Film price does not include processing

[Pherdinand]

This stupid little sentence is included on the paper box of many Fuji films (maybe other manufacturers do it as well?)

Does anybody know the story behind it? i'm sure there was some funny lawsuit or something.

Just curious...

 

[Oldprof]

There was a time when the price of some slide films did include processing. The notice you mention is probably just to clarify that this is not the case with the film in question.

 

[jdos2]

I've wondered about that too.

 

[Laika]

When I worked in a camera shop in the UK a few years ago we stocked Fuji film with and without mailers. The only difference from the outside was the little blurb on the box, inside the prepaid was a mailer pouch to get free Fuji processing.. just pop it in the post box when your done a week or two later you get your slides in your mail.

 

[pshinkaw]

Back in the 1950's Kodachrome came in a metal can (tin?) along with a tiny cotton drawstring bag. The bags were in different colors and the film was put back into the can and then into the bag before it was mailed or turned in for processing. I was told by my father that the one color denoted prepaid processing and another meant that processing was not included in the purchase. I think there were different colors denoting Ektachrome and Kodachrome as well.

Sometime in the early 1960's the bags went away and the cardboard boxes all had the processing disclaimer added. Later in the 60's Kodak came out with the "Prepaid Processing Mailer" which was an all cardboard affair. No more cotton drawstring bags. Everything went to Rochester or someplace in California for processing.

Some of the lesser known brands like Anscochrome and Dytnachrome stayed with prepaid processing longer than Kodak.

At least that's the way I remember it. Anyone have any different recollections?

-Paul

 

[Doug]

Yes, including processing in the film price is a long tradition. I believe that with the first Kodaks, the customer bought the camera already loaded with film, then later sent the whole thing in to Kodak for processing, receiving back a reloaded camera with the negs and prints.

I vaguely remember the little cloth Kodak bags; I think there was a mailing label at one end where postage could be applied. Later I bought the Kodak mailers separately from the film, a yellow paper pouch with a sealing flap. One wrote the address of the nearest Kodak lab, affixed postage, and a couple weeks later a box of slides arrived in the mail. Pretty handy when traveling.

 

[Sonnar Brian]

I seem to recall that Kodak was forced to offer films for sale without processing included. Kodak monopolized the market for film and processing. Offering film for sale without processing included gave smaller labs a chance.

 

[Pherdinand]

Aaha, i see...interesting stuff... I thought it's something new, the disclaimer.
Actually, i didn't see colour film till the nineties)
The only thing I know of is my mom, while at college, used to have good friends who had access to the college darkroom, so they always processed her negs for free (My mother was a cute young lady! Boyz were fighting to be allowed to develop her negs!) So there's a huge amount of photos in the family album from that period, but not much after that.

But that was AZO black and white neg, ran through LOMO/Smena viewfinder cameras, in the best case Zenit reflexes kodachrome was more scarce at that time and place than coca-cola.