Costco to quit C41

bevels said:
Fantastic news!!! Hopefully that'll force people to process their own with the Tetenal colortec C-41 kit which will keep it in production so I can keep using it ;-)
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Yeah, wonderful news. Maybe they'll even stop making c-41 film altogether so no one else will buy the Tetenal Kit and you can have it all.
 
I buy mine from Freestyle because we do group buys anyway. Otherwise Vanbar. Anyone in Melbourne interested in group buys join here:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/msm/

Keith if you need anything join in, I can collect & post it on for you.

The most I've kept mine is 5 months. Always in air-evac bottles and kept in a cool place. Good as new.
 
Just yesterday I asked the guy at the local Walgreens how long it would be before they stopped processing C-41 and he said something like "pffft, we still do a LOT more film than digital."

I had to ask him to repeat it.
 
jackbaty said:
Just yesterday I asked the guy at the local Walgreens how long it would be before they stopped processing C-41 and he said something like "pffft, we still do a LOT more film than digital."

I had to ask him to repeat it.
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Seems quite logical to me; after all, what is there to "do" with digital ? I suspect most people just look at their pictures on a computer, and maybe print a few on their homeprinters ...
 
CopperB said:
I wish we had Walgreens up here.
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They opened a new Walgreens here so I thought I'd go check them out. No C-41 in house. It's all digital. The older stores that already had machines still process in house but the new stores....forget it!!! Our WalMart has already quit processing film. It's all send out now. CVS has been getting my business for now but I can't never get the cd to open up. I always get a tab to pop up that says No viewable images. I have to go into properties to open it to get my photos. Never had that problem with WalMarts cd.
 
Keith said:
Colour C41 is simpler than black and white IMO ... it pongs a bit but the results seem to be idiot proof and the film always dries cleaner for me!

And ... it scans beautifully!
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Very true! I started with B&W, and you always have to worry about picking a developer, the right time, etc. C41 is easy. Get it warm and develop the film! I use black plastic 1L Jobo bottles from B&H now. They're just the right size for the chemistry so you just squeeze the bottle a little bit to evacuate the oxygen and seal it up.

It seems a lot of people are reusing the chemistry much longer than indicated. If anyone wants to share how long they're extending developing time for later rolls, I'd appreciate it.

As to the original point, my Walgreen's still does a lot of film too. Developing is fine, but I have had to re-wash my film once, and one time the negs came back with a ton of scratches (which, thankfully, did not really come through in the scanner.)
 
Chris101 said:
Costco sucks at everything except the dollar hot dogs. I take C41 to Walgreens, and they say they have no intention to discontinue film processing. According to the techs at the store near me, film is a significant part of their photo business.
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Costco accounts for a fairly significant string of(relatively) high dollar paychecks I've had from work my fathers company has done for them. I don't shop there so I cant speak to the quality of the Costco experience. They do value quality concrete repair work though.

For E-6 and C-41 I drop it off at Walmart send out service.
 
What's really annoying about machine processed C41 is getting your film back from them and seeing a set of tramlines running through the full length of the negative ... then being told it's obviously a problem with your camera ... it happened twice!

My mistakes I can live with ... other people's I'm not so comfortable with!
 
Underestimating people's weird habit.....

Underestimating people's weird habit.....

gliderbee said:
Seems quite logical to me; after all, what is there to "do" with digital ? I suspect most people just look at their pictures on a computer, and maybe print a few on their homeprinters ...
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I had a student in my digital photography class who felt she finally needed to find out how to download images to her computer.

She had a Canon G3 for two years at the time, and had simply been buying more memory cards as they filled up. She examined her pix and showed them to others using the LCD on the camera. She had over a dozen memory cards full at the time she entered the class.

Odd.. yes. Ever try it with film?

Regarding processing... I just picked up 3 rolls of 120 prints and dropped off another today at Walmart "send out only". Still meets my requirements, cheap and ten days out and back, every time.
 
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kuzano said:
I had a student in my digital photography class who felt she finally needed to find out how to download images to her computer.

She had a Canon G3 for two years at the time, and had simply been buying more memory cards as they filled up. She examined her pix and showed them to others using the LCD on the camera. She had over a dozen memory cards full at the time she entered the class.

Odd.. yes. Ever try it with film?

Regarding processing... I just picked up 3 rolls of 120 prints and dropped off another today at Walmart "send out only". Still meets my requirements, cheap and ten days out and back, every time.
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I suspect this is quite a common scenario. I had a friend who spent a year working at Longreach in outback Oz. I talked her into buying a Canon A620 before she left and when she returned she had around 500 photos still stored on the memory card in the camera and wasn't sure how to get them from there to her computer! 😛
 
kuzano said:
I had a student in my digital photography class who felt she finally needed to find out how to download images to her computer.

She had a Canon G3 for two years at the time, and had simply been buying more memory cards as they filled up. She examined her pix and showed them to others using the LCD on the camera. She had over a dozen memory cards full at the time she entered the class.
...
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Heh. Several years ago I got my mother a digital camera (she had an iMac) to replace her old Polaroid that film was getting very scarce and expensive for. She used the camera for a while but then stopped. I asked her why. She replied that the camera was full, and she didn't like it anyway, because the pictures were so small.

After a downloading lesson, she's using it fine now. 😱
 
Possibly one of the best ways to improve your digital photography would be to ditch your computer.

Take your cards to kiosks and print everything.

That is, if you have a modern digital camera. One of my first ones from '95 doesn't have removeable memory. It is "full" with images of late pets and relatives and I use it just to view the images. (Although they have been downloaded, printed, and archived).
 
I am hearing that the folks selling commercial printers are pushing some of the labs to go "dry" completely-- but, aside from the increased costs, lower quality, and slower printing, they seem to be equal right now. ;-)

Home prints on copy paper are fine for many people, am continually surprised at all the young folks not knowing how to even use Picasa to do minor adjustments, or how to change file sizes.

I need some place convenient to put out consistent prints, at least a few before the HD crashes and I get to start over. ;-)

I stopped with the usual place because a 5x7 cost 5x the price of a 4x6, and the cropping, quality, and price of larger sizes you don't want to know about.

I may have to rehab the leg and reopen my wet darkroom.

My biggest complaint with Costco right now, aside from a batch of green prints, is cropping, and I will put borders around the next files to make them fit their sizes.

Maybe then I can get that print from my gallery someone wanted, about a year ago, well, at least one person wanted one. ;-)

Or maybe I need to take out my Avatar's new cousin, a Model I from the first 100 in 1930, Factory modified to III, and exercise it, if I can recall how to load it, OK, I will check with YouTube. ;-)

Not too much from 1930 you can have processed at Costco.

Regards, John
 
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huh?

huh?

If you specify the size, you should crop to that format yourself. You can also specify whether you want them to auto-contrast the images or to print as-is.

If you're sending them the wrong format and expecting them to crop, that's not good.

Walgreens is the only site I know that will give you 4x5.5's if you request, if you just want quick near 4/3 format prints.

I think Costco is just $1.99 up to 8x10, and $2.99 to 12x18" or did they go up?


JohnTF said:
I am hearing that the folks selling printers are pushing some of the labs to go "dry" completely-- but, aside from the increased costs, lower quality, and slower printing, they seem to be equal right now. ;-)

Home prints on copy paper are fine for many people, am continually surprised at all the young folks not knowing how to even use Picasa to do minor adjustments, or how to change file sizes.

I need some place convenient to put out consistent prints, at least a few before the HD crashes and I get to start over. ;-)

I stopped with the usual place because a 5x7 cost 5x the price of a 4x6, and the cropping, quality, and price of larger sizes you don't want to know about.

I may have to rehab the leg and reopen my wet darkroom.

My biggest complaint with Costco right now, aside from a batch of green prints, is cropping, and I will put borders around the next files to make them fit their sizes.

Maybe then I can get that print from my gallery someone wanted, about a year ago, well, at least one person wanted one. ;-)

Or maybe I need to take out my Avatar's new cousin, a Model I from the first 100 in 1930, Factory modified to III, and exercise it, if I can recall how to load it, OK, I will check with YouTube. ;-)

Not too much from 1930 you can have processed at Costco.

Regards, John
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Just picked up a roll of film at Costco. They told me they will be doing C-41 until the machine needs to be fixed. Then end of story they are not repairing any C-41 equipment. The good news is my Costco is only 2 yrs old and the equipment was new then.
 
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