Ektar 100 processed at CVS

Ektagraphic · Feb 17, 2009

Hello-
I had shot some photos that did not mean much...they were just a test so I brought them to CVS. I actually have done this twice. The first time was in a camera that I knew for sure worked. Tonight was with whole different story. I was trying to put some slides on a roll of C-41 film as a bit of an experiment. I really did not know what would happen. I handed the clerk a roll of Ektar 100 (I used Ektar both times..I really bought a little too much and I don't see my self using it all so I said what the heck I will just use some) and came back to pick them up one hour later. On both rolls (shot and processed a month apart) I got pics back that were pretty much completely blue and a few with some eerie red areas. What could this have been from? I have no way to scan them to see if it was the neg or print and I have not bothered to mail them off to a real lab yet. On both occasions the guy assured me that he had processed other rolls fine....Any ideas............

Chan Tran · Feb 17, 2009

Underdeveloped (i.e. weak developer, low temperature etc..) could cause a blue shift that can not be corrected during printing. Check the negative and see if the lettering at the film edge is as good as the other rolls you had good result with. Check the unexposed part of the neg and compare it with one from the good roll. Do the same for the part that has been exposed to light and received maximum exposure. They should be as dark as the good roll. If everything seems alright then just have them reprint.
I just realize that you don't have a good roll to compare.

Ektagraphic · Feb 18, 2009

I think the negs look okay....but then again I hardly ever shoot color neg so I don't have too much knowlege on the stuff. Slides are the way...that is why I was trying to print some. I will send the negs to my real lab and have some prints made to really see what is going on.

BobNewYork · Feb 18, 2009

Usually the blue cast is exhausted / under-replenished developer. Try having even just one neg printed somewhere else to check.

bob100684 · Feb 21, 2009

I'm willing to bet its not a chemical error, but a hardware error, something is wrong in the laser/mvla unit of their noritsu.

Ektagraphic · Feb 21, 2009

Actually, they don't even have a noritsu! They have some cheap mickey mouse chinese looking thing. I took down the name and model and I couldn't even find anyting on it online and it is almost brand new. (I saw it installed on a trip to CVS a few months ago)

bob100684 · Feb 22, 2009

Ektagraphic said:
Actually, they don't even have a noritsu! They have some cheap mickey mouse chinese looking thing. I took down the name and model and I couldn't even find anyting on it online and it is almost brand new. (I saw it installed on a trip to CVS a few months ago)

really? what is it? one of those KIS minilabs? Despite being a different brand, they all work more or less the same way, with the exception of dry minilabs....

Ektagraphic · Feb 22, 2009

I think it may be. Do you know if they are any good. I know they are all pretty much the same but the KIS (if it was) maybe has a bad scanner? I did have a few of my scans printed on that machine once and it was okay...

bob100684 · Feb 22, 2009

Ektagraphic said:
I think it may be. Do you know if they are any good. I know they are all pretty much the same but the KIS (if it was) maybe has a bad scanner? I did have a few of my scans printed on that machine once and it was okay...

There are several things that could be wrong, and yes a bad scanner is one of them. Though if all the photos on a roll showed up blue on the preview, I'd probably call tech support before printing them....and would hope that 99.999999% of other techs would too. We actually had a problem on a frontier I worked on that sounds similar to what you experienced with that ektar. The problem was one of the boards for the laser exposure system.

Ektagraphic · Feb 22, 2009

I am soooooo thankful to have an awesome pro lab!

FilmIs4Ever · Feb 23, 2009

KIS is French.

As to the negatives, unless you can post a scan of either a neg. or a print, there is really no way to trouble-shoot the film. . .

I would advise you to avoid CVS processing like the plague unless you personally know the processing personnel and they know what they are doing.

There is really no point in shooting film these days unless you have your negative processing done by a professional lab.

Ektagraphic · Mar 2, 2009

FilmIs4Ever said:
KIS is French.

As to the negatives, unless you can post a scan of either a neg. or a print, there is really no way to trouble-shoot the film. . .

I would advise you to avoid CVS processing like the plague unless you personally know the processing personnel and they know what they are doing.

There is really no point in shooting film these days unless you have your negative processing done by a professional lab.

I always use a pro lab, but I needed this done quickly and I mail in my film as there is no good local place.

srs5694 · Mar 3, 2009

The description of varying color shifts sounds to me like a light leak. Check the negatives to see if parts of the film that should be unexposed (around the sprocket holes, say) are exposed. There's a Walgreens near me that normally does decent work, except that the first frame or so sometimes suffers from light leaks like this.

More generally, I agree with others that CVS film processing is pretty bad. My nearest CVS always produces prints with a cyan cast (whether from film or from pre-scanned digital files). Presumably this is a calibration issue on their hardware. Once they swore up and down that they could process conventional B&W film, but they ran it through their 1-hour C-41 line and then blamed the blank roll on my camera.

Ektar 100 processed at CVS

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