A way to shoot on the cheap..........

[giovatony]

OK,
Maybe I`m alone here and maybe not but but shooting with and developing film with any degree of regularity and volume can get costly especially when you don`t develop at home and have to drive a ways to send and receive your finished prints, Not to mention the cost of film itself and the fact that gasoline costs are increasing almost on a daily basis.
So I began to explore the ways to reduce the expenses and here`s what I come up with. Now keep in mind this is for general fun shooting , testing, and overall snapshot type work and not any particular function of substantial importance where as you might want nothing but top quality products.

The cheapest option known to me is "Clark color labs " (mailer service)

1....Buy film (generic brand from Clark) for a $1 per roll 24 exp.(ISO 200 or 400) color print film. They sent me a coupon and I bought 20 rolls.

2....developing is normally $1.99 per roll up to 27 prints

3.....postal expense (shipping and handling) is normally $1.20

Total cost per completed roll is $4.19 from and to your door. No time wasted or gas consumed.
Obviously you are limited to ISO 200 and 400 and the house brand film but 20 yrs ago I was using this same processor and my prints always were generally fine or at least acceptable. Typical drug store or local Wal Mart finishing of course.

So , I invite you to shoot holes in my proposal and rip it apart if you wish.
Or better yet give me an alternative or better method. I`ll welcome other ideas.
Thanks,
John

 

[whitecat]

I just checked their site. Boy are they cheap!

 

[kuzano]

My cell phone......

My cell phone......

1) Pics from my cell phone
2) email them to myself as I take them
3) download them from my email when I get home
4) completely stealth--- everyone thinks I am one of those geeks playing games on my cell phone, or simply text messaging, or teleconferencing.
5) have zoom capability

Your post made me think of the old Seattle Film Works system. Use their film, send it in for develop and prints or slides, get back a new roll with order. Strange color cast... at one time they appear to have used movie film with some ECN... process.

They changed their name a few years ago. Now PhotoWorks. And their prices are a bit more than your post, after visiting their web site and checking.

Good post... how's the quality?

And, the cell phone is actually surprising. Kind of like a Holga on prozac.

 

[bmattock]

OK,
Maybe I`m alone here and maybe not but but shooting with and developing film with any degree of regularity and volume can get costly especially when you don`t develop at home and have to drive a ways to send and receive your finished prints, Not to mention the cost of film itself and the fact that gasoline costs are increasing almost on a daily basis.
So I began to explore the ways to reduce the expenses and here`s what I come up with. Now keep in mind this is for general fun shooting , testing, and overall snapshot type work and not any particular function of substantial importance where as you might want nothing but top quality products.

The cheapest option known to me is "Clark color labs " (mailer service)

1....Buy film (generic brand from Clark) for a $1 per roll 24 exp.(ISO 200 or 400) color print film. They sent me a coupon and I bought 20 rolls.

2....developing is normally $1.99 per roll up to 27 prints

3.....postal expense (shipping and handling) is normally $1.20

Total cost per completed roll is $4.19 from and to your door. No time wasted or gas consumed.
Obviously you are limited to ISO 200 and 400 and the house brand film but 20 yrs ago I was using this same processor and my prints always were generally fine or at least acceptable. Typical drug store or local Wal Mart finishing of course.

So , I invite you to shoot holes in my proposal and rip it apart if you wish.
Or better yet give me an alternative or better method. I`ll welcome other ideas.
Thanks,
John

The only cheaper method I can think of would be to have your film processed, but not printed or scanned, then do the scanning yourself. Upload selected photos to Wal-Mart and print them.

I don't shoot much C-41 film anymore, but sometimes I do, especially when testing a new (old) camera like you said. I drop it off at the one-hour place (usually Walgreens) with instructions to process only, no prints, no CD. Some of the clerks don't know how to do this, but they have a price list for it - costs me about $2.20. Then I scan the results. Of course, if you do not have a scanner, then this is not a good solution. In my case, I have both dedicated and flatbed scanners for my medium format and B&W 35mm film work.

 

[mervynyan]

hardly shoot prints anymore. 4.19 sounds expensive per roll.

 

[rbiemer]

John,
I use Dwayne's Photo(http://www.dwaynesphoto.com/index.html)
and have been pretty happy with them. I get no prints and a CD of scans for each roll. A bit more than your price, about $6.25 with return shipping. But I am happy to pay them to do the scans. Not the absolute best quality but plenty good enough for most of my needs. And they process C-41, silver BW, and slide film in 35mm, 120, and several other formats as well(110, 127, etc).
If I were to do my own scanning, the price would be about half(2.99/roll to process only plus shipping).
Rob

 

[giovatony]

hardly shoot prints anymore. 4.19 sounds expensive per roll.

Expensive per roll you say?

OK, please let us us know who does it for less. Remember that $4.19 includes the cost of the film and the postage both ways .
Really, If you can get up to 27 color 4X6 prints delivered to your doorstep for less than $3.19 , I`m all ears.

 

[giovatony]

John,
I use Dwayne's Photo(http://www.dwaynesphoto.com/index.html)
and have been pretty happy with them. I get no prints and a CD of scans for each roll. A bit more than your price, about $6.25 with return shipping. But I am happy to pay them to do the scans. Not the absolute best quality but plenty good enough for most of my needs. And they process C-41, silver BW, and slide film in 35mm, 120, and several other formats as well(110, 127, etc).
If I were to do my own scanning, the price would be about half(2.99/roll to process only plus shipping).
Rob

Yeah , a good idea for some people Rob I`m sure and I have a good scanner myself but that means even more time in front of my computer.
I might just as well shoot my DSLR (at no cost) and print the ones I want.
My way is still 50% less and I do nothing but shoot .
But you can still argue your points. I`m listening.

 

[Ducky]

Snapfish is another alternative but they won't do c-41BW, just color. Clarks does c-41BW. They will both post low-medium size files of your pix for downloading. Snapfish posts free and charges by the download. Clark charges for the posting of files but no charge for downloads.
I tried them both with similar, satisfactory results and the downloads were good for 4x6 printing or web use.
I now have a scanner for film as well as doing my own bw processing so my next color roll gets developed only at wallmart for about $2.