Argh! Photo Processing Frustration

[Doug]

I use a lab based an hour's drive away, and they offer two levels of service; regular and "pro". They have branch stores, one in my town, that do the non-pro level work locally. But 120 or 220 always requires the "pro" level and is sent to the main lab.

In the local lab, the Agfa manchinery is right out in the open behind the counter, not enclosed or protected from junk blowing in or brought in or simply floating around. The lab manager, before feeding a roll of negs into the printing machine, typically wipes the film lengthwise with a cleaning rag. And, yeah, I've seen longitudinal scratches in my 35mm negs, surely as a result.

I have begun asking for "Pro" processing on my 35 stuff now as well as the 120/220. A side benefit is that at the pro processing level, a CD full of scans is only $1.50 extra, much cheaper than the extra CD with non-pro processing. This nicely offsets the extra cost of the pro processing. Further, I've found 35mm "pro" scans are of higher resolution, one scan per image, versus 5 scans per image all of lower and decreasing resolutions.

Still, there seems to be more dust and lint on the negs than I like.

 

[Doug]

For enlargements and reprints, I've become nervous about trusting my irreplaceable negs to the tender mercies of the lab. This is where scans can be useful. I now take the relevant scans to the local lab and they print from those rather than the negs. Actually, I think they send the scan media to the main lab where they have equipment that can print directly from that.

Since my wife's digital camera uses Compact Flash cards, we have a CF reader for the computer. After editing the scans I want to print (levels, color, cropping, rotating, spotting), I copy them to a CF card and take that to the lab.

Now they have a new and clever machine (with customer access) that makes it even easier. This is like a computer touch-screen on top of a box that has readers for various digital media from CDs to Memory Sticks. You insert your media, use the touch-screen menus, and the machine uploads your images to the computer in the main lab an hour away. It spits out an invoice, you pay the cashier, and your prints arrive the next day. Pretty slick!

However, the gals at the local lab were flabbergasted to learn I'd written the digital images TO the CF card FROM the computer... They had never thought of doing that, and didn't even know it was possible. 🙂

 

[Kris]

This may be a naive question. Why don't you take your films to a pro lab? That solves the problem of having your slide developed in C-41 or your C-41 B&W in D-76.

Pricewise, my pro lab does processing and printing cheaper than those One Hour Labs, but takes 48 hrs. Slide processing however is done in less than 3 hours.

I'm from Melbourne, AU by the way so my case may not be valid anywhere else.

 

[bmattock]

This may be a naive question. Why don't you take your films to a pro lab? That solves the problem of having your slide developed in C-41 or your C-41 B&W in D-76.

Pricewise, my pro lab does processing and printing cheaper than those One Hour Labs, but takes 48 hrs. Slide processing however is done in less than 3 hours.

I'm from Melbourne, AU by the way so my case may not be valid anywhere else.

Kris,

Welcome! Your question is not naive, but there we've discussed some of these same issues in this thread. To summarize:

* Some of us don't have access to a pro lab.
* Some pro labs damage negs just like the one-hour shops.
* Pro labs can be expensive.
* Pro labs take more time - and some of us are impatient!

Here in Albuquerque, New Mexico, there are only a couple of 'pro labs' and they typically take three days. And I've had my negs scratched just as badly as I have at the one-hour places. They know about it, I've complained until I'm blue in the face - the problem is that when you look at a typical 4x6 print, you don't see any damage - looks fine. But when you scan the neg, you often do see a great deal of damage. It's not that they've gotten worse at processing negs (perhaps they have), but rather that the bar's been raised, because more people scan their negs now, and thus reveal the damage that was always there.

The rest of this reply is meant for others, not Kris (Kris, you can disregard this)...

To answer some similar questions from others here - I could send out my negs to a top-end really, really, pro shop. And if I had a roll of film that was something I felt was worth it, I would do so. But I'm still learning this craft/hobby, and hey, my negs are mostly dross. But if there is a problem with my photographic skills, let it be due to my mistakes, not having to wade through the scratches and pits and whatnot that the lab put on the negs.

My negs thus far aren't particularly precious - most are not of once-in-a-lifetime events or what have you. Most of them are just average shots of things I've seen and liked. Not really reproducible, but I can live with that - assuming that *I* was the one who flubbed the shot. What galls me is the damage done to the negs in a typical one-hour shop.

As I've mentioned, I've manage to make the problem MOSTLY go away by asking them not to print the negs - that seems to be where most of the damage occurs. And this method has been working for me. But not when they have semi-trained monkeys manning the counter.

But I keep hearing advice like this - if your Chevy is naff, you should drive a Rolls-Royce. Uh huh. You send me one, and we'll be good to go. I'll be waiting by the mail box.

Imagine if I rephrased your statement like this - assume that every time I went into a hamburger fast-food joint, I got nasty food, bad service, and so on. You could advise me to only eat at top-end restaurants, but perhaps I can't afford that. Perhaps I only have a half-hour to eat lunch and Luigi's down the street can't grill their calimari that fast - so it's fast food hell or nothing.

You might advise me to cook at home and bag my lunch, but perhaps I'm a terrible cook, or just don't have time to do it myself. Again, I'm back to the fast-food hell-hole.

So, should I just stop complaining that some fast-food is not so good? Or should I demand a minimum level of service, even from fast-food joints? No, they don't give me a checkered linen tablecloth, but it's not too much to ask that the food be hot, fresh, and well cooked.

Same for one-hour photo joints. There are many good reasons to use them, and even though they're not the top of the town, they should provide a minimum of service and quality for what they charge.

Just my two cents worth, anyway...

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[bmattock]

Geez, I just re-read my last post. That sounded like I was bitching at users here - I'm not!!! Sorry, I think I should have a smoke and settle down - you guys are the greatest, really!

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[Doug]

Bill, I think you put it very succinctly, and not at all impolitely either! In other words, right on!

 

[pshinkaw]

Bill:

I'm with you too.

And having access to pro labs is not necessarily a solution. One of the two pro-labs here in town refuses to process "amateur film" The last time I use them, about 3 years ago) they processed and proofed a roll of 120 Agfa Optima II. When I got my prints it had a curt note attached that said that this positively the last roll of amateur film that they would handle for me. From now on they would only process... and gave me a list of standard Kodak and Fuji pro films.

As a result, I switched to a more customer friendly lab across town, which I later found actually did more local business than the one I left. IF you have a choice, I encourage you to vote with your wallet.

-Paul

 

[payasam]

Run any more rolls through the Hi-Matic, Bill, of any sort of film?

 

[Andy K]

Bill, you did give her the roll you shot and not an unexposed roll?

 

[Creagerj]

I say that mistakes can happen almost anywhere. Pro or not, machine or not. I suppose if you want to be super sure that no one will handle your film carelessley, do it yourself. Thats what I intend to do as soon as I don't live in a College dorm room. Hey Bill, three days for your 110 isn't so bad, it once took Safeway two weeks to send my Tmax through Kodak Perfect Touch. By the way perfect touch only touches the the prints and not the negs which turned out to be pointless for me as I can do that in photoshop. Should've known, but I was nieve, still am.

Also, for picture CDs, save yourself some money and do it yourself. Don't spend a fortune on a nice neg scanner though. Buy a canon 8500F scanner. It does 12 35mm negs at a time, and it also does medium and 4x5 format. Its 150 bucks. Way higher quality than the labs, 3600x1600dpi vs 1800x1600dpi. Also, you can use higher quality files such as tiffs vs Jpegs. I wish I had spent the extra 50 and bought one instead of my 4500F which only does 4 negs at a time and nothing else.

 

[Creagerj]

I just noticed that this thead was posted two years ago, good god.

 

[Andy K]

I just noticed that this thead was posted two years ago, good god.

One day I'll have to start looking at the date of the OP. 🙄

 

[remrf]

It is possible that the woman just tossed your roll in the trash and pulled out a roll that some other customer had shot with the lens cap on or had processed thinking they had exposures on what was actually a blank roll. I don't know what would motivate her to do so other than a certainty that B&W film would wreck her machine or some such nonsense.

I don't know if Ilford puts identifiers in the margins near the sprocket holes indicating the film type but Kodak does. Those would be readable whether the film had been exposed or not. At least you would know if the roll you were given was the roll you gave her.