Kodachrome developed for $3.88 a roll

Dwaynes is the only place that develops Kodachrome. If you get it developed somewhere else for more than Wal Mart but less then Dwaynes, they are sending it off to Dwaynes as well, just not getting as good a price.

I haven't shopped at Wal Mart in quite some time. I only went in there because I heard that they developed Kodachrome cheaper. I should look at Costco or Target to see what they charge. Sam's is Wal Mart so no better.

Chad
 
drewbarb said:
Not to turn this into a psuedo-political witch hunt thread, but Wal-Mart is evil. They have done more to hurt small family owned business in the U.S. than any other single entity, besides the run-of-the-mill complaints of horrible working conditions, low wages, anti-labor practices in every country the do business in, and a host of other ills. Wal-Mart is one of the best examples world-wide of what's wrong with the world today. Check out these sites for more info:
http://walmartwatch.com/
http://www.wakeupwalmart.com/
http://www.network-centricadvocacy.net/2005/01/walmart_hurts_c.html
http://www.reason.org/commentaries/balaker_20040126.shtml
http://www.mindfully.org/Reform/2003/UFCW-Wal-Mart-Hurts30jul03.htm
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/77/walmart.html
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Drew, that not business its just political hooey!
We should all be driving horse and buggies.
 
Gabriel M.A. said:
It's the only place in the U.S. that does it because it will be a not-good business to keep: Kodachrome will be discontinued, as well as the commercial line of chemicals needed to develop it. Which is why everybody else who used to do it has stopped doing it.
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Your right Gaberiel, ignorant me was thinking only from a competetiveness standpoint. I'm sure though that are some pro labs still doing this, but then again maybe not.
 
Rocky Mountain, not Dwaynes

Rocky Mountain, not Dwaynes

ChadHahn said:
Dwaynes is the only place that develops Kodachrome. If you get it developed somewhere else for more than Wal Mart but less then Dwaynes, they are sending it off to Dwaynes as well, just not getting as good a price.

I haven't shopped at Wal Mart in quite some time. I only went in there because I heard that they developed Kodachrome cheaper. I should look at Costco or Target to see what they charge. Sam's is Wal Mart so no better.

Chad
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I think this information is incorrect. There is at least one other lab doing Kodachrome and it's Rocky Mountain Film Laboratory -- in fact they do just about any Kodachrome process there is or ever was (for a price). It is my understanding that THEY are Walmart's Kodachrome processor, not Dwaynes .

see:

http://www.rockymountainfilm.com/index.html
 
Here's a scan of a slide and the top of a box from a recent Dwayne's processing job. Maybe this can help identify whether or not Dwayne's did a particular roll or not.
 

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Dwaynes is the processer for Fuji Mailers as well. Different box number, same street address. I guess it keeps the film seperated so you get your slides back with the Fuji Logo instead of generic on the mount. Just got some back and film was processed with no scratches or dust. Looks like developing times were right on. I use Fuji Mailers when I travel and the film is back around the same time I am. If they are doing Walmart @ under $4, I would highly recommend them.
Randy
 
I just had a look and the RockyMountain price is three times that of Dwaynes - would it be a surprise if they were usually out-sourcing the job, same as the other companies mentioned (they would be economically daft if they did not do this) ? I don't think Kodak will sell the chemicals, and provide the monitoring strips, to anywhere except Dwaynes, as that's the only certified lab now.

A six month turnaround time is also mentioned at RockyMountain. Concievably they have to have a big batch of K-14 before it becomes economic to make up the (complicated) chemistry required, if they really do it in-house, but I'd be surprised.

EDIT: I worked in a Kodak certified lab for years, so have some awareness of this sort of thing, although that was in UK.
 
On another network a while back, it was speculated that some military labs were also doing Kodachrome.

Not being in the military, I have no clue if that is accurate or not.
 
I have a link somewhere to the detailed K14 process and to me, a physicist, it was not overly daunting. I am not a wet chemist however, so maybe I'm wrong. I'll try to find this and post it here soon so that hopefully some chemist among us might be able to give us his/her spin.


MartinP said:
I just had a look and the RockyMountain price is three times that of Dwaynes - would it be a surprise if they were usually out-sourcing the job, same as the other companies mentioned (they would be economically daft if they did not do this) ? I don't think Kodak will sell the chemicals, and provide the monitoring strips, to anywhere except Dwaynes, as that's the only certified lab now.

A six month turnaround time is also mentioned at RockyMountain. Concievably they have to have a big batch of K-14 before it becomes economic to make up the (complicated) chemistry required, if they really do it in-house, but I'd be surprised.

EDIT: I worked in a Kodak certified lab for years, so have some awareness of this sort of thing, although that was in UK.
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dmr said:
On another network a while back, it was speculated that some military labs were also doing Kodachrome.

Not being in the military, I have no clue if that is accurate or not.
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I won't go there.

Thanks for the link, William.
 
Regardless of whether Rocky Mountain does their own Kodachrome 64/200 processing, they do NOT do the old type processing. They process that in b/w. They say as much on their site.
I've had Dwayne's scan my Kodachrome and I've scanned it myself (I have a Nikon Super Coolscan 9000) and my scans are far better, simply because I take a few minutes looking at each frame and adjusting as necessary (for keeper shots). Theirs is nice as an immediate, virtual "contact sheet," but given the extra expense and turnaround time, it's not worth it for me.
It's also not worth it for me to drop it off at Wal-Mart. Given the price discrepancy between Dwayne's and Wal-Mart (and Rocky Mountain for that matter), the cheaper price at Wal-Mart means they've pressured their processor to do a cheaper price per-roll than retail. If everyone were to drop off Kodachrome at Wal-Mart, there's a good chance that the processor wouldn't be able to sustain processing Kodachrome (unless they're simply making huge profits off us retail customers). It's more likely that they break even or take a slight loss on the Kodachrome through Wal-Mart and make it up on other processing. Look up Vlasic Pickles and Wal-Mart if you don't believe me. Of course, Dwayne's (or Rocky Mountain) could just say "no." No one else is going to process it.
 
David Murphy said:
I have a link somewhere to the detailed K14 process and to me, a physicist, it was not overly daunting.
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Quite a while ago I posted the link to the K-Lab manuals here. It generated absolutely no responses at the time. Search for threads started by me with zero replies and you will find it. It had generated quite a response on another system and I thought it would be of interest here. It apparently was not at the time.

I am not a wet chemist however, so maybe I'm wrong. I'll try to find this and post it here soon so that hopefully some chemist among us might be able to give us his/her spin.
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I am not a chemist either (IANAC?) but I find the color processes totally fascinating. K14 is very straightforward. Even I can understand it. I did take up through Organic in college, but that was way back in another life. What fascinates me more is the "magic" of the CD3/CD4 and how it can generate the correctly colored dye for each layer in the E6 and color print processes. That is approaching true magic to me!

The thing about Kodachrome that seems to be misunderstood is that the dyes are not added during processing, but they are created as oxidized products of the color developing, one layer at a time, thus making the current Kodachrome a "chromogenic" film, despite what is commonly believed. No, it's not like pouring Rit into a washing machine during Kodachrome processing. :) :)

If you want to learn more about Kodachrome, a gentleman who goes by the name of Photo Engineer on APUG has literally forgotten more about Kodachrome than you and I will ever know. He was involved in the development of the CD6 developing agent used in K14. If you do some searching on APUG for Kodachrome you will get all kinds of details, plus the de-bunking of some myths about Kodachrome as well.

There's also a Kodachrome mailing list. I'm on it, but it hasn't been active very much lately. PE posts on that occasionally as well.
 
Dwayne's is the only place left that still develops Kodachrome motion picture film.

Perhaps Rocky still does it in-house but they are double the cost of Dwayne's.

Rocky Mountain Cost / Price
Cost for development is US$23.50 per roll with return shipping and handling $4.00 per order (not per roll). Therefore, one roll is $27.50, two rolls $51.00, three rolls $74.50, etc. International return, please add US$4 for shipping.

Dwayne's charges $8.50 a roll for 36exp.

If you don't like Wal-Mart and want to support the little guy send it to Dwayne's. If you don't care send it to Wal-Mart*.

*I have read some threads of people taking K14 to Wal-Mart and it got mislabeled and devolped in E6. I guess you pay for what you get sometimes.
 
Rodinal Addict said:
Will wal-mart do 120 transparencies, like E-6 Velvia?
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YES> I send B&W, E-6, and used to send K64 until I went to Dwaynes myself. They do it all. BTW my B&W 120 usually costs less than $4 (USD) for negs and small proofs.

Many don't like Walmart because they put the small shops out of business. Then again, if small shops want to gouge then they should be out of business.
 
I picked some K64 and E6 that I sent through Wally-World tonight. I screwed up part of the E-6 (Fuji), but the K64 was/is fine. The film was back within a week (standard for Dwayne's), so I'm happy at the outcome but not terribly happy with patronizing Wal Mart.
 
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