Just plaine had it with Dwayne's B&W, C-41, ...

Steve Roberts · Nov 28, 2007

copake_ham said:
Sorry to have to revive this thread but I just got back a roll of Velvia 100F from Dwayne's - which now does all the Fujichrome mailers (of which I still have a bunch).

Look at how filthy this slide is! It was only taken from the box for scanning - it has come directly from Dwayne's.

This is a rip-off operation to send out finished product like this!

You're lucky! I wish the rolls of Kodachrome that Dwaynes processed for me back in the summer had "only" been that bad. Dirt, crud, squiffy mounting and scratches in abundance all contributed to me abandoning Kodachrome and selling my small remaining stock of K25 (a healthy return for my investment!) Throughout the thread(s) on Dwayne's there have been various attempts/offers to get the firm to comment but nothing has been forthcoming. I can only assume that they are keeping their collective heads down, but they won't last long if they turn out work such as we've experienced.

Steve

Snapshot · Nov 28, 2007

Steve Roberts said:
You're lucky! I wish the rolls of Kodachrome that Dwaynes processed for me back in the summer had "only" been that bad. Dirt, crud, squiffy mounting and scratches in abundance all contributed to me abandoning Kodachrome and selling my small remaining stock of K25 (a healthy return for my investment!) Throughout the thread(s) on Dwayne's there have been various attempts/offers to get the firm to comment but nothing has been forthcoming. I can only assume that they are keeping their collective heads down, but they won't last long if they turn out work such as we've experienced.

Steve

Luxury! They had stomped all over my K64, sprinkled it with bird feces and had me fired from my job. Just kidding. I couldn't resist as the thread was starting to sound like a Monty Python skit.

Michael W · Nov 28, 2007

I got some film back from Dwayne's recently - K25, 64 & 200. 8 rolls total plus a roll of K40 super 8. Processing was good & all film was clean & done just as I asked. I've given them several orders with no problems & will continue to use them.

ben-s · Nov 28, 2007

A friend of mine shot her last roll of kodachrome recently, and asked me to scan the resulting slides, as I have a dedicated film scanner.
I was amazed at how badly they were handled. I finished up demounting about 11 of them from the cardboard mounts, as they were badly skewed in the mounts.
All of the slides were dirty and needed a lot of cleaning and then retouching.
I'm sad to say it's probably the worst film processing/handling I've ever seen

Steve Roberts · Nov 28, 2007

Snapshot said:
Luxury! They had stomped all over my K64, sprinkled it with bird feces and had me fired from my job. Just kidding. I couldn't resist as the thread was starting to sound like a Monty Python skit.

So you think YOU had it hard!!
They actually digitised mine and emailed them to me as a RAW file (whatever THAT is!)

Steve ;-)

zenrhino · Nov 30, 2007

I'll second Digigraphics (aka Photos, Inc.) here in the Twin Cities. If I get the rolls in by 9am or so, they always have them done by 230pm. C-41 is even faster, usually just 3 hours.

Any flaws I've seen on film I get back from Digi -- well, those are user-induced.

Sirius Glass · Nov 30, 2007

zenrhino said:
Any flaws I've seen on film I get back from Digi -- well, those are user-induced.

Is that like Operator Assisted Failure? [OAF, as in the OAF did this, the OAF did that]

Steve

FilmIs4Ever · Nov 30, 2007

Dwayne's for K-14 vs. Dwayne's for E-6 et al.

I've only used Dwaynes for K-14, so I cannot rightly comment on their other services, but I have had near-perfect processing from Dwayne's, with the exception of a slide they cut in half. This was my fault, as I rewound the roll and then finished it without marking the exact framing between the sprockets, and then never bothered to mention this when I sent the order in.

As far as E-6 goes, let me just say that sending E-6 to Kansas is silly. I have a lab here near Cleveland, CR Photo, that does a SUPERB job with E-6; they've consistantly met my needs, be they two hour turnaround on E-6 late in the day, high resolution TIF scans of slides for $3, push, pull no problem. They use a Wing Lynch (sp?) machine that is spiral reel-loaded for no-scratch, one shot processing (the best way IMHO) and I think they go up to 5x7" sizes for their E-6. Reasonable prices too. If anyone is interested their URL is

www.crphoto.net

and they take mail orders. They even have some sort of club (although I am too much a pain in the neck to receive benefits) where you get 10 or 20% off if you are a volume customer. Again, if you are a hastle though they will charge you more What impresses the hell out of me about this lab is that they actually care about their customers. In times I've been in a tight spot getting deadlines met they have really bent over backwards to help me out. Between this lab and my own equipment, I am pretty much done with all the "pro" labs and their hastles

~KB

BTW, to my knowledge, they are the last photo lab that actually prints optically in the greater Cleveland area, and they can print on several different paper surfaces up to 11x14, so this is my all around favorite lab ever

copake_ham · Dec 1, 2007

FilmIs4Ever said:
.....

As far as E-6 goes, let me just say that sending E-6 to Kansas is silly. ......

What you do not seem to understand is that I have a bunch of Fujichrome mailers.

Fuji has OUTSOURCED their E-6 processing to Dwayne's!

It's not that I am choosing to send my chromes to Dwayne's. I have no choice unless I want to "eat" the cost of the Fujichrome mailers and go somewhere else.

At the end of the day, I blame Fuji for outsourcing to this crappy processor without insisting on decent QC!

BrianShaw · Dec 1, 2007

copake_ham said:
What you do not seem to understand is that I have a bunch of Fujichrome mailers.

Why don't you dump them on ebay?

FilmIs4Ever · Dec 1, 2007

BrianShaw said:
Why don't you dump them on ebay?

Why did you buy mailers to begin with?

Regardless of your purchase, if the processing is not up to your specifications, why on EARTH would you continue to send work to them.

Further, why would you send important work to a lab without testing them first.

I don't care if you are a hobbyist or a professional, it is essential to use reliable processing. If labs won't provide it, then do it yourself, but don't keep sending more film to a lab that is doing bad work.

I don't think you should even put the mailers up on ebay if you feel their processing is that bad. Why dump your problem on another person?

~KB

BrianShaw · Dec 1, 2007

FilmIs4Ever said:
I don't think you should even put the mailers up on ebay if you feel their processing is that bad. Why dump your problem on another person?

Perhaps Dwayne's quality is good enough for someone else who shoots Fujichrome. Not everyone is dis-satisfied with Dwaynes processing.

rwyoung · Dec 1, 2007

FilmIs4Ever said:
Why did you buy mailers to begin with?

Copake_ham can answer this definitively himself (and I'm sure he will) but ...

He travels a lot? Especially to "remote" areas.
Up until recently, they worked out great?
His volume of processing was such that paying a fixed price now holds off future price increases?

Those are just the first three reasons I came up with to consider mailers.

Rob

FilmIs4Ever · Dec 2, 2007

rwyoung said:
Copake_ham can answer this definitively himself (and I'm sure he will) but ...

He travels a lot? Especially to "remote" areas.
Up until recently, they worked out great?
His volume of processing was such that paying a fixed price now holds off future price increases?

Those are just the first three reasons I came up with to consider mailers.

Rob

And what advantage does having a mailer have over dropping the film off at just about any CVS, Walgreens, Wal-Mart on the planet and having the same thing done or mailing the film himself?

There's practically no price saving, and if the lab is bad, you're out the money. So this seems like a bad investment no matter what getting mailers.

This forum is supposedly home to devoted film enthusiasts, yet I can't believe the sort of rookie things some of you do, especially after investing so much money in shooting slide film to begin with.

The National Geographic guys that shoot E6 certainly aren't dropping their precious slides into mailers to send to an undisclosed lab. . .

FilmIs4Ever · Dec 2, 2007

BrianShaw said:
Perhaps Dwayne's quality is good enough for someone else who shoots Fujichrome. Not everyone is dis-satisfied with Dwaynes processing.

Brian, I'M not dissatisfied with Dwayne's processing, but Christ with all the gripes coming from these thread if I felt the way he did I would burn the mailers, not sell them.

Just one more hint though guys: Dust, scratches and processing defects are part of shooting film. Deal with it. NASA almost ruined the film from Apollo 11 in their custom lab. If you expect modern labs to operate at 100% perfection, then go digital and save the film shooters who actually know how film works the mindnumbing complaints.

dslater · Dec 2, 2007

FilmIs4Ever said:
And what advantage does having a mailer have over dropping the film off at just about any CVS, Walgreens, Wal-Mart on the planet and having the same thing done or mailing the film himself?

There's practically no price saving, and if the lab is bad, you're out the money. So this seems like a bad investment no matter what getting mailers.

This forum is supposedly home to devoted film enthusiasts, yet I can't believe the sort of rookie things some of you do, especially after investing so much money in shooting slide film to begin with.

The National Geographic guys that shoot E6 certainly aren't dropping their precious slides into mailers to send to an undisclosed lab. . .

I'm not so sure these places still offer E-6 processing anymore - even if they did, I wouldn't trust any of them with my film - I recently went back and looked at film I had processed at Rite-Aid - I actually had used the Kodak mailer - not the 1 hour processing and it was awful scratched and covered with goobers. If you want your film handled properly you need to send it to a professional lab - which I think Dwayne's claims to be. Also, I believe George stated he bought the mailers when Fuji was actually doing the processing and he was quite satisfied with Fuji's results.
I did get very good results from A&I, but at $20.00 a roll, they're quite pricey. This the main reason why I got myself a Jobo and do all my own processing.

FilmIs4Ever · Dec 2, 2007

dslater said:
I'm not so sure these places still offer E-6 processing anymore - even if they did, I wouldn't trust any of them with my film - I recently went back and looked at film I had processed at Rite-Aid - I actually had used the Kodak mailer - not the 1 hour processing and it was awful scratched and covered with goobers.

You didn't read my post thoroughly. . .

I said you could drop them off at any of these locations and have "the same thing done", i.e. the same out-lab service you'd get from a mailer. Any lab supported by Fuji has the equivalent of Fuji mailers and any lab supported by Kodak has the equivalent of Kodak mailers.

I agree with you though that it is best to do your own processing, as long as you have the volume and proper equipment to do it.

BrianShaw · Dec 2, 2007

FilmIs4Ever said:
Brian, I'M not dissatisfied with Dwayne's processing, but Christ with all the gripes coming from these thread if I felt the way he did I would burn the mailers, not sell them.

You really need to be addressing this to George, Mr. Blessing.

dslater · Dec 2, 2007

FilmIs4Ever said:
You didn't read my post thoroughly. . .

I said you could drop them off at any of these locations and have "the same thing done", i.e. the same out-lab service you'd get from a mailer. Any lab supported by Fuji has the equivalent of Fuji mailers and any lab supported by Kodak has the equivalent of Kodak mailers.

I agree with you though that it is best to do your own processing, as long as you have the volume and proper equipment to do it.

I did read you post - but my response wasn't clear - I don't think they even offer sending E-6 out any more.

sbelyaev · Dec 2, 2007

Dwayne did such a poor job (destroyed) with my b&w film that I learned how to develop film. Now I'm really good in film processing. Thank you Dwayne!

The color film negs. and slides were poorly processed/printed as well. Subsequently I tried A&I. After I had received the pictures/slides from A&I I sold my digital cameras (except for M8). I'm grateful to Dwayne for directing me to A&I.

Steve Roberts · Dec 3, 2007

FilmIs4Ever said:
Just one more hint though guys: Dust, scratches and processing defects are part of shooting film. QUOTE]

Clearly that's where my local lab is going wrong - it returns E6 slides too well mounted and with insufficient dirt, gunge and scratches!

>>>If you expect modern labs to operate at 100% perfection,

No, 99.9% will be just fine for me! Dwaynes' 5% does fall a little short of the mark, though.

Steve ;-)

rwyoung · Dec 3, 2007

FilmIs4Ever said:
And what advantage does having a mailer have over dropping the film off at just about any CVS, Walgreens, Wal-Mart on the planet and having the same thing done or mailing the film himself?

Care to guess where that film/E-6 might end up when you drop off at the above...

copake_ham · Dec 3, 2007

Who the heck is this guy "FilmIS4Ever"?

What an obnoxious person.

For whatever reasons I purchased Fujichrome mailers and I did so with the expectation that Fuji would process them. We have a contract.

Then Fuji chose to exit the business line and outsource the contracted service to Dwayne's. Presumably, Fuji chose to do so under the expectation that Dwayne's would provide as good a service as had been the case when processed in-house.

I've been through nearly a dozen rolls now - and not only is QC not good - it has been deteriorating. Others have reported the same.

Now as to the poster FilmIs4Ever. I do not know who you are, nor do I care to know or ever meet you. You are rude. Please do me the favor of putting my name on your Ignore list. I am certainly going to do the same with you.

dslater · Dec 3, 2007

What I find interesting is that before Fuji outsourced their processing to Dwaynes, they had a very good reputation - which I believe is why Fuji chose them. I think what's happened here is Dwaynes underestimated the amount work they'd be taking on and now they're overwhelmed - probably had to hire a bunch of inexperienced help to handle the extra workload. Perhaps people with Fuji mailers should be complaining to Fuji directly - after all it's their reputation that's on the line here.

copake_ham · Dec 3, 2007

dslater said:
What I find interesting is that before Fuji outsourced their processing to Dwaynes, they had a very good reputation - which I believe is why Fuji chose them. I think what's happened here is Dwaynes underestimated the amount work they'd be taking on and now they're overwhelmed - probably had to hire a bunch of inexperienced help to handle the extra workload. Perhaps people with Fuji mailers should be complaining to Fuji directly - after all it's their reputation that's on the line here.

I agree completely.

Which is what I said in reply to "Film4...." in post #34.

Ultimately, the problem rests at Fuji's doorstep - although I doubt they will be responsive.

But that doesn't excuse the rude and obnoxious comments that followed. Comments that would also suggest that I should just screw someone else by selling the mailers on eBay full well knowing that the buyer would get lousy processing!

You don't need to be a paragon of moral virtue to realize what a sleazy recommendation that is.

Just plaine had it with Dwayne's B&W, C-41, ...

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