Film Developing

[deanvm]

I am heading to Disney for my Honeymoon in a couple weeks and have a question about film developing. I want to take with me those pre-paid mailers for places like Snapfish to send film home from the resort. What others besides snapfich are out there.

Thanks,

Dean

 

[GAIL HAYDEN]

Originally posted by deanvm
I am heading to Disney for my Honeymoon in a couple weeks and have a question about film developing. I want to take with me those pre-paid mailers for places like Snapfish to send film home from the resort. What others besides snapfich are out there.

Thanks,

Dean

Dean,
I hate to be the one to pour cold water on this idea, but, I would ask that you think about sending this very special precious moments film via the mail to anywhere. IMHO, spend the extra few dollars a roll and have it processed at a one hour place, like WalMart or Eckhart (sp?). The film never leaves the lab and your prints are ready in one hour.
I used to process film and I cannot tell you enough horror stories about film being ruined or lost. The mail in places (and outlabs at stores) all batch process, no one ever sees it, corrects it, or really cares about it. Many of the one hour places also do not see it or correct it. I did work for WalMart and did manage the lab and did care about photos and did make sure that they were processed the best they could be. I did redo (free of charge) photos from snapfish, walmart's outlab and a variety of other places because: they do a crappy job. This of course, gained me a bunch of loyal customers.

I used to ask people why, after spending thousands on a vacation, they would drop a mailer in the mailbox or an envelope in a box to save a couple of dollars per roll. IMHO, it is not a smart move. Film gets lost, damaged, and never comes back.
Don't risk it with something this valuable.

 

[Kallison]

Hi - I've used Clark Color Processing for 20 years and they have never misplaced a roll of film. I've had plenty of friends lose rolls in bricks and mortar stores when they drop off film. If you use Clark before your trip they send mailer labels with your return address and stickers to put on the roll of films. I have to admit I've never sent my Disney film to them, everything else though. This last trip I dropped my 13 rolls in the mail and they all came back in one week. It cost me approx. $4.50 per roll of film. Plus they pay postage both ways. I think if you do a google search you will find a website to request mailers. I wouldn't hesitate to use them, I think 20 years of never messing up is a pretty good record.

 

[prncess674]

I use www.ofoto.com (a Kodak company) the pictures have been beautiful color prints that are vibrant and clear. I wouldn't trust my photos to a one hour photo shop. But you should be the judge. Shop around before your vacation. Test out the local one hour shop, etc and see who really does quality work.

Actually what I would do is invest in a fab digital camera and then you never have to worry about anyone (including one hour labs) losing my photos because you will always have the original "photos" on your computer. If you have a laptop you can upload your photos directly to snapfish or ofoto directly from your hotel and have the prints waiting for you when you get home.

 

[jgates]

Our local WM 1-hour is excellent. Actually the one near Midevil Times was fantastic too. Don't go down 192 though! It will take forever! They did a wonderful job with my pictures.

Next trip though, I am planning on a Sony Mavica (burns to CD) Digital. Just need to get the price down a little.

 

[jgates]

Our local WM 1-hour is excellent. Actually the one near Midevil Times was fantastic too. Don't go down 192 though! It will take forever! They did a wonderful job with my pictures.

Next trip though, I am planning on a Sony Mavica (burns to CD) Digital. Just need to get the price down a little.

 

[jann1033]

if you want good pictures unless you have a trunk load of money forget digital (not my opinion, Photography mags.) to get a good quality camera (by that I mean any thing more than a point and shoot, if you have a trunk load of money or want just a point and shot and have money for the mem. sticks they are fine)

For developing ...snapfish is great. I have used them for years, develop many more rolls of film than the average person as I not only like photography in general, i take photos of my husband's decorative finishes for his album. I have never lost a roll of film (out of well over 3-4 dozen) never had any problems with them what so ever and have always found their work to surpass anywhere else I have taken my film, including camera shops. too many of the 1 hr have no idea what they are doing and can really give astonishingly bad results....having said that I am probably pickier in this than most since it is being used as the"first impression" presentation for my husband's work. you probably can get passable pictures from walmart but not nearly what you will get from snapfish. I have actually done "comparison" testing on this.( can you say"obsessive"?) The 5x7 are a great deal. take a roll of pictures as a trial and send them in since yours of your honeymoon are irreplacable but the only pictures I have ever had ruined are those I have taken to local highly recommended shops( don't know what they do to them but they were bad news!)

clark is ok ( had some pictures not turn out well, they give you credit for them but you still do not have the pictures) but imho can not touch snapfish. never had a problem with lost film from them either.

 

[safetymom]

jann1033 , I don't know what mags you are reading but digital is here to stay.

I have had a digital camera since they first came out and they are great for your photos. I have a 5 megapixedl camera and it takes beautiful photos. I have given up on film and gone totally digital. I have printed many of them at 13x19 and the pros have raved about the quality.

The cost of printing is comparable to store developed and I have my choice of paper, size. I can crop or not print certain pictures.

 

[jann1033]

not to start a debate on the merits of cameras but I was referring to numerous Photography magazines and Photography web sites I have read on the subject. as I said digital cameras are ok as point and shoot , if you want to take a snapshot. but to get the"extra" features for more creative photography that any reasonably priced SLR camera has, you need to spend thousand of dollars vs hundred s of dollars ( which is a whole lot of film and Photo printer paper is not inexpensive either although printers are getting better)so right now if you are concerned about that type of picture and features ( more than aim the camera and click the button.) the price for digital is still prohibitive. (I checked out all of this when I was trying to decide what to get since as I mentioned it is difficult for me to get the pictures I need for professional purposes. I tried a number of digital cameras and the picture quality , while it might be fine for a snap shot, was not nearly as good as a SLR because you do not have the choice of apeture opening, speed etc.that you have with an SLR in most "Average" priced digitals, at least not in the ones I have seen)

 

[cooderbrown]

The most fun we've had with a camera at Disney (and my wife and I are fairly experienced shooters) - is from a Canon Elf. Not a digital - but a regular point and shoot. The 3 formats (incl. Panorama) are a blast to shoot with at the flip of a switch. I'm sure the camera is only a couple hundred dollars now.

I am waiting for a digital elf with the 3 formats built in (they aren't the last time I checked).

We took 21 rolls of film at a cost of over $200 (the film is the APS type). And they are ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS.

CB

 

[GAIL HAYDEN]

Originally posted by jann1033
if you want good pictures unless you have a trunk load of money forget digital (not my opinion, Photography mags.) to get a good quality camera (by that I mean any thing more than a point and shoot, if you have a trunk load of money or want just a point and shot and have money for the mem. sticks they are fine)

For developing ...snapfish is great. I have used them for years, develop many more rolls of film than the average person as I not only like photography in general, i take photos of my husband's decorative finishes for his album. I have never lost a roll of film (out of well over 3-4 dozen) never had any problems with them what so ever and have always found their work to surpass anywhere else I have taken my film, including camera shops. too many of the 1 hr have no idea what they are doing and can really give astonishingly bad results....having said that I am probably pickier in this than most since it is being used as the"first impression" presentation for my husband's work. you probably can get passable pictures from walmart but not nearly what you will get from snapfish. I have actually done "comparison" testing on this.( can you say"obsessive"?) The 5x7 are a great deal. take a roll of pictures as a trial and send them in since yours of your honeymoon are irreplacable but the only pictures I have ever had ruined are those I have taken to local highly recommended shops( don't know what they do to them but they were bad news!)

clark is ok ( had some pictures not turn out well, they give you credit for them but you still do not have the pictures) but imho can not touch snapfish. never had a problem with lost film from them either.

I totally disagree with most of what you have written. PTN highly recommends many of the Canon , Fuji and Nikon digital cameras. A couple of their favorites: Nikon 950,990, & 5000.

After having corrected many many many rolls of film from Snapfish
I cannot agree with you saying they surpass anyone. For you they work, that is great. Many people don't like the one hour photo labs in some stores and I can understand that. Especially places like Walgreens, CVS, & Kmart. They produce crap.

I did processing for professionals at my lab and the results were fantastic. A lot depends on the people doing the processing, the mini lab, the chemicals and the paper. And, one chain can vary from store to store. Some run the negs. on automatic, others, like mine, ran it frame by frame, spent a LOT of time correcting and making the pictures look good. I did not process film, I preserved memories. Snapfish, onofoto, Clark etc. do not do that.

 

[safetymom]

I have a Nikon digital that takes better pictues than my expensive 35mm camera. My digital has as many if not more features than my 35 mm camera.

I may not be able to use filters without an adapter but I am very happy with my digital.

Many pros use the model of Nikon that I have and are very satisfied with their photos.

Digtal may not be for everybody but there are loads of satisfied photographers who are uisng digital.

You can't go by everything that you read because I am sure most of us have seen reviews of things and we wondered did they even read the instructions or use the product.

 

[SparKeLLy]

My experiences with Clark haven't been great. They never lost my pictures but the print quality was so-so. And the packaging was Horrible! I received my prints in a torn up paper envelope, the edges were ripped open and my prints inside got damaged as a result. 2 of the prints were stuck together with something sticky and were ruined. I won't be using them again.

I use my digital mostly now anyway, and in defense of digital cameras, there are plenty of them on the market reasonably priced with a lot more manual features to make them more than JUST a point and shoot.

digital images are easily edited to look all fancy too

 

[prncess674]

To the original poster:

Everyone here is going to have an opinion on who develops film the best. My vote is for Ofoto.com (a Kodak company). I have had beautiful quality photos delivered to my door for the last several years. My Wal-Mart and Sam's Club had inferior onsite processing and yours may be different. DO YOUR OWN TESTS, and determine who YOU like. For every processing plant there will always be someone who has something bad to say about it. For example if you head to the transportation forum I could show you a post where someone has had a bad experience on each of the domestic airlines and that everyone else should stay away. You need to make your own decision about quality because it is subjective.

Have a great honeymoon!

PS - I have a Digital ELPH (3.0 Megapixel) and am very happy with the results have been great. It has a "digital stitch" feature which is better than the panorama feature on the APS camera. Also you can take short little digital films which are fun. I can direct you to my ofoto site if you would like to see the quality of the photos I have taken with my camera.

 

[GAIL HAYDEN]

Originally posted by safetymom
I have a Nikon digital that takes better pictues than my expensive 35mm camera. My digital has as many if not more features than my 35 mm camera.

I may not be able to use filters without an adapter but I am very happy with my digital.

Many pros use the model of Nikon that I have and are very satisfied with their photos.

Digtal may not be for everybody but there are loads of satisfied photographers who are uisng digital.

You can't go by everything that you read because I am sure most of us have seen reviews of things and we wondered did they even read the instructions or use the product.

Don't you and I have the same camera? I have the Nikon 950 and the Nikon 5000, if memory serves you have the 5000.

 

[safetymom]

Gail, yes I have the Nikon Coolpix 5000. I love that camera. I just got back from shooting out in the Park.