mather@uicsl.UUCP (10/09/85)
Is there really a difference between all the discount processing services? I know that I COULD go to each one and try them out, but what kind of experiences have people had with K-mart, Osco, Fox, ???-mart, whatever places. I mean, K-mart just sends of off to some REAL lab right? Many places use Kodak paper (for a good look). I have been reasonably happy with the OSCO processing (although a couple of times they cut the negs THOUGH some of the pix once...arggggg!), but I don't feel like a REAL photographer unless I spend big $$$ to have KODAK do it personally. I kind of thought that many of these guys ship it off to one of those put-it-in-one-end-&-pix-come-out-the-other machines. Are these inferior? Do REAL people still hand process film in these fast turnaround places? (Overnight turnaround or it's free...) or is it a big machine? ---- b.c.mather Software Surgeon uiucdcs!uicsl!mather
jer@peora.UUCP (J. Eric Roskos) (10/11/85)
> I mean, K-mart just sends of off to some REAL lab right? At least in this area, K-Mart has a contract with the ColorCraft Corporation, which in Orlando runs a very good lab called "Champagne Photo". They do a better job than anyone else I've found in Orlando, though the results aren't as good as if you do them yourself. They even do better than the "Fox ProLab" here who you see advertising in Modern Photography all the time. > I kind of thought that many of these guys ship it off to one of those > put-it-in-one-end-&-pix-come-out-the-other machines. Are these inferior? They are fairly amazing machines... the fast ones can produce prints in the tens of prints per second. Obviously this is not as good as doing it by hand, by any means, but some of the better ones do a surprisingly good job on these 3R and 4R-sized prints. > Do REAL people still hand process film in these fast turnaround places? > (Overnight turnaround or it's free...) or is it a big machine? The ones I've seen around here (they have them all over so the tourists can get their pictures of Walt Disney World fast) are all medium-sized machines. In my experience, a lot of these don't produce very good prints in terms of color correction, though I suspect it may be the operator, since I've seen the one at the major photo store (Colonial) here in operation, and it does have a color analyzer built in... I think some places just don't know how to work it very well. -- Shyy-Anzr: J. Eric Roskos UUCP: Ofc: ..!{decvax,ucbvax,ihnp4}!vax135!petsd!peora!jer Home: ..!{decvax,ucbvax,ihnp4}!vax135!petsd!peora!jerpc!jer US Mail: MS 795; Perkin-Elmer SDC; 2486 Sand Lake Road, Orlando, FL 32809-7642
howard@sfmag.UUCP (H.M.Moskovitz) (10/11/85)
> > Is there really a difference between all the discount processing services? > I know that I COULD go to each one and try them out, but what kind of > experiences have people had with K-mart, Osco, Fox, ???-mart, whatever > places. I mean, K-mart just sends of off to some REAL lab right? Many > places use Kodak paper (for a good look). I have been reasonably happy > with the OSCO processing (although a couple of times they cut the negs > THOUGH some of the pix once...arggggg!), but I don't feel like a REAL > photographer unless I spend big $$$ to have KODAK do it personally. > Most of the drugstore and department store variety processing is sent out to discount processing plants like Marvel Photo in Clifton, NJ. Almost every processing plant and 1-hour photo places I've seen use exactly the same machine: the Kodak automatic film developer and automatic printer. Assuming that they all use Kodak paper and chemistry (and they usually do if they are dealing with Kodak), they would all produce exactly the same results. They don't, only because some places know how to set up, care for, and run their machines better than others. If a place is sloppy and has a tendency not to clean their machines regularly, the processing solutions become contaminated and this shows up in crappy pictures. Same thing if they don't regularly run quality runs and re- calibrate the machines as needed (usually needs to be done AT LEAST twice daily!!!). If you want reliable and CONSISTENT results, spend the extra bucks and send your film to Kodak or Berkey. Either are very reliable. -- --------------------------------------------------------------------- Howard Moskovitz AT&T Info. Systems attunix!howard
rmrin@inuxa.UUCP (D Rickert) (10/11/85)
> > Is there really a difference between all the discount processing services? I'm convinced the only stuff to send to discounters is that which you won't particularly mind losing, either outright or through a processing screwup. This has happened to me on several occaisons with cheapies but never with Kodak mailers. Depending on the processor, colors can be off by quite a bit as well. "Kodak, the BIG BLUE of Photography" -- You are Beautiful, Dick Rickert my manufactured love;- AT&T CPL but it is only Svengali, Indy, IN talking to himself again. Reward is its own virtue!
sasaki@harvard.ARPA (Marty Sasaki) (10/14/85)
As mentioned here, almost all of the discount places use the same
automagic processing and printing machines which should mean that you
get good results from everyone. Along with problems with keeping the
machines tuned up and with keeping things clean, there is the problem
of replenishment of chemicals.
It turns out that rather than using the processing chemicals only
once, they can be reused again and again. In order to restore the
potency of the chemicals, replenishers are added. The quantity of
replenisher, as well as when they should be added, is determined using
tests. There is also a limit to how many times you can replenish
before having to dump all of the chemicals.
A Southern California processor was well known for pushing these
limits. They would run a few extra batches through before dumping the
chemicals. Since making the tests and adding the replenishers are time
consuming (apparently you need to stop the machines to add
replenisher) they would increase the interval between adding
replenisher. In order to make up for using up more of the chemistry,
they would add extra in the beginning so that the last few rolls
wouldn't be so bad.
There were also rumors that the processing temperature was increased,
shortening processing times, and allowing more prints/rolls of film to
be processed in a given amount of time.
Of course this playing with processing means that the color balance
could be off wildly, or off just a little bit, depending on how lucky
you were.
Not all labs use such machinery though. One of my classmates at school
worked one summer in a "professional" processing lab. His job was to
load the film onto reels. (Imagine sitting in a dark room for hours at
a time loading stainless steel reels.) He would place the reels onto
racks which were then lowered into large tanks. Agitation took place
by bubbling a burst of nitrogen through tubes on the bottom of the
tank.
For the price, I think that Kodak can't be beat (assuming we are
talking about Kodak film) for processing. I send all of my color
material to them. The only thing that I don't like is that I get my
negatives cut up into two and three frame pieces which are hard to
handle, and don't always fit neatly into my negative pages.
--
----------------
Marty Sasaki net: sasaki@harvard.{arpa,uucp}
Havard University Science Center phone: 617-495-1270
One Oxford Street
Cambridge, MA 02138ron@brl-sem.ARPA (Ron Natalie <ron>) (10/16/85)
> For the price, I think that Kodak can't be beat (assuming we are > talking about Kodak film) for processing. I send all of my color > material to them. The only thing that I don't like is that I get my > negatives cut up into two and three frame pieces which are hard to > handle, and don't always fit neatly into my negative pages. > -- Don't kid yourself if you think that Kodak doesn't use the same automatic processing for the run of the mill color prints. We've gotten some cute double exposed prints from them which could only have happened from auto- matic processors without a whole lot of human quality control. Even, the custom printing from Kodak entails an automatic exposure/color balance device that has come up with some really bizarre color corrections with respect to the original automatically produced prints. At least with the Kodak prints, you can keep sending them back until they get the color/cropping etc correct. I'm still waiting for the day when their stupid "Processed by Kodak" brand that they expose into my negatives/transparencies accidentally shows up in an image. -Ron
mls@harpo.UUCP (10/17/85)
In the Morristown, NJ area ACME uses Berkey I am extremely pleased with the results. I have always requested the custom 4 by 6 prints. The paper is probably not Kodak as nothing is written on the back. Irv McNair