Kodachrome at dwaynesphoto, how long?

jaimeb82 · Jun 5, 2009

I sent over my first film ever of Kodachrome last Friday and is not back yet. It was a really good experience to find colorful subjects, and I am sure the photos are crap but still can't wait to see them! Does someone that uses him thinks this is to long of a wait? I ordered the $5 CD also, believe that was 4 business days? I am not sure how people that develop lots of Kodachrome do this if it takes that long, is it because I am a new customer? I must have screwed up with the form credit card info maybe?

PhotoJim · Jun 5, 2009

It's only been a week. Patience.

My guess is that they do batches as film builds in quantity sufficiently, so it may be several days between batches at times.

I have 5 rolls to send (I'm mailing them home from Newfoundland to Saskatchewan first to save them the x-rays from airport security) and I expect it'll take 3 weeks or more in my case. You didn't state what country you're in which of course will make a difference, too.

kodachrome64 · Jun 5, 2009

Depending on where you're located you should count transit time. The CD adds 3 business days I think. If you hadn't selected the CD you would have it. I'm guessing most people don't get the CD because they aren't very good anyhow. If you figure a couple of days transit each way for regular mail, and 4 business days, I wouldn't expect to have it back in a week.

It's not that bad if you get the 1 business day turnaround on developing without the CD.

liquid695 · Jun 5, 2009

Dwaynes makes a very good job with my K14 slide film. Give them a try. Kodachrome slide film is great.
My turnaround time from SouthAmerica ( Chile) goes around between 10 to 14 days, I sent my K14 slide film, around 60 rolls per year, to Dwaynes ,since A&I closed in 2004 his K14 process machine. Dwaynes makes every time an excellent job.

jaimeb82 · Jun 5, 2009

Thanks guys, I am in New York, I have the feeling roll will arrive next week base on comments, looking forward to see those slides.

Chris Nielsen · Jun 6, 2009

Just count yourself lucky you don't live here in NZ... Exchange rate kills me, plus a week to get the film to Dwayne's, then a week to get it back, last time I foolishly ordered the CD and that took an extra week...

removed account4 · Jun 6, 2009

did you send it directly to happy d's ?
if it was through a 3rd party, it will be 2 weeks ...
it is shipped to and from via ground service which is a few days
a day to log in, a day to log out and a day to process ...
you can always call them, with your bag # and ask for an eta ...

railwayman3 · Jun 6, 2009

I'm in the UK, and it's usually somewhere in the region of 14 days turnround.
This is the process-prepaid film, which we post in the supplied mailer to Kodak, Switzerland, who courier the films to-and-from Dwaynes, then post back.
UK Royal Mail say to allow up 3 days each way for mail to Swizerland, so the film is with Kodak/Dwaynes about a week including its two trip across the pond. Assuming that Dwaynes work a 5-day week, the film can't be in the lab for more than a couple of days or so.
I'm happy with that timing....on the rare occasions my pics are more urgent, I just use E6 at local lab or processed myself.

StorminMatt · Jun 6, 2009

From here in California, it typically takes about six days to get slides back from Dwayne's. And that assumes I don't do anything that will take extra time, like getting a CD or push processing. I would think that the turnaround time (plus shipping) should be similar from New York.

Ektagraphic · Jun 6, 2009

Something must have gone wrong with the Post Office. I would get online tracking next time for only $0.62. From Massachusetts, it takes 5 days for one roll to be sent out and to come back to me. I would give Dwayne's a call and ask them if they even receieved it. Dwayne's is usually super speedy!

Sirius Glass · Jun 6, 2009

US Post Office tracking will only tell you that the Post Office got the package/letter and when it was delivered. It will not give transit data.

Steve

Ektagraphic · Jun 6, 2009

Well at least you will know that it has definatly been delivered. You will also know when it has been delievered...That's all I worry about. To me, it is worth the $0.62

BetterSense · Jun 6, 2009

I sent mine through walmart and it was a bit less than 2 weeks to Dallas.

Are the Dwayne's CDs all that bad? I shot a roll of kodachrome on vacation and was disappointed at the image quality of the scans I made with my Epson V500. The film itself might be fine but I like to send my images to my family, etc digitally. I haven't had any trouble scanning other slide films, so I'm not really impressed with Kodachrome at this point. Maybe I should try the Dwayne's CD? Can you get them through walmart?

PhotoJim · Jun 6, 2009

Kodachrome is a fantastic film for projection but it is a difficult film to scan. The scratch-reduction technologies that a lot of scanners have (like Nikon ICE) won't work on Kodachrome. That is part of the problem.

I'm eager to hear more opinions on the Dwayne's scanning, since I have 5 rolls to mail to the lab when I get home. (I'm typing this from St. John's (.nl.ca) International Airport's departure lounge, in fact. Home tonight. Amazing that you can fly west across Canada for 6 hours and still be a 2-hour flight from the west coast. )

MizBrown · Jun 6, 2009

I thought the Dwayne's scans were fine at the price. Sample here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rebecca_ore/3586468401/, others also tagged Kodachrome.

StorminMatt · Jun 6, 2009

BetterSense said:
I sent mine through walmart and it was a bit less than 2 weeks to Dallas.

Are the Dwayne's CDs all that bad? I shot a roll of kodachrome on vacation and was disappointed at the image quality of the scans I made with my Epson V500. The film itself might be fine but I like to send my images to my family, etc digitally. I haven't had any trouble scanning other slide films, so I'm not really impressed with Kodachrome at this point. Maybe I should try the Dwayne's CD? Can you get them through walmart?

From my experience, flatbeds just don't work well with slides of any kind (at least if you want any kind of REAL quality). A dedicated film scanner is needed to get any kind of quality results. Secondly, Silverfast is the only scanner software I have found that produces good results with Kodachrome when it comes to color. The colors seem to be off with virtually anything else, and require post-processing skills that are well beyond mine in order to correct. Finally, avoid dust reduction of any kind with Kodachrome. Just use an air bulb to get the slides as clean as possible, and clone out any remaining dust in photoshop.

PKM-25 · Jun 7, 2009

PhotoJim said:
My guess is that they do batches as film builds in quantity sufficiently, so it may be several days between batches at times.

They run it every business day, have plenty to run. I use Fed-X express saver or ground and get it back very fast.

dmr · Jun 8, 2009

I live about 200 miles north of Parsons, KS. If I get a roll of Kodachrome out in the Monday morning mail, it will always arrive back at home by Saturday at the latest, sometimes Friday, and once - surprise! - Thursday!

I have yet to try their CDs. I've heard they do a much better job processing Kodachrome than they do scanning it!

I've never had any trouble scanning Kodachrome slides, as long as the slides are properly exposed. Attention to detail, overall, is the secret.

jaimeb82 · Jun 8, 2009

dmr said:
I live about 200 miles north of Parsons, KS. If I get a roll of Kodachrome out in the Monday morning mail, it will always arrive back at home by Saturday at the latest, sometimes Friday, and once - surprise! - Thursday!

I have yet to try their CDs. I've heard they do a much better job processing Kodachrome than they do scanning it!

I've never had any trouble scanning Kodachrome slides, as long as the slides are properly exposed. Attention to detail, overall, is the secret.

I am going to try to call them today, I am getting paranoid I put film in a padded envelop, by the way I like your rangefinder series, amazing what you can do with those old cameras. I am entering the rangefinder world myself with a Super 23, it is just to heavy to carry around, to many cameras to little time.

Marc Akemann · Jun 8, 2009

I live in Michigan and get my Kodachrome slides from Dwayne's within 10 days consistently. Once or twice it took a just a little bit longer. 7 or 8 days is the average for me.

jglass · Jun 8, 2009

Dwayne's Scanning

I hate to say it, but I've had some low quality scans back from Dwayne's: shadows with excessive grain, color shifts to cyan/blue-green, and other issues. On perfectly exposed shots with low brightness range, the scans were fine. The slides on all shots were beautiful! It's apparently the more contrasty images that they have issues with. Maybe that's all scanners.

I contacted them and they very helpfully had me return the slides for a new free CD of scans, but to tell you the truth, the improvement was marginal.

I've had rotten scans on Kodachrome from my "pro" lab here also, who don't really care about altering settings for this film. There's another MORE pro lab I'll try, but they are expensive. I see gorgeous KR scans around the 'net and I suspect these are folks doing it themselves who know what they're doing.

I wish we could discuss scanning on APUG.......

Sirius Glass · Jun 8, 2009

Scans made by photo finishers tend to be just good enough to produce 4" x 6" prints and not much more. I found that I was better off going to the Epson website and buying a reconditioned photographic scanner for $100 including shipping.

Better off meaning that I could scan 16 bits of color to about 4,000dpi.

Steve

michaelbsc · Jun 8, 2009

Sirius Glass said:
I found that I was better off going to the Epson website and buying a reconditioned photographic scanner for $100 including shipping.

Let me second that. The $100 refurb unit at Epson was just the ticket for my needs. I bought one and couldn't be happer with it. And it does a swell job on Kodachrome, too. (And to show you how attached to it I am, I don't even remember the model number, so I can't tell you which one it is.)

Now I'll admit that all I do with the scanner is make "way better scans" than I would get at a processor, but certainly not anything I would try to pass off as professional work for publication. I don't publish, so it's not an issue. My friends and family think it's awesome, and when cousins take the emailed pics to Wal-Mart or CVS to print they come out better than their own digital camera. That's good enough for me.

And since I process all my own stuff except K-14, I can't blame anyone else.

But you have to keep in mind that for me it's a hobby, not an income stream. If this put food on my table instead of burning up my entertainment money I might think differently abut the Epson consumer grade scanner.

MB

Sirius Glass · Jun 8, 2009

michaelbsc said:
(And to show you how attached to it I am, I don't even remember the model number, so I can't tell you which one it is.)

Mine happens to be a Epson 4490 Photo.

Steve

dmr · Jun 8, 2009

jaimeb82 said:
by the way I like your rangefinder series, amazing what you can do with those old cameras.

Thanks. {blush}

Not to hijack the thread, but one thing I really believe is that the combination of 1970s glass and 21st. century film is a sweet spot that's hard to beat! Those cameras were made when "High Speed" Ektachrome was ASA 160 and Kodachrome was 25. The cameras of that vintage and the films of the current vintage just compliment each other.

Kodachrome at dwaynesphoto, how long?

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