Target Pulling its Wet Labs

bvy · Jul 16, 2012

I got the bad news this weekend. This is too bad. The people there know me, and they've never had a mishap with the 100+ rolls of film they've developed for me in three years. It's two minutes from my house. No date, but I was told that all the Targets will be pulling their wet labs soon.

So my options now, in order of preference, are:
1. Find a new local lab. Wal-Mart and Costco are about the only ones I'll consider. Even so, I think they might mail it out.
2. Develop it myself. This makes me nervous; everyone in the house is sensitive to stinky chemicals.
3. Send it to a lab. More expensive, more time consuming. And I just hate dropping undeveloped film into a mailbox.
4. Shoot more black and white. Well...

ParkerSmithPhoto · Jul 16, 2012

bvy said:
4. Shoot more black and white.

I vote for #4.

Honestly, any color film I shoot (very little) gets scanned and printed digitally. So few places print medium format color neg that it seems the only solution.

ME Super · Jul 16, 2012

Few Wal-Marts have wet labs. Most if not all have a send-out service. Wal-Mart's send-out service is handled by Fuji, who does C-41 development. Turn-around time is 3-7 days. E-6 dropped off at Wal-Mart, at least here in the midwest, is sent to Dwayne's by Fuji. Add 1 week for E-6 service.

SkipA · Jul 16, 2012

Around here (Dallas TX area), most Walgreens and CVS stores, and selected Costco and Sam's Club stores process C-41 in the store (not send out). WalMart is send-out to Fuji.

If you can't find another local lab, then try #2. It's easy, once you figure out what chemicals to buy. There's plenty of help for that on this forum.

The chemicals for C-41 and RA-4 are not especially smelly. Have some ventilation in the room you process in.

I draw air into my darkroom through a light-tight darkroom louver that I installed in my darkroom door. I have an exhaust vent over my sink that vents to the attic, but it would be much better to vent to outdoors if you can. Make sure all of your ventilation is light tight.

CGW · Jul 16, 2012

Same thing began happening to me 3-4 years ago. No more Costco film service. Then it was no more film service from my local pro lab, followed by no more film scanning for proofs and prints. We're all seeing the results now of decisions people made about film use at least 5-8 years ago.

illumiquest · Jul 16, 2012

Ilford makes some pretty low odor fixer which you might want to try for the b/w. For color work I used Citizen Photo in Portland, OR which does an excellent job, is much faster than most labs and the most affordable for slide and color I've found.

Brian Puccio · Jul 16, 2012

FWIW, I've had no problem mailing (USPS Priority, it has tracking and costs a few dollars) to various labs for my E6 processing (about 30 rolls a year, split into batches of 5+).

bsdunek · Jul 16, 2012

I know it takes longer, and there is risk mailing film, but I mail my color and have had good results.
I use Dale Lab. for most of my work, but sometimes use Bison Photo, as I do some 110 film and they do that.

kb3lms · Jul 16, 2012

2. Develop it myself. This makes me nervous; everyone in the house is sensitive to stinky chemicals.

If you can develop b/w, you can do C-41. Be a little careful about your temps and you shouldn't have any problems. The chemicals are not smelly. I develop mine in a basement bathroom (with bathroom exhaust fan running) and there's plenty of girl stuff in there that's far more smelly than the C-41 chemicals.

If you do decide to try this route, I would suggest getting one of the digibase C-41 kits from Freestyle to start with. The powder kits work OK but the liquid based kits will give you much better results. You could try one of the small kits on a few rolls and decide if it works for you.

That being said, I never had any problems sending film out, but I always worry about my films cooking in a metal mailbox or on a shipping dock somewhere.

Jeff Kubach · Jul 16, 2012

I also vote for #4. Do more B&W.

Jeff

PhotoJim · Jul 16, 2012

I mail my colour film these days. I try not to mail during hot weather - I can keep stuff in the freezer for awhile if I need to wait for better weather. If I really need the film processed quickly I can always courier it.

anikin · Jul 16, 2012

One suggestion. If they are pulling the lab soon, talk to them and see if you can buy up their leftover C-41 chemicals.
Then you can process the film yourself for quite some time.

Diapositivo · Jul 16, 2012

I would talk to family members and try option 2. Until you don't try you cannot know if it really stinks so much that it bothers people in the house. If option 2 turns up being too smelly, fall back on option 3.

PhotoJim · Jul 16, 2012

A ventilation fan in the darkroom will do wonders for the odour problems.

Roger Cole · Jul 16, 2012

I do my own black and white, plan to get back into color but reluctant because I don't have enough time to do the black and white I shoot. Send color out, so far to Dwayne's but open to changing (no problems with their processing but I've been getting scans back which are inconsistent - just need to get a V700 and be done with that.)

Just send it out. Never had a problem. I won't worry about the temperature either. At most it's three days. That's not going to hurt it.

Target Pulling its Wet Labs

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