I see a buyer who thought they found a good deal with alphas and novelties coming in cheap, but didn’t verify that it would have enough coverage for their somewhat popular but not universal layout (65%)

Exactly. The typical assumption is that the base kit is still bought, with an extra set of alphas for full variety, but if you try and get away with skipping the mod kit that’s on you to know the limitations of the set.

What a rip of

Manufacturing costs and price the manufacturer charges are not the same. I know from multiple discussions with designers that it's a delicate balance that needs to be struck with kitting, so price for the consumer is good, MOQs are reachable and vendors make enough profit that it's worth it for them. Adding keys that almost no one needs just makes the sets less attractive to the stakeholders. That's why Mac support keys are usually a separate kit (if there is support at all) even though those 5 keys or so could have been put into a base kit / mod kit

It can be easy to miss.

I tried using a set that didnt have a 2.00U shift in it and only found out at the end as it was the last key and I became momentarily confused as to why it wouldnt fit :)

I'm new to the hobby (2 months?) and slowly coming to understand why some people's fully customized boards end up in the 1K price range ... 😏

Do you genuinely think it costs them that much to make it? It would cost the company like 2 dollars a set to put in the extra caps

Yes, my bad. Forgot Ektachrome was the E-6 name. It's been nearly 15 years, cut a girl some slack. :) Generally, anyone using slide film of any chemistry knows that if they bring it to a 1-hour lab they're getting C-41. Whether they shoot for it is their business. I never ran slide film through my machines because I was a testing nut (and got one district photo supervisor pissed at me for that refusal), but a lot of the old heads would do it for customers on the expectation that doing it a few times a year wouldn't hurt things too badly at the rate they changed chemicals.

If you run C41 film through E6, you're cross processing, and that would look awful unless you shot specifically for it, and then printed accordingly. I doubt many minilabs would have done this, as it also ruins your chemistry pretty quickly.

Kodachrome was not E6... it was K14, a totally different process.

Well, as opposed to what many minilab operators do with slide film intended for prints instead of slides, which is to just run it through the C-41 processor and damn the chemical consequences. The indie lab I referenced ran through so much Kodachrome that it was worth it for them to buy a dedicated unit. Meant they could also take on mail-in orders from other regional indie labs with quicker turnaround than the big processing houses.

E6 would be a separate machine, yes, it would have to be.

gotta check that compat buddy

Oh hi! Fancy seeing you here. I think you know who I am by my username

This is one of my dream sets but dammit the pricing is bonkers given how they've broken out the kits, which seems designed to get you over a barrel.

It's great when there are different versions of alphas offered.. Two different colors, sublegends or not, etc etc

Yeah, it is OP's fault. I understand the frustration that to fill the missing keys a big set has to be bought (the mod kits are usually the most expensive sets when it's kitted that way), but kitting is always a compromise, not really a way around it.

I know a lot of the big mail-in labs used unified machines, but all the minilab units I saw were separated. It makes more sense for the 1-hour workflow and, for one indie lab I saw, it allowed them to have a separate processor for E-6, which they got a lot of from a local photography group.

Some sets sell alphas and modifiers separately which does make sense but is also super annoying.

That sucks! But nice Jelly Key Artisan!

you're complaining about your own stupidity?

Damn you Kono!!!

So this is the fault of OP then, seeing sale sites post a photo of the kitting, it seems like he didn't pay attention to the kitting rather than a misleading sale.

SA is often kitted that way, same as KAT

I certainly don't. You don't want key duplication as that makes kits more expensive - for everyone, not just for the few people that want that. Same reason why numpad are sold separately, or international keys.

Was there a base kit?