Film is dead and my new old Summarit

[richard_l]

I shot a roll of Fuji Superia 400 testing my "new" screwmount Summarit.

I dropped the film off at Target, psyching myself to expect the usual shoddy prints and dirty, scratched negatives. But I was in a hurry. Picked it up the next day. As Confucious say: happy is he who expects nothing. They did a fairly nice job on the prints, and the negatives were in great shape and even sleeved! It almost seems as if Target still wants the business of those who stubbornly persist in using that dead medium: film.

Anyhow, the Summarit worked just fine on my M3. It's sufficiently sharp and contrasty (and certainly fast enough) for me.

Here's the obligatory shot of an electric meter with a blowup of the meter dials.

Summarit 50mm f/1.5 screwmount, Leica M3.

 

[JoeFriday]

nice! I never considered Target before.. I always settled for Walgreens' mediocre prints

 

[former member]

The Summarit gets a bum rap, in my opinion from internal haze that can be CLA'd out. I spent yesterday using my LTM Summarit on the Canon 7.

What lab does Target use? Walmart/SAM's Club uses Fuji, which I gave up on completely. I had them print a roll completely out of focus TWICE after the store manager printed up a test shot on his machine to prove the pictures were in focus. He finally reprinted all of them on his store machine after giving up on Fuji, which does their send-out work.

 

[wyk_penguin]

Next time try the Fuji 400 NPH, much nicer than the Superia.

 

[richard_l]

The Summarit gets a bum rap, in my opinion from internal haze that can be CLA'd out.

I think you're right. Haze can really cut down contrast, which is the main complaint about the Summarit.

What lab does Target use?

This was done in-store (their "next day" service). For send-out they use Kodak.

Next time try the Fuji 400 NPH, much nicer than the Superia.

This was just a cheapo 5-pack I got at Target.

 

[richard_l]

nice! I never considered Target before.. I always settled for Walgreens' mediocre prints

Thanks! I haven't used Walgreens yet. Now I don't think I will. Sometimes drugstores do okay, sometimes not. I guess it depends on who's operating the machine.

 

[canonetc]

Thanks! .......I guess it depends on who's operating the machine.

Big agreement on that one. I sometimes take my 35mm film to Ritz Camera, and have had the luck to have two techs there who know what I mean when I say, "Print to Black" (meaning, make sure to print so that any black in the image is TRULY black, and all else will match the exposure [depending on their processing of the negatives]). I've had to ask the lesser experienced techs to re-do a few rolls because the black wasn't quite there.

Anyway, I find it important to have one reliable tech, who you can get to know on a first-name basis, who knows what you want in your printing.

 

[dmr]

nice! I never considered Target before.. I always settled for Walgreens' mediocre prints

I used to go to Target' quite a bit for DO-CD, back when they had a guy who was very sharp and knew what film was. 🙂 Then at change of semester <meow> they started doing an inconsistent job on the scans and ... for a while I actually thought my Olympus was scratching the negatives, until I took one roll to Wally World. The new guys at Target' didn't seem to be too concerned. "Nobody else ever complained about it." 🙁

I don't think the problem is mediorcity, it's inconsistency, and that applies to any place that has a mini lab and has people who are only casually interested in photography at best.

Oh well ...

 

[phototone]

nice! I never considered Target before.. I always settled for Walgreens' mediocre prints

My wife works part time for a local Walgreens, and I know why their prints are so bad. It seems that there is a large turn-over in all departments at Walgreens, (except Pharmacy) because they only employ part-time help, and they pay minimum wage or just slighty above. Their philosophy is to hire young people with zero experience, and sometimes there is a change of personel in the photo department weekly. How in the world can anyone learn how to operate the machinery? So most processing is unsatisfactory, and the average person doesn't know the difference between bad prints, and bad orignal photography.

 

[kiev4a]

My wife works part time for a local Walgreens, and I know why their prints are so bad. It seems that there is a large turn-over in all departments at Walgreens, (except Pharmacy) because they only employ part-time help, and they pay minimum wage or just slighty above. Their philosophy is to hire young people with zero experience, and sometimes there is a change of personel in the photo department weekly. How in the world can anyone learn how to operate the machinery? So most processing is unsatisfactory, and the average person doesn't know the difference between bad prints, and bad orignal photography.

I had problems with our Wallgreens--thought all my FEDs had bad pressure plates that scratched the film. Finally figured out it was their processor. Since then they have a new machine and the same guy has been running it for over a year. I normally just have they soup the film and it has been very clean. Went to the local Wallmart for processing once. Never again.

 

[cinematix]

Here's my sad story:
A couple of weeks ago, I dropped my film(nps-160) at RiteAid.
A hour later, a lady called me and said,
" Your film got stuck in the machine. I got trained to develope & print film not fix machine so I have to wait for service man to fix this till tommorrow"
I asked " Do you think my film will be OK?"
She said "I don't know. I'm not a service person"

Next day, I stoped by RiteAid and found a memo instead of my film in the envelope.
Memo says "Machne fails your film and make it over exposed."

I'll try Target next time.