THE DAYLIGHT, he only developed one of them. I have no freaking idea what happened to the other. Probably light leaked to death. read more

If you have one of those old disposable cameras lying around that you never got developed, this place can get the job done! They were nice and helpful in choosing the best option for me and even told me that if they couldn't get any images off the old film that I wouldn't be charged. After 6 years, I'm happy to finally see what was captured on the underwater disposable camera during my trip to Mexico. The pictures were meh but this is no fault of The Icon. They have free parking on a side street! read more

The Icon - Photography Stores & Services Near Me - Los Angeles, California

First time shooting ektachrome and had a few other rolls that I also shot so I came here for the E6 processing thinking I would just drop off the one roll and go elsewhere for C41. After looking at the price sheet and noticing each roll would cost $3 more than anywhere else I said whatever I'll just do all my film here instead of running around. I came back that evening to pick up and was told that I wasn't charged for one of the rolls I brought in and had to pay more. After looking at the receipt I realized I was also not told that they charge $2 PER ROLL to CUT the film! This turned out to be double the price I would pay anywhere else for processing. Prob won't be coming back because of their sneaky hidden charges. read more

I'm sure this place has a purpose for professional photographers, but it shouldn't be $40+ to get 2 rolls of 35mm film developed and scanned at a grainy resolution 5 days later... super disappointed after my first time here. Gold one hour photo in ktown develops film in one day and sends full resolution photos for half of the price. Edit: I really appreciate the reply, but I stand by the price comment. I would be a regular at this place weekly if the cost wasn't so high! Thanks read more

I was recommended to try The Icon by someone at Samy's Camera so I unfortunately didn't read the reviews first. The short version is - if you are hoping for company that cares about customer satisfaction and quality prints, go somewhere else. From what I gathered, the Icon outsources most of their printing and has zero quality control measures for what comes back. I tried their darkroom test where you get three prints of each photo in dark, medium, light for $30 (also crazy expensive!) so you can see how it all looks before opting into a larger print. But each print that came back had little imperfections and spots on them, clearly from a dirty machine and lack of attention to detail. When I pointed this out to them they said if I shipped everything back they'd give me a refund. However when I agreed, they quickly reneged on that offer and told me I needed to bring back in the negatives for further investigation and couldn't make any promises. There are no scratches on my negatives. I also had quality issues with some digital prints that I had them do. They were very washed out and also had some splotches on them. With these prints, we reviewed in person and they agreed they weren't good but instead of actually fixing the issue they decided to print from low res scans I had shared with them via email. I was skeptical but asked how they came out and they said they were much better. However, they looked terrible. When I picked them up, these low res prints were so pixelated that I was shocked a professional studio would try and pass it off as a solution. Overall, it's strange to me they would push back so hard on making any of this right. So far I've spent over $300 and was really hoping to get some big prints done. But I also live very far so not worth the drive to go back again and continue to fight them on this. It's clear they don't care about quality. I just wish I had read all these reviews first. PS it looks like the owner/manager reports many reviews, if you click through the bottom where it says 'other reviews not recommended' you'll see there are mannnnnnnyy more negative reviews that aren't being factored into this company's rating. Beware. read more

Came here for the first time a few months back to get a roll of film pushed or pulled (can't remember exactly) since it is one of the few labs in LA that offers both, and my initial reaction was to be taken aback by how much more expensive it is than where i usually go. I paid $27 for the development of 1 roll with the pushing/pulling (though their website has detailed pricing options for the wide array of development services they offer). But then when I got my roll back i was like hold on i get it. Of the 6 rolls I shot at my brothers civil wedding, the roll i took to develop at the icon came out the best. I was deeply impressed by the quality and the color grading. I was so shocked by how different these images came back, because before this I'd been very happy with the quality of work i get at the lab i usually go to. When i went to pick up my negatives, I asked them if it was because of the push/pull or if it was just the scanning technique. They let me know that it was mostly the scanning style of the lab -- they scan the images flatter so we have more control of how the images look when we receive them. I appreciated their willingness to answer my question and offer their professional knowledge! I would 100% recommend getting your film developed + scanned here. read more

The one star is not in regard to their quality of service, rather, the exorbitant prices that this place charges for each relative stage of the development and scanning process. Please don't waste your money here. Most people have never developed film or scanned their own negatives before, but those who have will know that Icon is charging their customers nearly $10 more on average for a basic develop and scan of C41 than their competitors. They then charge extra for higher quality TIFF files, when they could just be setting their JPEG's to 300 DPI instead of 72. It comes with the click of a button, and causes them little to no extra work to go from JPEG to TIFF. For reference, nearly all film labs that I have ever been to charge less, and in some cases don't even charge you for digitally transferring your negatives at all. Additionally, some film labs just skip JPEG's altogether and give you the higher quality TIFF files as standard. Not to mention, all of this comes at a 3 DAY TURNAROUND, most other "in-house" labs are down to a day or two at MOST these days. Unless your developing slide film, there are plenty of better places to go than this profiteering scheme that jumped on the coattails of "the trend of film photography," and uses that business model to take advantage of unsuspecting customers who just want their disposable developed. Adjust your business practices and stay open. read more

They were able to turn around our order quickly and were nice about it. If you have high res digital photos and you want a professional finished look then this is the place to go. read more

Fine Art Photographers Beware!!!! This is a definite NO if you are a fine artist. The short version is that the staff here made a significant error, refused to admit it, lied about it and then, instead of reprinting it, simply refunded my money. Here's the longer story: I'd printed a few things with these guys before. They were fine and accommodating. On the last project, I came in to check my print, which was a large piece for an important client and it had crop marks up against the image. I'd never asked for crop marks and was never asked about borders at all. They simply made the assumption to put them there, which, if you're doing a fine art print, is the exact wrong assumption. Why would any artist NOT want a border around their print? I own prints from a variety of photographers and they all have borders, as most of them have a signature and edition number right below the print. I mentioned it to the printer and he started to explain to me what crop marks are for. I told him I knew what they were for, I just didn't want them on my print. He showed me a form that THEY had filled out where it was indicated there would be no border. I was never asked about it and I never had even seen that order form. And then he dug his feet in on it. But as he was a lower level printer and not the one who runs the "fine art printing" arm of the store, I decided I would take it up with the guy who does - Ken. I left the print there and emailed Ken a few days later. Ken's response was to, again, try to explain to me what crop marks are for and then said that putting crop marks is standard practice and that every print they'd done for me, including my test prints, had the same crop marks. I then called three other reputable printers in town and NONE of them said they'd ever put crop marks against an image. One laughed at the idea. And two of them said they don't put crop marks on fine art images ever unless the artists specifies they want them. I told this to Ken and he dismissed me and said he'd return my money. I was curious, because I didn't remember there being crop marks on any of my prints before with Icon, so I checked. And in fact Ken had lied about it. There were no crop marks on my past images at all! (See image) I then emailed the owner, no response. So, I guess taking responsibility for mistakes is not something that Icon believes in or practices. It's not enough for a printer to be competent at printing - it's not only the quality of image that matters to a photographer or artist. The working relationship and trust between photographer and printer is integral. This is as big a breach of that trust as I've ever seen, and I've been doing this a long time. How can you work with someone who is willing to lie to cover up his mistakes? ** This is just an aside, but I got a bit of a look at their workflow and their hardware and software is hideously outdated, too. I watched painfully as Ken did an adjustment on one of my images using antiquated software in 5x the time it would have taken me to do it. This shouldn't be the case at a professional lab. I should aspire to have the equipment they do. read more

The Icon - No crop marks. - Photography Stores & Services Near Me - Los Angeles, California

They kept changing the date of when our 1 film roll would be developed 3 times and then only to end up with blank film so that's great.

Do not use Icon if you are a professional photographer. I trusted Icon to print and ship photos in proper packaging to a client, which they failed to do - costing me money and much embarrassment. The photos arrived to my client bent and damaged as they were packaged in a flimsy cardboard that could clearly not withstand a cross country mailing.  I reached out to Icon, explained what happened and requested that they re-print the photos and ship them out again with proper hard-sided protection. They refused, shifted all the blame to USPS and offered me no reimbursement. I was wholeheartedly disappointed in both their inability to provide proper shipping service (which I paid for!) as well as in their subsequent lack of accountability and poor customer service.  I will no longer be using Icon as a printing resource - and if you value your professional reputation and good customer service then you shouldn't either. read more

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The customer service was embarrassing, they messed up my order and scans and then made me pay for their mistake.

I have been going to the Icon for over 15 years since I was a photo student. They have always done an excellent job with my printing and I have always had great experiences with the staff. I have been intermittent in my film shooting and developing and its nice to know that they are still around when I need them. Yes, the prices are expensive, but I understand that they need to do that to keep the business afloat and I don't mind paying more for a higher quality experience. When I took my film to Sammy's yes it was cheaper but also came with a side of attitude and the scans that came back with the film were suuuper tiny (I was not given scanning options when I dropped off my film there unlike at the Icon). The last time I was there, I had an unfortunate experience where I knew there was something wrong with the film in the camera and one of their darkroom techs was supposed to examine it and did not, causing me to expose most of the film when I opened the camera and found it ripped inside. This guy was a total doofus, but the rest of the staff made sure to make it right for me by only charging me a processing fee and rushing and scanning what did not get exposed for free so that I could see if anything actually made it out of that roll. The two shots that survived were winners. I still believe in film and the Icon. E-prints are also very affordable and look pretty nice as well when I need digitals printed up for xmas gifts and the like. read more

My photo teacher said that The Icon was the best photo processing place in LA. For one of my assignments, I had to develop slide film, which only Icon does. They have a big parking lot across the street, and a big store on Wilshire. If you are a student, take advantage of the discount! They offer 15% (i think) off all services which is a great deal because their prices are pretty expensive. I got three rolls developed - which came out to around $40 with slide mounting, and no prints or extras. A bit pricey but in LA that isn't bad. They had my film ready in a couple of hours which was great. The only downside was that they told me the film would be ready at 5, and when I got there I had to wait an additional 40 minutes for my film. I knew they were rushing to get my slides mounted and they showed great customer service. A bit disappointed for the longer than expected wait time though. The slides turned out great though. read more

This is the only place I'll take film to get developed in LA. Their knowledge and equipment far exceeds any other lab in the city. I've thrown all sorts of weird stuff at The Icon, from cross processing color infrared slide film to way old expired stock and it always comes back flawless. The refrema dip processor is worth its weight in gold for not scratching negatives like roller machines often do. Oh yeah, and they have a 24/7 drop box behind the building so you can leave your film to get processed at 3:00 AM after your late night shoot and have it ready by the following afternoon. Thank you, ICON staff, for being there for all of us! read more

Professional, highly talented work. Trust them with all my prints. Can't recommend them highly enough.

They actually do throw away your priceless, irreplaceable negatives with zero notification so beware

It was going to be my first time coming here & I came today at 9am right at opening and the shop was closed. Waited an hour till 10am and then decided to leave. The hours say open 9am on Sat. I even checked their socials or if there was any other signage saying otherwise but nope. I understand being a couple minutes late but over an hour beyond the time you're supposed to be open is ridiculous. read more

I love The Icon for all my film development needs. Very professional team - super knowledgeable and friendly. I got a fine art print made here from one of my iPhone photos from vacation and I am so happy with how the print turned out. I can't wait to get more prints made in the future! Thank you Icon! read more

Truly trust the team at Icon to take care of my film needs. Ken and Alex in particular are always great gents and go beyond to make sure they are accurate and efficient. 100% confidence in going here, 100% of the time. b read more

I've been coming to The Icon for about a year and a half now, the consistency and quality of their film processing is unmatched in LA. Every time i drop off a roll here, I get it back cut and sleeved, no scratches, no muck ups, perfect every time. (Plus they have a light box and louvres to check out your negs !) All manners of film processing and scanning from E-6/BW/C41/push/pull, to drum scans: will and can be done at the highest level of consistency, diligent care, and of course quality. People say that it's a pricey place to take your film, but if you are a professional or pro-sumer, and you want to be taken care of and not have to stress over this particular variable of the photography; then this level of service and quality will be priceless. read more

Icon was a great lab many years ago but they are far from that now. They simply dont care about their customers anymore or their quality of work. The scans are messy, the film processing is sloppy and their turn around is slow and their prices are high. There are so many great labs in LA this is no longer one of them. read more

Very sad to be leaving a negative review for a business I put my trust in for so long. I used The Icon exclusively for years both for my own shoots as well as recommending them to photographers who I assisted for. I brought this lab clients at Conde Nast, Rolling Stone, Paper, i-D, Nike, etc. Many photographers over the years told me of their negative experiences with The Icon but that had not been my experience so I continued to use them despite higher costs for developing and scanning my film. The quality of the scans were always great although their low res scans have seemed to lessen in quality of late. Sometimes the turnarounds were slow but I lived with it because I felt like I could trust them with my film. This is a lab that generally speaking does great work which is the only thing that stopped this from being a one star review. I understand sometimes mistakes happen, even the best of the best mess up now and then. Unfortunately when The Icon did mess up the handling of the situation is what ensured I will be taking my film elsewhere in future. My most recent batch of fiIm came back with a fine linear scratch across the centre of all of the negatives. My first thought was dust in my Contax 645 back or body. Alex at The Icon also suggested it was probably dust in the camera. I asked if he had any camera shops he would recommend to take a look. He recommended Walters' Camera. I took the camera to them trusting that if someone at the Icon suggested them they must be good. The man I spoke to at Walters' was great. He looked the camera over with a fine tooth comb and showed me how the back moved film through the camera and typical places where dust might be trapped. He looked at the scans and showed me why it would be impossible for the camera to cause the scratches. He cleaned the back anyway to be safe, didn't charge me a dime and sent me on my way with the suggestion that I shoot a few more rolls and take them to a different lab to see the results which I did and everything came out great. I went back to the Icon twice to try and collect the negatives and talk to them to figure out what had happened. On both occasions they had forgotten to cut and page my negatives. On the final occasion Alex looked at the box containing my negatives and said "I wasn't aware we were cutting and paging these for you" despite the fact that it was on my order, we had discussed them still needing to be cut and paged last time I was in and the box said in big pink lettering "Needs to be cut & paged". After recommending Walters Camera, Alex basically said the guy didn't know what he was talking about.. I was told on the first occasion that I should come back when the manager was there. The second time I came back I was told that the manager was in the darkroom and couldn't come out. Alex was dismissive and unhelpful throughout. He's always been a bit standoffish over the years but only when there was an issue did I honestly see how bad the customer service was. In the end I walked away with a refund of $20 and some change for the cutting and paging because I couldn't be bothered coming back again to see if they would actually cut and page the film this time. No explanation was offered for the scratch apart from the repeated suggestion that it was my camera. Walters' Camera's diagnosis that the scratch had occurred in processing was ignored completely. No offer of a refund was made and although I repeatedly said the most important thing to me was figuring out the cause of the scratch so I could avoid it happening again, Alex was unhelpful with that as well. Shocked and honestly saddened at the absolute lack of accountability and customer service from a business I trusted so absolutely. Apparently if you're not a household name photographer The Icon doesn't care about your business. Fair enough. I'll be taking my film to Photo Impact Imaging in future. read more

Fantastic place to get photos and art pieces printed. They were very helpful and guided me through the process from picking the size and type of paper, to lightening up my image for optimal printing clarity. Highly recommend! read more

Ken is super helpful each time we've gone in to get prints done here. We've brought in 2 prints that we've needed done now (one 11x14 and one 8x10). The quality is excellent and the price is competitive considering how well they come out. Ken takes the time to sit with us and make sure the print is framed exactly how we'll want it to show up in the frame we've bought. Super great customer service. I'll definitely be coming back here for all my photography needs. read more

I've been going here a few years, so often that they have my credit card on file. I drop in, hardly talk to the guys because they already know what I want and a few hours later I pick up my negatives. Except they decided to hire this disgruntled woman since & customer service is the last thing she's good at. I'll never go back there again, solely because of her attitude. I hope no one encounters her, especially when all you have to do is pick up your film and she chooses not to acknowledge you. "It's not like I'm not with a customer, I'm helping a customer" is what was said to me when I finally decided to ASK not DEMAND if I could possibly squeeze in and pick up my already processed and paid for film that was SITTING ON THE COUNTER. If you're reading this miss gangster lady NO ONE TOLD YOU YOU CANT HELP THE CUSTOMER BUT GOD FORBID IF YOU DO TWO THINGS AT ONCE. Your customer service SUCKS and so does your attitude. Customer service 101 you could've said "hi no problem let me grab my associate to help you out as I'm helping this customer". Just an FYI, for the 3 minutes I stood there in silence, her and the customer did as well because he was looking at each slide one by one. Now a days, you get a mouthful for simply asking a question, truly sad and disgusting. read more

I used to go to [enter camera store here] and I can tell you that The Icon is one of the best I've been too. I shoot landscapes on 120 Ilford, Velvia, Portra, and Ektar films. The old store I would go to would take a week for my black and white film, and send my color positive film to The Icon which always came back perfect. The old store ruined my color film with chemical markings and scratches along with bad attitudes to top it off. Long story short, I dropped off 14 roles of film I shot over the holidays and they had them all done by the end of the day in perfect condition. Wish I had been going here before. Can't wait to see how they do prints. read more

I've been meaning to review The Icon for awhile, and now feel compelled to based on some asinine reviews I've read below. First of all, there is no substandard of service or treatment for non-professionals. I am about as far from pro as you can get, I shoot film as a hobby, yet every time I walk in those doors they treat me as if I was David LaChapelle (which I most certainly am NOT). Great service from great people, most of whom know me by name now and it isn't like I'm there every week. That, you crappier Yelpers, is good customer service. The other bad Yelps seem to be from people who just don't understand how things, i.e. machinery and time, work in the photo business. Before you write your ignorant reviews, find out what the difference between a "picture" and a print is, and why the latter can't be done in five minutes (and the former looks a thousand times better). Or why you cannot walk into a high end photographic shop and expect them to drop everything they are doing to jam your single roll of 35mm film through the scanner. There are a ton of other customers and I wait my turn, why can't you?. If you want your stuff done on the spot, then go to Walgreens and let them use their inferior and dirty chemicals on your stuff and see how well you feel that "five bucks" was spent. I am more than willing to bet your negatives and prints will have grain the size of a small country, and tons of black spots from chemicals they should have dumped months ago. Once you've ruined a few rolls of film that way, and decided your inkjet printer just doesn't cut it, come back to The Icon and be glad there is still a place left that processes E-6 and is staffed by awesome people who know their shit. read more

I've only been to Icon once because I normally go to A&I (mainly because it is closer to where I live and is used frequently by professionals/artists- in other words, they won't ruin your life by unnecessarily cross processing 4x5 film as slide film -BEL AIR CAMERA). The people here were extremely friendly and, unlike A&I, they are open on Sundays and have longer hours with an equal, if not better, turnaround time for C41 processing. An added plus is that their student discount is an amazing 20%. read more

Alex is the guy!! He is very professional, helpful, courteous and knowledgeable. I should add fair!

This place is as good as it gets. No nonsense, drop off your film and in a few hours they process. The film places to process are getting slim to none and to enter thru their doors was a blast of familiarity. Y'know, when people cared about quality. Their walls are adorned with artist's work. It is just so great to look at who their clientele is and realize you are a part of that. When I was in there, there was a young woman with her friends who were in school learning photography. They still shot film, and the counter clerk took a lot of time explaining the process to them. He was patient and very informative. Never did he have an attitude, he just seemed to love explaining how film works. Yes, they weren't professionals, but the clerk sure treated them like such. I really like the vibe of this place. Clean, friendly, and precise. When I was told my E6 film was going to be ready at 3:30PM it was ready at 3:30PM. Nevermind that I dropped it off past their 3-4 hour turnaround policy at 1:30PM. I pray, hope and wish this place never goes. Because the people who are complaining about them, PLEASE suggest any place that does E6 better (4x5 or 120). Also, the people who claim sticker shock...I get it...film is expensive. For the cost of a few rolls, you get a reusable SD card. But...here's the trip...you want to preserve history...you pay for it. You want Facebook pictures, by all means, go buy as many hard drives and SD cards as you wish. Long after digital files get wiped out...I'll still know I can print my negatives. read more

if you go here to scan film, opt for the medium resolution or higher. the low res scans are quite irredeemable in most cases for portfolios and prints. there are places around los angeles that will provide higher quality scans for the same price point icon provides for their low res scans, albeit a possibly slower turnaround time. read more

By far the best full service photo lab in los angeles. They say you get for what you pay for, and The Icon delivers. From the ultra professional and friendly staff, to their accommodating hours (they close at 11pm!), The Icon has been a favorite of mine when it comes to professional work that I need taken care of. Even their basic film scans out color and out crisp higher end scans at other labs. When I drop film off here, I know it will be taken care of. read more