Walgreens: "We don't do Kodak professional films."

There certainly is a variety of "services" offered. At one time, the local CVS folks and I had some conversations, and they were trained to maintain the C41, plus in place of cleaning rollers, they replaced them on a regular basis, which pretty much eliminated scratches.

Things change though.

By the time you think you get it figured out, they change.

Their over night processing is "Kodak", which uses the same lab as all the overnight places here.

Regards, John
 
Trius, actually ther's another girl at Walgeens that has started doing my processing sometimes. She considers it a priviledge that I trust her like that...LOL On occasion I've used up the remains of a roll photographing the baristas at Starbucks, or I'll take some shots of the clerks at the post office or tellers at the bank. A day or two later I give them the 4x6's. They all know to call me Al, not Mr. Kaplan, and I get some pretty damned good sevice.
 
Aren't you glad that they willingfully divulged their weakness rather than doing something they aren't good at? It is frustrating but I'd much rather someone tell me that they can't do a good job and send me elsewhere than to have them do a lousy job and tell me thats the best they could do... after the job is messed up.
 
Well, I've scanned about 16 frames so far. They're looking better than the prints. Here's one I didn't tweak other than cropping the top and bottom. This is an old grain mill now turned into a local park. They're milling again, too. Meant to go in the morning, but didn't get there until 1 pm. Oh... with the Bessa R4M and, I think, the Ultron 28/1.9. [Nah. It was a 21/4 Color-Skopar. I really should remember these things.]


3764139798_0ec5436615_o.jpg
 
Last edited:
I agree on that first lowest cost is always lowest quality. Second ask you photo friends who they use and get the best results from. Third you only want processing not prints. Forth you have to ask when was the chemistry changed last? Or when do you load a fresh batch. Most cheap consumer machines rotate on a specific dated plan. Like once a week or every so many rolls.

Also if you give someone you film and get bad results you must show up and complain to person who is directly responsible for the photo section. If not then you never get a refund or make them understand you will not buy film or services from them. You have to be kind but firm and clear inferior service is not acceptable and also you can complain to a supervisor and email.

My Wallgreens Lab would tell me when the chemicals were changed and also they would make sure that the I got the best performance. But never prints.
Also there is a special skew on the pricing and film only was 2.36 for a roll of 36 of C41. Fuji NPz will not tolerate any warm processing..golf ball grain.

But find a better lab. I only used Walgreens when I had no access to a real lab. All the Best....Laurance
 
Depends on what you are going to do with the photos. If you're just going to look at them, post them online, put them in a scrapbook or something similar, then Walgreens/Walmart/Costco/CVS is fine. If you are going to use it for anything serious, well, that's how the people in pro labs make their living. They couldn't do it if they were not a lot better. It's just a question of whether it is worth the extra time and money to you.
 
Agreed. I used this Walgreens because I went out primarily to see if i could get along better with the R4M's finder than I have been. So, the photos were secondary. And, the Walgreens is 200 yards away. Granted, no one is ever actually at the photo counter. I have to ask for someone to be paged and wait several minutes.

Not everyone (most?) has access to a local pro lab. I live in a prosperous metro area of 2-3 million people and, to the best of my knowledge, there's now only one lab and, as mentioned, they don't seem to want non-commercial business.
 
Frank: Anything important I was taking to Rochester Photographic. On my last trip it was closed up and some of the equipment piled up in the parking lot behind the building. Got a couple of 5-gal (?) plastic containers with nice spigots for my trouble driving there. I guess there might be another "pro" or "semi-pro" lab left in Roch, but I don't know where.
 
Edgar Praus has the last professional lab in Rochester and most of his business comes from mail order, not local photographers. He's my friend but, yeah, he is the the best and comes highly recommended.

http://www.4photolab.com/

For decent one-hour 35mm photo service, there is a good Kodak store at Scotts Photo on East Avenue, opposite Wegmans, near Winton, on the East Side of Rochester.

Both labs are tapped into Kodak but they sell/do plenty of Fuji and others...
 
I'm pretty pleased that I found a local grocery store that will process/decent scans for $2.50ish for the first roll, and $.99 for each roll after. :)
 
We should keep something in perspective. These are not photographic specialists. They're mass market merchandisers. You get what you pay for.

The results are only as good as the person running and monitoring the machine and the chemicals.

Don't expect top-shelf results from the lowest bidder. Bottom feeding doesn't work in all aspects of photography (or life, for that matter).
 
wgerrard said:
And, the Walgreens is 200 yards away. Granted, no one is ever actually at the photo counter. I have to ask for someone to be paged and wait several minutes.
Click to expand...

Uh, this might be a red flag! (Not enough business to have someone staff the photo counter.)

I've found two Walgreens which do a fairly consistent job on a DO/CD. At both of them, there's someone there, if not right at the counter, busy doing photo work behind. Often times there's a line.

I've found that the quality varies from shop to shop.
 
Walmart 2-day does my 120 at an outside lab and they're tapped into Dwaynes. Walmart basically serves as my runner.
 
Up until recently, I'd been using the local Rite-Aid lab for my cheap n' cheerful C41 work. But their machine was down for a few weeks while they were switching from Kodak chemistry to Fuji. (The film-sale racks suddenly switched from yellow to green, too.) The woman who ran their photo department actually suggested I try the CVS a handful of blocks away.

It was a good move. They had their act together handling my film (no questions asked regarding develop-only, do-not-cut instructions), were quite friendly, and quite busy. And this was before they revamped the entire department with new equipment, where they actually improved. Ektar, Portra, BW400CN, all done well and sans scratches. (They use Kodak chemistry/paper.) And turnaround is 30 minutes to an hour, depending on workload. Works for me!


Barrett
 
Walgreen's is good in my neck of the woods. They used to be BAD, but somebody must have been fired or something, and things changed.

Of course, I won't use their services for something important... although they've never failed to do a good job. Only once did I have someone who didn't know that negatives go in sleeves. I had to ask her to sleeve them.

BTW, in Walmart I was told by someone very serious "We don't do C-41 film here"

"Why not?" I replied. "You sell it."

:rolleyes: :rolleyes:

End of story.
 
Walgreens even offers a pro discount on processing. It doesn't really require any proof that you're a pro, and once you're programmed into the computer you'll get it at any Walgreens. When you give them your phone number the register figures your discount. I think it's 10%.
 
The equivalent to Walgreens over here would have to be Boots but they're not on every street corner (like Walgreens seems to be, well... :))

I want to do my C41 at home too, mainly because Boots won't process a film alone, they want prints or a CD, or both to be done. The other one is Jessops. Depending on operator they can do a good job, but they can also scratch the hell out of my negs on the odd occassion. Sometimes they have come back looking like they've used them to rub down a bit of 2 by 4....

There was also a small lab 20min Photos which has since closed down due to the recession and the fat banker crunch, sorry, credit crunch. Once had some hoopla with them over a roll of BW400CN, that really threw them. "But it's not possible!" Infuriating, why the hell i didn't go elsewhere I don't know (maybe I heard Jessops building an extension out back that day and didn't fancy my negs' chances...) Another good one is where it took a whole month to process a couple of films. The slowest 1hr service ever. :)

I send my C41 off now, usually to The Darkroom UK (can't recall the web address) or Peak Imaging; very good indeed, clean negs and not too expensive either.

Must get me some more of this Ektar, quite fancy sussing that one out properly and in the future maybe make some RA4's. Once I have nailed the B&W processing marks thing.

Vicky
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom