Process paid Sensia ends Friday

blockend · Oct 27, 2014

A reminder to anyone who still has process paid Fuji Sensia envelopes, the UK lab ceases it's Fuji link on Friday. After October 31st 2014 the Leeds address will process E6 at normal cost, your paid envelopes will no longer be honoured.

In the face of radical cutbacks in film production, the end of pre-paid slide processing is a small, if sentimental, watershed in film history. As a once prolific user of process inclusive transparency films such as Kodachrome and Fuji Sensia, it seems like the end of an era.

railwayman3 · Oct 27, 2014

There's actually one tiny corner of pre-paid slide film services still working.....Boots Colourslide film (rebranded Fuji) is still accepted for processing at the address in Warwick on the mailing envelopes. It's actually the UK lab of Ce-we, the big European processing and digital picture company, and, from the packaging, I have a feeling that these E6 films are sent to Europe for processing. But, as the films have not been sold by Boots for several years (my last few are Feb 2012 expiry), I can't see the service lasting much longer....all credit to Boots for supporting the film for so long!

Steve Smith · Oct 28, 2014

Surely they are contractually obliged to process it if processing has been paid for.

About five years ago, someone gave me some Kodachrome which was dated 1986. I used it and sent it off in the supplied process paid envelopes and a couple of weeks later, I got my slides.

Steve.

railwayman3 · Oct 28, 2014

Steve Smith said:
Surely they are contractually obliged to process it if processing has been paid for.

About five years ago, someone gave me some Kodachrome which was dated 1986. I used it and sent it off in the supplied process paid envelopes and a couple of weeks later, I got my slides.

Steve.

Interesting legal point.

I am sure that I saw, a long time ago, films/mailers where the service was restricted to six months after the expiry date. OTOH, I can't see anyone being able to go to Court and recover anything other than a nominal sum if processing is not provided.....rather like the restriction of any damage during processing being no more than than the value of the film material.

Like you, I used some Kodachrome from the 1980's in 2010 with no problem (and good results), but, of course, it's no use mailing any more to Kodak now. Perhaps I could claim a refund now for breach of contract, but I'm sure that a Court would award me no more than a penny or so, as the discontinuance of the service was well publicised, and it would be regarded as unreasonable to expect a service to be continued for 25+ years after expiry of the film.

(I have an unused Pathe 9.5mm film expired 1953 but with its original process-paid mailing box.....I've sometimes been tempted to send it off for processing and see what happens.

Steve Roberts · Oct 28, 2014

I wonder why Boots stopped selling their own branded slide film? Was it lack of sales or simply the fact that Fuji stopped making Sensia? Somehow, I doubt the former, as I used it frequently (much cheaper than buying it as a Fuji product) and it seemed to disappear from Boots' shelves quite quickly each time they re-stocked. Perhaps there could be an opening for Ferrania here to be the next Boots Colourslide film?
Steve

blockend · Oct 28, 2014

Fuji stopped selling Sensia in 2010, and may have ceased manufacture the previous year. The use by dates on my final batch was 2011. As we're near the end of 2014, it doesn't seem unreasonable for Fuji to finish their contact with the Leeds lab, which is independent and will continue to process E6 at normal prices. Sad, all the same.

Later Sensia boxes included an apology for terminating manufacture, with an explanation why. Fuji UK gave a year's notice of the paid envelope expiry, and that date is upon us which is why I gave the heads up. One retailer was selling their final stock at £5 a roll inc. processing, which was a bargain. I await the return of my slides.

blockend · Oct 28, 2014

Currently, Fuji Velvia 35mm retails at £9.20 + £7.48 mounted slides in the UK (AG Photographic). It's hard to imagine an amateur market for transparencies at £16.68 a roll. Slides have become a luxury item, and I can't see Ferrania selling at less than boutique prices.

Xmas · Oct 28, 2014

Slides were always expensive however that seems cheaper in real terms than formerly however both C41 and digital have become both more convenient, more dynamic range and even less expensive a shot.

Agfa vista 1GBP, 20 mins soup 4GBP, digital photo frame always on.

Steve Smith · Oct 28, 2014

railwayman3 said:
Interesting legal point.

I am sure that I saw, a long time ago, films/mailers where the service was restricted to six months after the expiry date. OTOH, I can't see anyone being able to go to Court and recover anything other than a nominal sum if processing is not provided

I think you're right.

In my case with the Kodachrome though, My reasoning was that I had an envelope which entitles me to have the film processed and Kodak were still providing a processing service, so there was no reason not to do it. I suppose that if Fujifilm have actually stopped processing, the most you could expect to get is the cost of someone else doing it. Probably a lot less hassle just to organise that yourself!

Steve.

blockend · Oct 28, 2014

IIRC, UK Kodachrome was processed in Hemel Hempstead and the turnaround times were very good. At some point in the early 1990s, film despatched to the Kodak UK PO Box was re-routed via Kodak Paris for processing, and times got longer. I seem to recall a paid job that required bulk Kodachrome processing, and getting a courier to make a dash to beat the airmail to France.

After that all Kodachrome went to the US for processing, before succumbing to the inevitable. I have a vague recollection that there were a small number of independent Kodak approved Kodachrome processors too, but memory fails on who and where.

Steve Roberts · Oct 28, 2014

blockend said:
Currently, Fuji Velvia 35mm retails at £9.20 + £7.48 mounted slides in the UK (AG Photographic). It's hard to imagine an amateur market for transparencies at £16.68 a roll. Slides have become a luxury item, and I can't see Ferrania selling at less than boutique prices.

On the other hand, Agfa Precisa can be had for around £6.49 a 36 exp roll (Ag), processing the same £7.48, which amounts to slightly under 39p a shot.
36 exposures of C41 film perhaps a little cheaper, say £3.50 plus £9.95 to print at 7" x 5" at Ag Photographic, so about 34.5p a shot.
Ilford FP4 £4.71(Ag), printing 36 exp of FP4 at 7" x 5" at Ag Photographic £12.95, so 49p per shot!

With bulk purchase of ten units considerable savings can be made, so are slides that much of a luxury item compared to the other two? Of course, home processing may skew the figures a little.

Steve

railwayman3 · Oct 28, 2014

My late Father used colour transparency and (home processed and printed) B&W. I remember him saying that he liked the fact that every exposure on colour slide, good or bad, reached a finished stage as a photograph with no further time or costs.

With B&W, he could print just those negs which were worthwhile to whatever size and to whatever result he wanted, but with colour neg he had to pay for a full set of whole-frame prints for maybe 4 or 5 "keepers", as well as being in the hands of the lab as to the quality of the printing.

railwayman3 · Oct 28, 2014

blockend said:
Currently, Fuji Velvia 35mm retails at £9.20 + £7.48 mounted slides in the UK (AG Photographic). It's hard to imagine an amateur market for transparencies at £16.68 a roll. Slides have become a luxury item, and I can't see Ferrania selling at less than boutique prices.

Slides always tended to be a luxury item. I have a price reference from the early 1960's showing process-paid Kodachrome film at around 30 shillings (£1.50 in "new money"!), and applying the Retail Prices Index, this equates to about £28 now.

(The postage to send the film to Kodak, Hemel Hempstead, then was, I think, 3 old pence, equating to £0.23 now. I mailed my last Sensia film to Fuji in Leeds yesterday....postage £2.80 )

blockend · Oct 28, 2014

railwayman3 said:
I mailed my last Sensia film to Fuji in Leeds yesterday....postage £2.80 )

Yep, if film and processing wasn't enough, UK postage costs will kill analogue. It's the same price to send off one film as eight. Postage has become a significant percentage of overall costs. Last year the PO lost one of my slide films (Fuji had a record they'd processed it). Had to get a claim form, spend time filling it out, followed up with phone calls and the postal service still claimed there was no proof it was their fault because I hadn't asked Fuji for their record in print. After hours of chasing the cost of a film whose images were irreplaceable, I just gave up.

Steve Roberts · Oct 29, 2014

Postage of a film in a standard pot is ridiculous in the UK as it's charged by the thickness of the package as well as the weight.
I wonder if it would creep in to the lower price band if it was just the cassette without the pot? Maybe not worth the risk of damage.
Steve

railwayman3 · Oct 29, 2014

Steve Roberts said:
Postage of a film in a standard pot is ridiculous in the UK as it's charged by the thickness of the package as well as the weight.
I wonder if it would creep in to the lower price band if it was just the cassette without the pot? Maybe not worth the risk of damage.
Steve

To get the thickness of one film as less than the "packet rate" of postage, I think you'd have to send the cassette without the pot or any protection other then an envelope. And it would still be charged as a "large letter"!

You can certainly send eight films for the same price....but then you risk losing eight instead of one! When the postage was a few pence, my Dad sent all his films to Kodak individually....he said for the sake of a few pence, he'd rather risk one being lost in the mail (or damaged in processing) than a packet of a dozen. (It was in the days of the good old G.P.O., and I can't recall that he actually lost any in his whole lifetime of picture taking!).

blockend · Oct 29, 2014

The unprotected cassette exceeds the dimension to be included in envelope posting, so it's a parcel whether there's a container for it or not. Slides are returned in CD style boxes nowadays, rather than the old eighteen-a-side type, for postage economy. I was told by a post office manager that the similarity to a CD/DVD container, with the potential for valuable computer games or music, was most likely the reason it was purloined in transit.

Process paid Sensia ends Friday

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