Signs of the Apocolypse, Part MCMXXXLI

[erikhaugsby]

The 1-Hour Photo Lab is dead (in Waconia, at least)!

My local Walgreens threw out their old 1-hour photo machine this last week. Nobody else in town has a 1-hour, so with the passing of the Walgreens lab, my town (a nice sized one, and it grew a little under 50% in a little over 5 years (from 6000 in 2001 to almost 9000 today) is without a single 1-hour.
:bang:

So now I'm reduced to driving 20 miles towards the cities to reach a Walgreens that hasn't replaced their photo lab with a "Beauty and Home" expansion.

Ick.

 

[erikhaugsby]

(and no, they aren't putting the machine up for sale. It's just going straight to the garbage. :bang🙂

 

[varjag]

Maintaining commercial film processor is not viable for person anyway.

Maybe you need to source yourself a JOBO tabletop processor. Or switch to BW.

 

[peterc]

Noritsu and Fuji are in pretty heavy competition over 1 hour systems in my neck of the woods. Both have brought out very compact C41, scan, print lines and (so I'm told) are offering very attractive incentives to places (mostly chains) that put them in.
Develop and scan is pretty readily available at $3 to $5CDN.
However, smaller (non-chain) places are going under pretty fast.

 

[erikhaugsby]

Maintaining commercial film processor is not viable for person anyway.

Maybe you need to source yourself a JOBO tabletop processor. Or switch to BW.

I shoot almost exclusively B&W (meaning I've shot only 2 rolls of K64 and 4 rolls of C-41 for a yearbook assignment where I really wanted to use my Leica. But that's literally the only color film I've ever shot with my cameras), but I just picked up an OM-1n and wanted to shoot a roll of C-41 through it to test the colors of the lens.

 

[Thardy]

These days (in my town) you have to mail any slide film (E-6), or any size different than 35 mm or Black and White for processing. Next will be 35mm C-41.

There is a pro-lab about 35 miles from here though.

 

[cmedin]

There's a bunch of 1 hour places around me (east of Atlanta), but none that I know of do E6 or BW.

Of all places, Wal-Mart consistently gives good results and cheap scans.

 

[RML]

Most places of that size here in Holland don't even have any 1-hr labs. So, while I feel for you, I'm not lamenting. 🙂

 

[David Murphy]

The one hour at the corner drugstore near me is jammed with business -- they often have to drop their 1 hour guarantee. Of course this is Pasadena -- lots of people here.

 

[Nikon Bob]

The 1 hour lab that I use told me that they do about 30 rolls a day. I just pray they keep the lab open. There are quite a few other in our town but I prefer this one.

Bob

 

[ChrisPlatt]

Am I really that old (fashioned)?

Am I really that old (fashioned)?

I remember when we were content to drop our film off at the
photo store and pick up our finished photos a few days later...

Chris

 

[MartinP]

Hola Toyota,

The quality scheme for Kodaks E-6 is the "Q-Lab" scheme. I used to work in one of these in the UK. There are regular test strips run through the chemistry and sent to Kodak for analysis, so the staff have to control their systems or lose the Q-Lab status. Your countries Kodak reperesentatives will have a list of accredited labs for you, although you may find that the cost is somewhat higher than you expected !

 

[Bike Tourist]

The labs are slowly vanishing, one by one.

Camera clubs are pretty well dead, too, at least around here. The ones that remain are populated by people even older than me!

 

[MartinP]

I recall the pricing was something like GBP3,50 for a sheet of 5x4, but that was around eighteen years ago with a very high volume of business. Similar pricing for 135, so now it could be around EUR15 I think, very possibly more, but there is a serious difference between perfect E6 and mass-produced E6 so I suggest to try it at least once in a good Q-lab.

 

[dmr]

The one hour at the corner drugstore near me is jammed with business

That's been my experience at the two Walgreens I use most. There's almost always a line and more often than not I see somebody in the back working with film.

The one I use most installed a brand new Fuji Frontier 550 a year or so ago.

Another one that I use for DO only (older machine, can't do CD) seems to have installed a second old brown mini-lab machine. I'm not sure of the brand or model.

 

[Al Patterson]

We still have a decent local camera store with a one hour lab. However, I am old enough to remember dropping film off at the local store on Monday and they sent it to a central site and it was back by Saturday. If you want "instant gratification" going forward, you may need to buy an M8...

I for one will wait a week for XP2 or E6 if that's the look I want.

 

[ChrisPlatt]

Minilabs offer convenience but on average offer spotty quality at best.
It didn't have to be that way, but like anything driven mainly by price
it became inevitable. Maybe their time has come and gone...

Chris

 

[RML]

What does "d******" mean?

Minilabs, 1-hr labs, they may provide spotty quality but I think that's entirely up to the people working there. In my experience, most deliver more than decent results. And for a fair and affordable price.

Now, go to a so-called pro lab and a) they take a several days to a week to get you your print, b) the quality is often only on a par with the 1-hr labs and c) they are waaaaay more expensive, especially with larger prints (20x30cm and up).

I never get any small sized prints. The only prints I get are 20x30cm mat prints, which cost me 2.50 euro at my favourite lab. It takes them a week because they need to order the mat paper. A regular glossy print will take 2 days and 2 euro. The results are always very good.

For larger prints I just go to my local Hema (similar to Boots, Costco, Walmart, etc). A 50x70cm print on glossy paper cost 9 euro, and 4 days. I wish they'd do mat but they don't. If I would go to a pro lab, I'd be paying at least 40 euro, and it'd take a week. For that kind of money I'm not even going to try them out.

 

[charlesfoto]

Everything seems to be able to be had online these days. I've tried, and been happy with, the lab service of MPix.com. Send the film in their mailer, they post low-res shots online, you order prints(or not), they send back the negs. The negs I got back were dust-free.