There are a couple of labs that are pretty darn good for medium format, 35mm, and digital.
For medium format work, Millers is excellent. Very good quality prints. Buckeye labs is also a great choice. You'd have to do both by shipping, but I've never had a problem with UPS. Both of these labs really know their stuff and provide excellent customer service. Millers offers a really nice web interface for client orders, too. I'll come back and post links as soon as I can.
For digital - don't laugh - I stick with my local Sam's Club. The lab operators there are very good. And when I'm shooting hundreds of images per wedding, or dozens during an environmental portrait/engagement session, the bottom line cost per print vs. a pro lab offers me substantial savings. Plus, for digital, I'm doing my own custom color corrections and cropping, so why pay a pro lab to do that for me? In head to head comparisons, Sam's matched or beat the pro labs for quality, and it was printed on Fuji Crystal Archive papers. I'm profiling for that paper anyway.
For 35mm film, again, it's Sams. I shoot a lot of Fuji film, when I do shoot film (I get an occasional client request for it). The Fuji Frontier machines do a remarkably good job with color rendition and clarity.
Plus, my Sam's Club lab operator has figured out a way to print white art borders for my wedding proofs, and he doesn't charge extra for that. My clients love it. And it helps me to keep my costs down.
So just a thought - check out your local Sam's Club, Costco, etc. If other pros are going there rrelarly, you know you've got a decent lab technician on staff.
Another place to look is
www.photo.net Find the neighbor to neighbor section - I think they have a section specifically devoted to labs. You have to hunt around for it, it's buried in that site somewhere, but there are hundreds of labs listed along with customer experiences. See what others are saying about labs in your area. You may find something local that produces excellent work.
