The sky is falling and the world is coming to an end, part 8. (Costco and film)
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bobkatz
Well-known
Same here.....I have a lot of color film....so I develop them with BW chemicals🙁....
This is a trial with fuji 400 developed HC110😎
This is a trial with fuji 400 developed HC110😎
zuiko85
Veteran
One mans junk......
It is digital that leaves me cold. I just cannot warm to modern DSLR plastoblob cameras with touch screen controls, propritory batteries, crappy viewscreens you cannot focus a legacy lens on, etc. Sure, now there are some (very expensive) cameras that try to emulate some of the basic controls of 35mm SLR's of the 70's but I doubt they have the precision feel of the mechanical cameras they purport to be styled after.
It seems ironic to me that long after a Nikon D7100 is sitting in a landfill a mid production Nikon F made 50 years earlier will still be able to take pictures and bring joy to the user in the process. Wouldn't be suprised if at least B&W 35mm film is still around.
Film is not for everyone but film cameras are certianly not junk just because the masses have gone digital.
froyd
Veteran
Well, that's a bargain for sure. If could only find a cheap shipping solution to Australia...
froyd
Veteran
Looked into it, but it's $250 + $150 for a cheap XP laptop (I run win7 64bit) + another $150 for the software (from what i read on the forums).
The chemicals are cheap and I have the equipment, but I would choose the Pakon because I like convenience, so you can see the flaw in that plan 🙂 Realistically, I'd end up putting off developing rolls for weeks. I'm a homebrewer and I often go months without brewing a batch because life gets in the way. Film developing would be much the same.
edge100
Well-known
You can run the Pakon in XP Mode in Win 7. The software is available on the Pakon FB group (or I can send it to you).
randolph45
Well-known
One Costco left in Sacramento,Ca
One Costco left in Sacramento,Ca
Just the Cal Expo Costco left that does wet C41🙁
I talked to the tech and it hangs by a thread, if the repair cost is more than 500$🙁🙁
One Costco left in Sacramento,Ca
Just the Cal Expo Costco left that does wet C41🙁
I talked to the tech and it hangs by a thread, if the repair cost is more than 500$🙁🙁
Scrambler
Well-known
USPS flat rate boxes are good value (relatively) and Australia Post looks like they are cheaper again, even before factoring in exchange rates. Expect about $45 for the round trip. I don't know how many rolls you would fit in the box. If you just want digital files you would only need to post one-way. I think the Australia Post boxes would fit 20, maybe 40 rolls: it could work out if you have a bulk purchase with friends...
Scary!
Steve M.
Veteran
Frank is right. I read an article recently on Jeffrey Brotman, the founder of Costco, and he is quite a maverick. They're the anti Walmart out there, and maybe the only one of such size. I loved his ideas and his courage to carry them forward in today's corporate world.
Since you shoot color I won't mention my usual suggestion to just develop it yourself, as I understand color is a different beast from B&W. Still, I think you would be happy w/ the results of home processed C 41. I will say that my photography made a giant leap forward when I started doing everything myself instead of sending it out. I use an old $40 Epson 2450 flatbed for scanning, which is used only for proofing 35mm negs before wet printing, and for web posting. It works a lot better than it should. Here's an example of 35mm neg scans. I don't even have the neg carriers, I simply tape the negs to the glass. These had very little processing, mostly straight scans. For 120 and 4x5, the old 2450 produces excellent, high quality files.
Nikkormat FT2 w/ Leica R 90 Elmarit and Red Filter, w/ TD-16 Developer
Since you shoot color I won't mention my usual suggestion to just develop it yourself, as I understand color is a different beast from B&W. Still, I think you would be happy w/ the results of home processed C 41. I will say that my photography made a giant leap forward when I started doing everything myself instead of sending it out. I use an old $40 Epson 2450 flatbed for scanning, which is used only for proofing 35mm negs before wet printing, and for web posting. It works a lot better than it should. Here's an example of 35mm neg scans. I don't even have the neg carriers, I simply tape the negs to the glass. These had very little processing, mostly straight scans. For 120 and 4x5, the old 2450 produces excellent, high quality files.
Nikkormat FT2 w/ Leica R 90 Elmarit and Red Filter, w/ TD-16 Developer
danielsterno
making soup from mud
thedarkroom.com=$10.roll developed/scanned to disk including prepaid postage….
noisycheese
Normal(ish) Human
Digital or film, color or B&W, it is all going to cost you something. The only way for photography to be free is to stop photographing. Nothing in the world of photography is free. Come to think of it, nothing worth doing or owning in this world is free. The old timers were right: There is no free lunch.
That's not exactly factual - photographing digitally is nothing other than paying companies "C" and "D" rather than companies "A" and "B."
One way or another, we photographers always give the devil his due. It's just a matter of which devil... 😉
froyd
Veteran
True, but to match my previous arrangement (other than the untouchable convenience of 1h processing) I would have to give $15 to the good folks in San Clemente. My local photoshop (the good one) will do it for the same amount and no shipping involved.
Steve M. - WOW! not bad at all!
Bingley
Veteran
VertovSvilova
Well-known
When I was in grad school (MFA program) we had great facilities including a 50" Kreonite color processor, Durst dichro enlargers, and a mural enlarger. And of course full B+W facilities (that was just at the very beginning of digital entering the scene, and not many of us were attempting any digital based work.)
We had to buy our own film and paper. Paper costs were (and still are) pretty high, especially a roll of mural sized RA-4 paper. In the art world, big prints were (and still are) the norm. I remember having to really budget my material costs while getting through school (and of course part of my tuition also went to the facilities and their upkeep.) We all knew that photography was expensive as a medium.
But I think the overall result was that we were very conscientious about what we were doing and to take the time to really think through projects. With a limited student budget we had to make sure that what we were doing was worth the expense and not to waste any materials. It kind of makes you a lot more particular and to think ahead about your projects. It made me a lot more critical of what I was doing (and that remains with me today, whether film based or digital.)
Sometimes it can be a good thing that there is no 'free lunch.'
thegman
Veteran
I think this is a very good point. Obviously there is no technical reason why free materials/processors should make worse work than ones that cost money. But, you've only got to look at the utter dross out there created digitally on phones etc. which is basically free.
Correlation and causation are indeed not the same thing, but I know that if I go out with my 4x5, I'm going to make more of an effort than if I'm using my phone, or 35mm camera.
froyd
Veteran
VertovSvilova and thegman: it's good to hear that the quality of my images has the potential to triple in quality 😛
bibz
Newbie
I find c41 easier to develop then b&w myself. Quicker too! I use the Tetenal c41 kit. The only local processor is $12 a roll of 120, or I can do 12 with a $50 kit. Outside of Sydney/Melbourne/Brisbane its pretty grim for film in aus. I just paid $14 for a roll of tri-x to test a 35mm camera. It would have been $17.50 for them to develop. Thats nearly a dollar a 35mm frame! 5L of xtol is only $15.
Hope it doesn't get this way over there, but no sky is falling here. I'm finding it a lot more rewarding doing everything myself.
Hope it doesn't get this way over there, but no sky is falling here. I'm finding it a lot more rewarding doing everything myself.
traveler_101
American abroad
It looks like the exceptional circumstances under which commercial developing is still on-going (e.g.Cal Expo Costco) are turning out to be survivals of the old photographic system -- and as such they will disappear, sooner or later. Things change quickly here. Three years ago development and scanning had already reached $30 a roll. I had it done -- twice. Since then I have been developing and scanning my own. I've shot a handful of colour rolls and had those developed at CVS (pharmacy) and then have done the scanning myself. This last time I was back in the USA, it was hard to find a CVS that still does film processing--and it was not so inexpensive either.
I have seven colour rolls left in the refrigerator. I bought a development kit from Freestyle, and after I use it I think that will be it for colour film--at least for 35mm. Maybe, maybe . . . well, I think of doing colour large format and wet printing, but it is a distant dream.
I am still going strong with b&w 35mm, but am heavily dependent on Kodak supplies that I bring over here from the USA, including film and powdered chemicals. I get some materials from the Czech Republic (Foma) sold here by a Czech ex-patriot. If I had to pay the going price here--$15 a roll for b&w film, 3x what I just paid for excellent Kodak film from B&H--could I afford to stay in it? Aren't prices like that where we are all headed?
I have seven colour rolls left in the refrigerator. I bought a development kit from Freestyle, and after I use it I think that will be it for colour film--at least for 35mm. Maybe, maybe . . . well, I think of doing colour large format and wet printing, but it is a distant dream.
I am still going strong with b&w 35mm, but am heavily dependent on Kodak supplies that I bring over here from the USA, including film and powdered chemicals. I get some materials from the Czech Republic (Foma) sold here by a Czech ex-patriot. If I had to pay the going price here--$15 a roll for b&w film, 3x what I just paid for excellent Kodak film from B&H--could I afford to stay in it? Aren't prices like that where we are all headed?
Sejanus.Aelianus
Veteran
Ah, so is he now a Czech traitor? :angel:
I don't use a lot of film now and have enough in stock to keep me going for a while but you have my sympathy. Our local Boots the Chemist still does in-store colour negative processing but the price is getting steeper all the time. The last roll cost me the equivalent of $18 for process, print and scan. There's no option to just have the development and scan.
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