Anyone used Walmart's send-off processing recently?

markaudacity · Jul 7, 2017

I used to use Walmart's send-out processing extensively for color and 120 stuff a few years ago, but I don't see any mention of it past about 2013.

Does anyone know if they still offer this service? I can't ask Walmart, obvs, since they neither pay nor tell their employees anything.

GRHazelton · Jul 7, 2017

From what I heard from an "old hand" at WalMart about 3 years ago the film is developed, scanned, prints made, a CD of the images and the prints are made available to the user, and the negatives are DESTROYED! She, the old hand, was disgusted as was I. Of course the images were sent "over the wire" to the user's store, resulting in a savings for .... WalMart! What a surprise! How disgusting to destroy the negatives for the savings in mail or courier service. And sadly the general public doesn't know how they're being cheated.

In the past Eckard and CVS furnished at least adequate processing and printing, but no more. I tried CVS near me. The turn-around time added up to about two weeks, and the quality was abysmal. Our local Costco no longer offers film service; indeed the local "business" Costco doesn't furnish photo printing services. Prior to the change to the "business" model our Costco had a very knowledgeable manager; she knew about profiles, etc. The prints were excellent, BW prints made from a BW negative I scanned in were neutral, which I consider a good test.

Harry Stevens · Jul 7, 2017

GRHazelton said:
From what I heard from an "old hand" at WalMart about 3 years ago the film is developed, scanned, prints made, a CD of the images and the prints are made available to the user, and the negatives are DESTROYED! She, the old hand, was disgusted as was I. Of course the images were sent "over the wire" to the user's store, resulting in a savings for .... WalMart! What a surprise! How disgusting to destroy the negatives for the savings in mail or courier service. And sadly the general public doesn't know how they're being cheated.

Good god that's like buying a lobster meal in an expensive sea food restaurant and them just giving you the empty shell...

removed account4 · Jul 7, 2017

CALL FUJI
( call a rite aid or wall mart and ask them for the phone number on the film processing envelope )
from what they told me about 30 days ago ... as long as it is not 35mm c/41 they process it and return negatives and prints.
MAYBE they have changed their MO since then .. not sure. time and photograpy is fluid

Sirius Glass · Jul 7, 2017

Harry Stevens said:
Good god that's like buying a lobster meal in an expensive sea food restaurant and them just giving you the empty shell...

At least you get the lobster shell, CDs do not even make a decent Frisbee.

mshchem · Jul 7, 2017

I noticed this about a year ago during a yearly voyage to the temple of doom. What kind of nitwit would use a lab when you don't get the negatives? Walmart makes crappy prints too. Jeez, there ought to be a law.
Mike

removed account4 · Jul 7, 2017

mshchem said:
I noticed this about a year ago during a yearly voyage to the temple of doom. What kind of nitwit would use a lab when you don't get the negatives? Walmart makes crappy prints too. Jeez, there ought to be a law.
Mike

IDK for about 10 years we did send out to fuji labs and
it was as good as if not better than some of the local labs
for half the price. no NIT WIT involved but
someone who is a trained pro who wanted to save $5-10$ / roll
when the market contracted a few years ago
the FUJIlab that went from CT to NY went to CO and they stopped
returning the film because WALMART didn't want to pay for return potage
on NON-SPECIAL ORDER flm ( anything but 35mm c41 ). this was true for walmart
sams club cvs, walgreens and probably others that used fuji as a send out lab seeing
kodak took the dirt nap. some pharmacies like RITE AID do not have the set-up
to down load the images instead of receiving back the negatives. SO there is some hope.
contact FUJI thought the PHONENUMBER on the FILM BAG to make sure EVERYTHING will be RETURNED

mshchem · Jul 8, 2017

jnanian said:
IDK for about 10 years we did send out to fuji labs and
it was as good as if not better than some of the local labs
for half the price. no NIT WIT involved but
someone who is a trained pro who wanted to save $5-10$ / roll
when the market contracted a few years ago
the FUJIlab that went from CT to NY went to CO and they stopped
returning the film because WALMART didn't want to pay for return potage
on NON-SPECIAL ORDER flm ( anything but 35mm c41 ). this was true for walmart
sams club cvs, walgreens and probably others that used fuji as a send out lab seeing
kodak took the dirt nap. some pharmacies like RITE AID do not have the set-up
to down load the images instead of receiving back the negatives. SO there is some hope.
contact FUJI thought the PHONENUMBER on the FILM BAG to make sure EVERYTHING will be RETURNED

I guess I'm lucky. I have 2 really great local shops, University Camera in Iowa City and Photo Pro in Cedar Rapids Iowa. They do everything in house. University Camera still does black and white processing. Still I develop my own film, contact print and do enlargements. In the way back I would send everything to Kodak (pre Qualex ) the 3 1/2 ×5 prints from Ektacolor S would be stunning. And of course they would do all my Kodachrome.
Having a darkroom that has taken me 50 years to accumulate, I am lucky that I can process pretty much everything.
Things have changed so much. Mike

Harry Stevens · Jul 8, 2017

In the good old days they had to send you the negs because your returned photos often came with prices and offers for enlargements from your negatives, I read horror stories of hipsters developing scanning then dumping the negs...

choiliefan · Jul 8, 2017

My local Walmart still has the film drop box and envelopes. Old buddy behind the counter says its now a two-week turnaround. Wonder if they still contract with Dwayne's? If you want to bypass Wallworld, contact Dwayne's directly. Never had any problem with them.

chassis · Jul 8, 2017

Local CVS here in southeastern Pennsylvania sends film somewhere in the southeast, to North Carolina I believe. Surprising that there isn't a processing lab in CVS' network that is closer to the population center of DC-Phila-NYC.

Unique Photo in central/northern New Jersey has a proper lab that handles black and white, and C-41 with Jobo ATL or Fuji equipment. I am not aware if they process 4x5 or larger film.

winger · Jul 8, 2017

There are several labs that process C-41, E6, and B&W if mailed to them. Yes, you have to pay for postage and the labs aren't as cheap as Walmart, but you do get what you pay for in most cases. I don't mind paying the extra 'cause I don't shoot a ton of color film and I like it done right when I do. There's Praus in Rochester, NY, Blue Moon in Portland, OR, and a few others. I've used those two and had fantastic negs. I don't have them scan, so I don't know how they do on that score.

removed account4 · Jul 8, 2017

mshchem said:
I guess I'm lucky. I have 2 really great local shops, University Camera in Iowa City and Photo Pro in Cedar Rapids Iowa. They do everything in house. University Camera still does black and white processing. Still I develop my own film, contact print and do enlargements. In the way back I would send everything to Kodak (pre Qualex ) the 3 1/2 ×5 prints from Ektacolor S would be stunning. And of course they would do all my Kodachrome.
Having a darkroom that has taken me 50 years to accumulate, I am lucky that I can process pretty much everything.
Things have changed so much. Mike

sounds like you are lucky alright !
we used to have a cornucopia of prolabs but
the person down the road from me is the last one .
she used to send things downtown ( e6 / b+w ) but those days are gone.
now its mail order to beantown or nyc .. and it ain't cheap ! ...
when we used to have fuji ( through sams/wallys ) do it it was less than $4 for doubles
and they'd process movie film ( 8+16mm ) for $4.88/100feet ..
if you drop your film off at rite aid they will return negatives and prints. they send to fuji+dwaynes too.

mshchem · Jul 8, 2017

jnanian said:
sounds like you are lucky alright !
we used to have a cornucopia of prolabs but
the person down the road from me is the last one .
she used to send things downtown ( e6 / b+w ) but those days are gone.
now its mail order to beantown or nyc .. and it ain't cheap ! ...
when we used to have fuji ( through sams/wallys ) do it it was less than $4 for doubles
and they'd process movie film ( 8+16mm ) for $4.88/100feet ..
if you drop your film off at rite aid they will return negatives and prints. they send to fuji+dwaynes too.

I just got back from University Camera in Iowa City, I talked with Roger the owner, he's been in same location since mid 70's. You walk around and see all the new stuff. Then I will stumble onto some cans of Microdol-X !!. I was down in the basement the other day there's a box of Seed's Dry Plates, unopened box of (I think 4x5) glass plates from the 20's ?? The place is worth the drive. Iowa City is a great town. Roger got rid of his E-6 operation about 5 years back. But everything else is fully operational. Today some fellow brought in 20 plus rolls of film develop and scan. Always nice young college people working there, and a couple crusty old guys like me that work part time. I told Roger today, that I wouldn't have a reason to get out of bed in the morning if he closed. It's really an institution, and Icon for our town.
I bet I've spent 50,000 bucks there over the years, almost all used. Equipment is mostly Ebayed now, just not enough street traffic. But if you don't see it ask, If they don't have it, prepare to drive to Chicago.
It's a Wonderful Life in Iowa City!
Best Regards, Mike

dmr · Jul 9, 2017

Walgreens is the same way. No negatives! Excuse me! ?????

My guess is that they are only going for the very casual happy-snapper disposable camera market and don't really want any serious (translated, insist on quality processing) amateur business.

railwayman3 · Jul 9, 2017

Some years ago I had a friend who was just a casual photographer; when she had a film processed and printed she just kept the "good" photos and binned the poor ones and all the negs. I was rather horrified.

But....on the other hand she had several large photo albums, going back about 20 years, with all the "good" pictures nicely mounted, dated and described, and making a fascinating record of family events to browse through on a winter evening.

I wonder, sometimes, whether this approach is better than my piles of boxes of slides, prints and negs, lots never even printed, and many that will never be looked at again.

MattKing · Jul 9, 2017

dmr said:
Walgreens is the same way. No negatives! Excuse me! ?????

My guess is that they are only going for the very casual happy-snapper disposable camera market and don't really want any serious (translated, insist on quality processing) amateur business.

I expect that they only offer film processing of any kind:
1) because they can, without increasing their costs significantly, as long as they don't have to pay shipping costs each way; and
2) because if they stopped offering it, it would alienate a small number of customers.

removed account4 · Jul 9, 2017

matt
walmart, like walgreens and rite aid get film picked up once ever 2 weeks.
each of the stores mentioned ( except rite aid ) has bought into a computer system
where they are linked to fuji in colorado ( i think that is where theyare now, they used to be in Connecticut then NY then the NC, and CO maybe they
closed that lab down too ? ) anyhow, unless it is a special order ( special order = ANYTHING BUT 35mm c41 ) they process and scan and beam
the files to walgreens and walmart. on site they make dye sub prints a the time of pickup.
the ther stuff ( non c41.35mm ) goes to dwaynes
and negatives AND prints are returned. rite aid is not part of the file beaming system,they get the negatives returned, but im not sure how long this will be
because the rite aids were bought out by the walgreens .. so that might change too ..
while it is a PITA in general not to get negatives returned, if someone has a scanner they can make
denser likenesses of the prints. im thinking gas+pollution and jetfuel+pollution savings ( carbon footprint / greenhouse gasses ) offsets
the not returning the negatives.

Wallendo · Jul 9, 2017

I wonder how many "casual photographers" actually ever used their negatives?

I suspect the majority of Wal-Mart customers are happy with just prints and scans. I fortunately saved most of my negatives (a few were lost while off at college and post-grad), but prior to scanning them for archival purposes a few years ago, only a few negatives were actually used. I found a packet of negatives by themselves and took them to Wal-Mart to have prints made. Interestingly, when I picked up those prints they rekindled my love of photography which had faded for several years when I thought that video was the way of the future.

I miss Wally World's one hour photo. It was great for casual rolls and testing new cameras before taking a trip. I don't use their current developing services. If film is going to be mailed off, I'd just as soon mail it off myself from home.

Hubigpielover · Jul 9, 2017

I miss my local lab. They have been gone for a long time but it was nice to be able to drop off film and get feed back from a knowledgable individual. If I was stupid rich, I would start a used camera and darkroom store with a lab.

chassis · Jul 9, 2017

Funny "local lab" memory for me. When I started C-41 processing this year, the smell of the bleach and the fixer took me back more than 20 years to Adray Camera in Dearborn, Michigan, where my medium format experience started. Adray was my local lab and the place smelled like C-41. I hadn't thought of that place in many years. Now every time I pour the bleach into the tank I am fondly reminded of where it all began for me.

Hubigpielover · Jul 9, 2017

chassis said:
Funny "local lab" memory for me. When I started C-41 processing this year, the smell of the bleach and the fixer took me back more than 20 years to Adray Camera in Dearborn, Michigan, where my medium format experience started. Adray was my local lab and the place smelled like C-41. I hadn't thought of that place in many years. Now every time I pour the bleach into the tank I am fondly reminded of where it all began for me.

That is an awesome smell.

Paul Howell · Jul 9, 2017

I am lucky as I still have 2 local labs, Tempe Camera and Wilson's just a few block from my home here in Scottsdale Az, as matter of fact I have 3 rolls to drop off next week. Tempe Camera still process E-6, takes a while as they only run E 6 once or twice a week. In terms of mail order, I have used Blue Moon and the results were very good.

mshchem · Jul 9, 2017

chassis said:
Funny "local lab" memory for me. When I started C-41 processing this year, the smell of the bleach and the fixer took me back more than 20 years to Adray Camera in Dearborn, Michigan, where my medium format experience started. Adray was my local lab and the place smelled like C-41. I hadn't thought of that place in many years. Now every time I pour the bleach into the tank I am fondly reminded of where it all began for me.

Yes, C-41 smells good, but for the real thing you need to get a hold of the old C-22, E-3, E-4 hardeners, Formaldehyde and methyl alcohol, Now that was the good stuff. I do know what you mean . I love the smells that come out of a Real camera store.

Anyone used Walmart's send-off processing recently?

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