The sky is falling and the world is coming to an end, part 8. (Costco and film)

froyd

froyd

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My local Costco this week stopped their popular scanning service. I used to get a 36 frames c41 roll developed and scanned for $4.85. The scanning was generally good and at a decent pixel count (3000x2000-ish).

For me, the cost of processing film just tripled, as I cannot find alternatives for develop and scan at less than $15.

At least I can still look forward to the posts from our friends down under who complain about $18 a roll slide film, as a twisted way of cheering me up!:p

This is the end of a good ride for me and many Costco users, but it might be the push I need to get on the scanning bandwagon if I cannot find a good local lab (I've used mail order services, like Precision, but I prefer local when I can find it) .
 
My local Walgreens stopped wet processing a year ago, saying to go to the other store 10 minutes further away. I did that for a year, now they are stopping development and scanning. I live in the second largest city in my state. They're all drying up. But there should always be a few mail-in development shops. Their business should be increasing.
 
Not popular enough across corporate Costco to make a profit, so they cancel it. All about money.


Freestyle is selling kits for color as well as chemicals for black and white. Buy a scanner.

Or a digital camera.

A digi cam is freedom from corporate profit culture. Rent something decent as they handle like real cameras if you get something like a Nikon D600. Even a D7000 APS takes pics comparable to my Leica M8. I have compared. D7100 should be even better.

Quality digital will out do film by a country mile. I would not dream of using color film ever again. B&W, I can mix chemicals pretty quick and the darkroom is still there.
 
There must be come postal services in the US for good value. Here in the UK we have a few for good value/quality.

I'm not going to type how you should get a digital camera, because a) it isn't what you asked and b) we know that you can't duplicate the look of colour negatives. If you could, we still wouldn't be shooting it.
 
froyd said:
At least I can still look forward to the posts from our friends down under who complain about $18 a roll slide film, as a twisted way of cheering me up!:p.
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Ohhhh we used to DREAM of $18 a roll! Woulda' been a palace to us. We had to process in an old water tank on a rubbish tip.




With thanks to the Four Yorkshiremen ;-)
 
Ronald M said:
Not popular enough across corporate Costco to make a profit, so they cancel it. All about money.


Freestyle is selling kits for color as well as chemicals for black and white. Buy a scanner.

Or a digital camera.

A digi cam is freedom from corporate profit culture. Rent something decent as they handle like real cameras if you get something like a Nikon D600. Even a D7000 APS takes pics comparable to my Leica M8. I have compared. D7100 should be even better.

Quality digital will out do film by a country mile. I would not dream of using color film ever again. B&W, I can mix chemicals pretty quick and the darkroom is still there.
Click to expand...


A scanner might indeed be in my future, but I'm not looking forward messing with it. Nor dusting off my Jobo tanks. I like digital images (especially those from Epson, Fuji, and Sigma colors) but I do not like digital cameras. Plus I love, love, love Portra and Xp2.

For now the plan is to find a suitable replacement for Costco but I'm still under sticker-shock at the jump in my per-roll cost, which will now approach $20 (roll+development+scan).

As goamules said, the few remaining processors should benefit. I have two left in town: one bill itself as a pro lab, but their scans are awful. The other one I've used for occasional 120 work when I did not want to go through Precision, and does decent quality work, so I will investigate their 35mm processing.
 
Sell all the film junk and get a nice digital. Isn't it about making photographs more than adhering to some rigid idealized dogma?
 
I don't know what you're talking about, where I live Costco doesn't even do film, scanning and/or contact sheets would normally cost me 15-20$/roll at the lab. I bought a scanner on sale a few years ago and the sky still hasn't fallen.

I like film but you have to spend smarter. Scanning, developing at the lab are expensive conveniences, I'd rather spend money buying actual film.
 
Local costco in Vancouver suburbs also stopped 2 years ago and I had the same problem as you. When I shoot film, I shoot E6 and get London Drugs to send wherever they send it to process. I haven't shot much color negative film since . Shot 40 rolls of B&W but have n't gotten around to developing it. Digital gets a lot more use since then.
 
One of RFF's sponsors. Precision Camera, has excellent scanning services. All you have to do is mail your film off to Austin TX.

I sen them my next to last roll of Porta 400. I took it with an ancient SLR in extremely cold weather. The winder malfunctioned due to the cold and some of the film was badly damaged. Precision saved more of the frame than I thought possible. Precision also did a once job on my last rolls of TRi-X.
 
AZ Photo Lab in Houston, develops, scans, prints, mounts, etc.

Different scanning levels and extremely large prints are offered.

Their clients are both professional and amateur photographers.

Highly recommended!

My sky would fall if they went out of business!

Texsport
 
Film processing and scanning at my Costco is still going strong. One of the workers there told me that a lot of folks are still shooting film, or looking to have prints made from film or digital media.
 
Bingley said:
Film processing and scanning at my Costco is still going strong. One of the workers there told me that a lot of folks are still shooting film, or looking to have prints made from film or digital media.
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Lucky you. The $5 special is something worth celebrating. Use it while it last.

My Costco was one of the last hold outs in the Pennsylvania area. The lab manager is the treasurer of our local photo club so took great care of the work and the machines.

They still continue to develop film and print from it (which is NOT optical--so they must scan first!) BUT they no longer burn scans to disc. They stopped restocking CDs a few weeks ago, and when supply ended the burner was removed as well and the service eliminated. Boo!


PS- I'm thought this post would go above some people' head, but I thought adding "part 8" to the title would make it clear I'm not another prophet in the wilderness decrying the death of film. I'm just bitching about having to enter the real world of $15 development and mail-order service. But I well aware I'm just doing what many other film users have been doing for years.
 
Frank Petronio said:
Sell all the film junk and get a nice digital. Isn't it about making photographs more than adhering to some rigid idealized dogma?
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Not sure where I led you to think I'm sticking to an idealized dogma. I'm a big fan of digital images, and was quite happy to pack up my darkroom and print on inkjets. The moment I'll see a digital camera I like at a price I can afford, I will embrace it with enthusiasm.
 
Honestly if you can pay someone to do it for you and be ok with that, do it. I hate scanning, but I enjoy developing. I find the price of convenience too expensive in my area
 
Mail order service isn't always fun and games either. I had been using mpix, but they lost my last roll of film. So yeah, not really thrilled with mail order. Also, not really thrilled with trying to develop on my own, since I live in a small apartment and don't have a great way of controlling C41 chemical temps. C41 is slowly dying for me, unfortunately. Sorry to hear about your Costco.
 
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