Big-W stopping film processing.

patpat · Jul 27, 2012

There appears to be one less option for El Cheapo processing.
I went into Big-W Geelong, to get some cheap Fuji Superia Reala to be developed. When I got there I saw that they have upgraded their lab to a new Fuji machine. It is wet lab, but they have dumped the separate film development unit. They are now sending film out.
I wonder if this is rolling out nationally?

SkipA · Jul 27, 2012

I'm not familiar with Big-W. I don't think we have those in Texas.

munz6869 · Jul 27, 2012

Not that I've ever processed film there, but I'll check out the Big W in the city (Melbourne) & report...

Marc!

hoffy · Jul 27, 2012

Why are people suprised by this?

patpat · Jul 29, 2012

I was talking to the attendant there, and they said that they actually got a large volume of film, as they were one of the only places left that consumers know that do film. In-fact they were so busy once with film there, they could not do it the same day. I only use them when I want something done quick and cheaply. Otherwise I send my colour C-41 out to other local camera stores, to keep local film processing an option. Most of the times there I got scratched negatives anyway.

polyglot · Jul 29, 2012

SkipA said:
I'm not familiar with Big-W. I don't think we have those in Texas.

I'm not familiar with Texas. I don't think we have those in Australia

Yamaotoko · Jul 29, 2012

polyglot said:
I'm not familiar with Texas. I don't think we have those in Australia

...I know I've never seen one!

patpat · Jul 29, 2012

I think there is one Small-Texas over in Queensland.

Poisson Du Jour · Jul 29, 2012

If you go to Big W, you are either looking for pillows, mince meat and batteries. It's news to me that Big W offered film processing — I'm amazed at the revelation. If you are in Geelong, Roydhouse Cameras still process C41, but not E6. I do not deal with them: very negative attitude toward film and film cameras and will NOT stock Fujifilm.

patpat · Jul 29, 2012

Big-W were good if you liked scratched negatives . I had some bad experiences with Roydhouse. They said the film will be ready in a hour. Come back in 3, and my film was not sleeved. I did not use them much. But if I was testing a new, film camera I inherited, I would use them.

Steve Smith · Jul 29, 2012

polyglot said:
I'm not familiar with Texas. I don't think we have those in Australia

We used to have Texas in England. It was a chain of DIY stores.

Steve.

Wyno · Jul 29, 2012

If you were forced to listen to Lee Kernaghan on a road trip (as I was) you'd know that there was Texas QLD. Fortunately Jenni's son now has his own car.
I think you'd probably be better off sending your negs to Bonds for processing. It might be a little more expensive and take a little longer, but the results are good every time. (And no, I don't work there).

patpat · Jul 29, 2012

Most of the time I send it out to other labs anyway. I have had some good experiences at bond. I must get some test photos done, and compare the labs results.

Poisson Du Jour · Jul 29, 2012

Or take the stuff to PRISM in North Melbourne. They're doing my C-41 and E6.

Ross Chambers · Jul 30, 2012

At a desperate time of my life I worked for the late Rabbit Photo as a casual. One of their processing setups in which I spent a day or two was right in the front ground floor of (from shaky memory) Meyer? Perhaps Big W? in Warringah Mall in Sydney. It was quite odd to be feeding a neg processing machine in the middle of a department store surrounded by folk shopping for kids' toys and socks and undies.

Fortunately this particular set-up worked fairly cleanly--although the shop staff used to complain about chemical smells--unlike the Circular Quay shop where the stale discharged chemistry slowly filled a drum which had to be changed a couple of times a day. There was no experience to match being nice to a customer while seeing out of the corner of your eye a slowly advancing pool of chemistry leaking out of an overflowing drum. It made it out of the shop and onto the footpath once. The North Sydney branch was well designed: it had 2 entrances which allowed an endless stream of commuters exiting the railway station to take a shortcut and distribute lots and lots of dust and grit.

Who can blame Big W for pulling out!

Yamaotoko · Aug 1, 2012

patpat said:
had some bad experiences with Roydhouse. They said the film will be ready in a hour. Come back in 3, and my film was not sleeved. I did not use them much. But if I was testing a new, film camera I inherited, I would use them.

I've actually had a couple good experiences with them, one involved getting some film developed, the youngish guy was eager to please. Another time they had a set of 6" Ilford MG filters at what must have been the 3" price, grabbed them, thankyouverymuch! Another time, I had run out of fixer (thought I had another bottle in the stash), ran down there and they were something like $25/1L for Ilford, I said "WHAT??? I only pay $15 at the place I usually go to, I'll just wait till I can get back there" (slight embellishment, I think Vanbar was closer to $20), the guy said, "no, wait, I reckon I can do it for $15 then".

Two very cheap shopping sessions... Thanks Royds!

Colin D · Aug 15, 2012

It so happens Big W in the city is a 5 minute walk from my work so I use them to do my c-41 and as of last week they were still happy to do it. There are an awful lot of international students living in that area, I think they keep the film side of things ticking over enough to make it viable. It is a cheap and quick service. Tomorrow I will drop another roll into them and report back.

LJH · Aug 15, 2012

+1 for Prism. Always helpful and good results.

BrianShaw · Aug 15, 2012

You guys don"t know what your missing -- Texas is great!

Colin D · Aug 15, 2012

Ok, just dropped another roll of Port Douglas holdiay snaps in to Big W at QV, they're still doing it with a smile and at $5 a pop for 36 exposures.

Yamaotoko · Aug 15, 2012

Colin D said:
...and at $5 a pop for 36 exposures.

Wow, that's pretty good, what sort of turnaround?

LJH · Aug 16, 2012

Colin D said:
Ok, just dropped another roll of Port Douglas holdiay snaps in to Big W at QV, they're still doing it with a smile and at $5 a pop for 36 exposures.

You shot 36 sheets on the Linhof whilst on holiday!??!?!?

quickbrownfox · Aug 16, 2012

i went to my usual Big W (warrawong) last week and they have removed the c41 machine when they had renovations 2 weeks ago. The lady was very apologetic, she knew a bit about film and had been a great help when the local Camera house was less than pathetic. she said head office had decided to discontinue film processing but she could send it out and for $10 and a 2 week wait i could still have it done there... lol. She did say the Dapto store had had renovations earlier on in the year before the decision to discontinue so they had a machine there, and when i went there, sure enough, $5 a roll negatives only and a couple of hours turn around depending on how busy they were. The lady there also stated once that machine broke down, they would not be repairing it.
hope this helps everyone as im shooting as much c41 as i can before its all over.

Poisson Du Jour · Aug 16, 2012

Colin D said:
Ok, just dropped another roll of Port Douglas holdiay snaps in to Big W at QV, they're still doing it with a smile and at $5 a pop for 36 exposures.

What!? Do you mean the QV Centre in Swanston or Russell Street?? That's interesting. $5.00!? That's cheap!!

Colin D · Aug 16, 2012

LJH said:
You shot 36 sheets on the Linhof whilst on holiday!??!?!?

Hahaha, funny man, if only I could afford to lug the Linhof up there and back, and keep my marriage in tact, so unfortunately I had the Pentax MZ-5n with the exceptionally crappy Sigma 28-80mm lens.

BTW LHJ, I am about to self develop C-41 4x5 film, feeling a tad nervous about the prospect. Do you know where I can get some cheap storage bottles for the chems, I have tried a couple of op shops but no cigar.

Big-W stopping film processing.

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