please stop knocking one hour photo

[bdial]

For me the point is that I don't want to try and deal with color chemstry, keeping it fresh, even obtaining it, etc. There isn't much, if any, creativity lost in having a roll of C-41 or E-6 processed. The machines do it way better than I could, although I know how to do it, and I have equipment that can handle it.
I like the notion of working color digitally, from film or otherwise, but I don't currently have a printer that will get me the creative results I want.
There is so much to explore with B&W, I'm fine with doing that myself and using commericial processing when I do color.

[laverdure]

I've had fine luck with negatives, but it's been years since I got any worthwhile prints back from a lab, pro or corner. Lots of labs tried, lots of money wasted. I expect I'll take to scanning my color negatives from here on in, when I next start playing with color. I won't shoot digitally because I hate modern cameras, and doing my own color is just too much of a hassle. I hate photoshop too, but what can I do?

Bob- glad to hear there are still labs that try to get it right. But you're in the minority. Sending out color (anywhere) feels like gambling to me, and it seems like I'm on a losing streak. I've gone so far as to daydream about this being a conspiracy to get people to switch to digital.

[Michel Hardy-Vallée]

what I never understood is what the point of taking work to a one hour lab is, when bothering to shoot film. I would think that, more often than not, the reasoning for shooting film is control, of output... from exposing the film, to developing film, to making a print. Yet when a lab (or outside source) comes into the picture (pun intended) you are completely losing what seems like a major part of the control and handing it over to an unknown variable - the lab or outside source.

why not just shoot digitally... Ive always felt (and this is a personal feeling) that if I was going to shoot color work Id just shoot digitally from the get go, or at the least shoot film, develop it myself and print it myself... so that all control/responsibility and results are created by my hand (or with a little help from a computer in the case of digitally)

Just look at the difference betweeen a print from a digi file and one from film. Even though the film is scanned nowadays, the colors are usually better, the contrast and the sharpness as well.

Oh, and have you ever waited in line behind people who brought their digi media cards/CDs?

"Wait, no, not that one it's upside-down. Oh, you can turn it? Ok, well honey what size do you want? Hm, I'm not sure, well anyway, give me two doubles of that first one, then six of the other one, but three 4x6, 2 5x7 and one 8x10. Oh, you only do 8.5x11 ? Is that going to be a problem with my binders?"

Ad infinitum. Me: bring film, says 4x6 glossy-with-borders-no doubles-plus a cd scan, and cheerio buddy, I'll see you later today!

I absolutely adore lab prints, it's like waiting for eBay mail to arrive!

[copake_ham]

.....
why not just shoot digitally... Ive always felt (and this is a personal feeling) that if I was going to shoot color work Id just shoot digitally from the get go, or at the least shoot film, develop it myself and print it myself... so that all control/responsibility and results are created by my hand (or with a little help from a computer in the case of digitally)

I shoot color film (both neg and chromes) because I enjoy doing so. Long before there was digital - the only way to shoot color was to shoot film. Some of us from those olden times still enjoy doing so - even if we then have it processed commercially.

So yes, I am grateful for one-hour shops.

[Rick Floyd]

Years ago I took my 35mm to Jim at my local Sam's Club. He worked magic with the Fuji processor and made me a better photographer. He was a retired military guy with years of experience shooting combat and news. He was a treasure of informtion and I miss him. I came in with five rolls of Reala after a shoot and he was gone. Heart attack or stroke. He had a young girl he worked with for a while at the store and she did her best to match Jim's standards but eventually I had to move on to a different lab.

[Sirius Glass]

what I never understood is what the point of taking work to a one hour lab is, when bothering to shoot film. I would think that, more often than not, the reasoning for shooting film is control, of output... from exposing the film, to developing film, to making a print. Yet when a lab (or outside source) comes into the picture (pun intended) you are completely losing what seems like a major part of the control and handing it over to an unknown variable - the lab or outside source.

why not just shoot digitally... Ive always felt (and this is a personal feeling) that if I was going to shoot color work Id just shoot digitally from the get go, or at the least shoot film, develop it myself and print it myself... so that all control/responsibility and results are created by my hand (or with a little help from a computer in the case of digitally)

This is not really rocket science. Some of us do not have an area that we can dedicate to darkroom facilities. Most of my processing goes to Dwanye's. When I want more than 4"x6" for 125 or 5"x5" for 120, I have several custom photo finishers who still do all optical printing that I send my work to.

Now if I could just find a filter that improves the composition ...

Steve

[dmr]

The best one-hour labs are wonderful; the worst are awful; and with change of personnel, they can change overnight. I've seen it happen!

I admit that I have most of my film processing done at Walgreens, a major drug store (chemist) here in the States. Most of the time I have just a develop only and scan to CD done, and they usually do a fair to very good job, depending on the phase of the moon.

The big issue I see is consistency. Sometimes you get somebody who really knows what he or she is doing. Most of the time you get a button-pusher who is trained to operate, but not understand the nuances of, the machine. Sometimes you get a total idiot who flunked the test to become a moron!

Worst I remember recently was when last December a roll broke off and would not wind back into the cartridge. I phoned Walgreens to see if I could just bring in the film in a light-tight canister. The 20-bopper I talked to had NO CLUE about what I was talking about. The conversation went like this. (I am cutting and pasting from a post I made on RFF back then.)

Me: Do you accept film for developing that's just loose and not in the 35mm cartridge?
She: Oh, do you mean like a memory that's not in the camera?
Me: No, regular 35mm film but loose, not in a cartridge.
She: Yeah, we can make prints from that.

I didn't risk it, so I sacrificed a new roll of film and taped the loose one on it and took it in.

Then in that chain you have inconsistency in policy and procedure. On RFF I told the keystone-cops type story of a guy I work with getting thrown out of a Walgreens for getting in an argument with a manager who refused to do a CD without prints. It was something out of a bad sitcom on TV.

Then about a year ago the SAME THING HAPPENED TO ME. The clerk refused to take an order for a DO/CD at the same store I've had it done countless times and looked me right in the eye and told me it was impossible to do a CD without prints!

These are the problems I have with the one-hour places.

[eddym]

I had Wal-Mart cut through frames once...used them only sparingly after that.

My wife had the same problem at a local Walgreens. They cut the first strip of 35mm just one sprocket hole off... and then the rest of the roll (and the resulting prints, of course!) was off, too. What's more, they scanned the whole roll for a cd, and every single scan was off by that one sprocket hole, even from the negs that were not cut! Grrrr....

[Neal]

Dear Bob,

I just dropped two rolls off at CVS one hour today!

Neal Wydra

[bob100684]

I work at an Eckerd back home, here at college we don't have those and the Brooks stores don't have labs so I applied at a walgreens. They run an agfa Dlab at the store I was at...get this you splice the neg on a leader card, touch the screen on the printer end for what product you want IE 4x6 singles with an index print, cd and white borders. No way to color correct, no way to scan at high res in case a client wants to outsource large prints w/o sending unreliable qualex the neg, ect. I feel like there were ways to do all of the above but I was fired on my third day for "wasting chemistry" after multiple control strips showed the fixer was so toasted the best course of action was to dump and remix.