Silver theft in aisle 3..... :-(

[gr82bart]

http://kodak-cameras.blogspot.com/2016/08/silver-theft-on-aisle-3.html?m=1

Regards, Art

 

[bdial]

Should someone tell the author that the lab already has your silver whether or not they give you the negs back?

 

[Peltigera]

Don't think the author has understood colour film at all.

 

[pentaxuser]

Don't think the author has understood colour film at all.

I wonder if the author is a full-time campaign writer for a politician?

pentaxuser

 

[Mainecoonmaniac]

Film processors have always been stealing your silver. They extract silver from fixer for decades.

 

[captain ZZM]

A c41/E6 color negative have not any silver.

 

[Wallendo]

The author completely missed the point. The most likely reason that negatives are not returned is that it saves the expense of trimming the negative, placing them in protective sleeves, and mailing them back to the store, as well as the expense of keeping track of the negatives through this process. The current system is designed where the scans are sent via the internet to the store where the CD's are burned and prints produced. The new work flow also makes the final prints and CD's available a day or two earlier. It is a great system for people who don't care about maximum quality and don't save their negatives.

 

[railwayman3]

The author completely missed the point. The most likely reason that negatives are not returned is that it saves the expense of trimming the negative, placing them in protective sleeves, and mailing them back to the store, as well as the expense of keeping track of the negatives through this process. The current system is designed where the scans are sent via the internet to the store where the CD's are burned and prints produced. The new work flow also makes the final prints and CD's available a day or two earlier. It is a great system for people who don't care about maximum quality and don't save their negatives.

Totally correct, of course.

I wouldn't send any work to a lab which destroyed my negatives. And I'd be very relectuant to use a lab that I knew was pouring valuable silver and other environmental contaminating chemicals into the drain. So long as it's recovered for recycling, they can keep "my" silver.

 

[MartinP]

Because that article is now online and searchable, film users will forever point to it as proof of theft and conspiracy. I am tempted to write a comment announcing that the missing negatives are used to make the mind-control agents that are sprayed out of the back of aeroplanes . . .

 

[pdeeh]

somebody added a comment to the article days ago correcting the misapprehension.

 

[barzune]

DAMMIT, GIMME MY SILVER BACK!

Here's a jug, fill it with fixer !

 

[Prof_Pixel]

When I started at Kodak in 1971, I worked on color paper processing and the switch to the 3 solution process was being made (color developer, bleach-fix and stabilizer). Iron-wool cartridges became a part of the silver recovery/bleach-fix regeneration process. Many photofinishing labs were unhappy with that change because they had been using electrolytic silver recovery from the previous fixer, and the flake silver was saved and didn't appear on their accounting books - it was often referred to as their 'retirement fund'. The iron-wool cartridges ended up with a thick sludge that needed to go to an external refiner for silver smelting and thus appeared on their accounting books.

 

[TheRook]

The author completely missed the point. The most likely reason that negatives are not returned is that it saves the expense of trimming the negative, placing them in protective sleeves, and mailing them back to the store, as well as the expense of keeping track of the negatives through this process. The current system is designed where the scans are sent via the internet to the store where the CD's are burned and prints produced. The new work flow also makes the final prints and CD's available a day or two earlier. It is a great system for people who don't care about maximum quality and don't save their negatives.

I agree.

However, I think stores which choose not to return negatives to its customers are making a mistake. The majority of people who shoot film nowadays actually do want their negatives returned and prefer hi-res images, even if it means longer waiting time. For the most part, film photography today is a hobby of the dedicated photographer, not the casual snapshot taker -those folks use phones, not film cameras. By withholding negatives, the store is losing customers, not gaining them.

 

[removed-user-1]

By withholding negatives, the store is losing customers, not gaining them.

I suspect, but can't prove, that the stores no longer returning negatives would prefer to eliminate film processing from their services completely. Easy solutions: process your own, or take it to a pro lab.

 

[removed account4]

the reason they don't give the negatives back is because the drug stores dont' want to
pay fuji labs for the return shipping to drop the negatives off at the drug store. this is the same
with walmart and sams club and many other companies that offer send out service to fuji for processing.
it was a cost cutting measure to process the film and scan it and email/beam down the files to the drug store
wallmart &c to print the images out on a dye sub printer. usually the drug stores have a card reader
and can print consumer memory cards at the same kiosk.
rite aid pharmacies also processed film send out through fuji labs
( they are the only ones left and at least before they were purchased by walgreens )
and rite aid pharmacies do(?) / did NOT beam negtives down to a dye sub printer, and
rite aid WERE returning film back to the consumer,
i am not sure where fuji now has their main lab to process the film. they used to have a handful of regional labs
but with the problems the last handful of years all but one lab closed down, i can't remember where it is
it might be colorado or ny state. it was cheap for the driver to deliver processed film and prints seeing there
were regional labs, now being 1 lab for everyone, it is more expensive to drive/ship &c the film not to menion
the place the film was dropped off picks up the shipping tab.
==

thanks for the back-story prof_pixel i love hearing stories like that.

 

[ME Super]

I agree.

However, I think stores which choose not to return negatives to its customers are making a mistake. The majority of people who shoot film nowadays actually do want their negatives returned and prefer hi-res images, even if it means longer waiting time. For the most part, film photography today is a hobby of the dedicated photographer, not the casual snapshot taker -those folks use phones, not film cameras. By withholding negatives, the store is losing customers, not gaining them.

This. I used to send my E-6 out through Wal-Mart. Sure it was slow, but relatively inexpensive. Processing was ultimately done by Dwayne's Photo. When Wal-Mart announced they'd no longer return negatives, I stopped using their send-out service. If they weren't returning negatives, who's to say that they wouldn't have stopped returning my slides, and just giving me back a CD and prints! Neither of those will fit in my slide projector!

I now send out through a camera store in Springfield, IL. They don't run E-6 as often as they used to, but even with the longest wait, it's still faster than sending through Wal-Mart, plus I can say "Push 1" or "Push 2" when I need it. They also get all my B&W processing, as well as my occasional roll of C-41.

 

[Gerald C Koch]

Don't think the author has understood colour film at all.

He must be a millennial.