I get > 12 months out of Fuji mini lab chemistry. Actually a lot more, but let's keep it conservative. Would that suffice? For me it does, sufficiently so to not bother with labs anymore.
The cost of color film and processing
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I get > 12 months out of Fuji mini lab chemistry. Actually a lot more, but let's keep it conservative. Would that suffice? For me it does, sufficiently so to not bother with labs anymore.
Is that 12 months after you mix it up? If so, that's better than what the manufacturers recommend for most of the b&w chemistry I've tried.
And is "Fuji mini lab chemistry" available in a home-use kit with instructions for small tank use?
Is this the chemistry you have been using <Fuji C-41 X-Press Kit>? I looked at the instructions for that kit which suggest the developer should be used within 6 weeks if stored in full glass bottles.
Looks like I've shot about 14 rolls of in the past 12 months, and only 3 of those were C-41. However, I do have a couple more rolls of color C-41 as well as some Ilford XP2 Super I'd like to shoot in the near future. I am guessing that *IF* I was willing to use XP2 Super as my only b&w film, I could probably use enough of a C-41 kit to make it worth while, but there are a few other conventional b&w films I'd like to try first.
Yes, it keeps better that way than the concentrate, especially the developer. Fix and bleach last very very long in the original packaging.
C41 is C41. Develop 3m15 at 100F, the rest is less critical. Mixing as per the manufacturer's datasheet. Fuji's docs are a bit hard to find, although this has improved.
No I don't use the press kit although I'm pretty sure you could get the same lifetime from e.g. the Fuji hunt press kit if you want to buy a smaller volume and accept a higher per-gallon price. Just ensure that you keep the developer in entirely full, glass bottles with a well-fitting and tightly screwed on cap.
But your color volume does sound really low indeed; I'm not sure if it's worthwhile to get chemistry for it. At 3 rolls/year you could even see if there's a better lab elsewhere on the planet and have them do everything e.g. once per year. I don't shoot miles of color either, which is why long-lasting chemistry is vital for me, but I still easily shoot ten times your volume, so it's a different situation.
@koraks - Yes, for 3 or 4 rolls per year, sending my C-41 to a distant lab is the most practical. While I don't see my total film volume going much above 15-20 rolls per year, my mix of b&w vs. color could change. And if I decide to go with XP2 Super as my main b&w film, then most of my 15-20 rolls per year would be C-41.
When you say "C41 is C41" does that mean I can expect the Fuji, Rollei, Bellini, Arista, CineStill and Unicolor kits to all have pretty much the same results and shelf life?
I can get a 1 liter kit from Arista that will do 8 rolls for about $25(USD).
When you say "C41 is C41" does that mean I can expect the Fuji, Rollei, Bellini, Arista, CineStill and Unicolor kits to all have pretty much the same results and shelf life?
I can get a 1 liter kit from Arista that will do 8 rolls for about $25(USD).
I am sorry that your local place does not do their job well. I use Sammy's Camera which is local and they do a very good job, returning the film uncut as requested, with a summary print of all the prints and one or two prints per frame as ordered. Since your local place is not up to snuff, and if there are no other local places, consider sending a roll to Samy's Camera on Fairfax and see if you like their work.
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Pretty much the dame results, yes. Shelf life may be another matter; I can't couch for that. I only know Fuji stores well and I hear so does Kodak. I wouldn't be surprised if the others could last long as well under optimal conditions, but I don't know.
We are very lucky here in the Fraser Valley. The Chilliwack London Drugs has an in-house lab where they do film processing and have a variety of film and products. Their film is around $8 per roll. Color usually is done in about an hour. The C-41 black and white sometimes takes until the next day. I have been getting 4x6 prints while I am relearning the craft. Once I get back into it I will just get a cd with jpegs. Digital format is a lot easier to edit and use for me.
Are you saying they process C-41 color in about an hour but C-41 b&w takes longer? Interesting. Does anyone know of any reason why a lab would process b&w C-41 separately from their color C-41? I thought one of the main reasons for b&w C-41 was so it could be processed "normally" by C-41 color labs.
Also, be sure you get your negatives back with your CD. Even if you can't think of any reason for having the negatives right now, there may come a day when you will want them. Lab scaned JPEGs are not known for being state-of-the-art files; that is, there is a lot of information on the negatives that probably did not get captured in the lab JPEGs. Having the negatives means you can get much of the missing quality later, if you decide you need it.
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MattKing
Moderator
London Drugs has 79 stores, and a significant number of them still process film on site. Each site is a separate minilab, and that means they have a lot of staff, and their experience and knowledge, while generally good, varies a bit.
The film process is identical, but the scanning and printing probably require different pre-sets in their equipment. Most likely they batch together C-41 black and white, and they may have certain staff do it more than others.
In many cases, those staff also have duties outside the photolab parts of the stores - London Drugs sells a lot of different things outside of its pharmacy business, including TVs and audio and cel phones and computers and groceries and toasters and ......
I did notice that when they print b&w they seem to use the same printer as color, but put a roll of different paper in it. They told me the reason they take various amounts of time is because they need to get a batch of film together and then process it all together. It seems to go pretty fast though.
MattKing
Moderator
All London Drugs photo printers print inkjet from digital files, but they might be using a particular paper for the black and white prints - I've never thought to ask.
I don't think they separate the C41 films out - colour and black and white - but they do process them in batches.
A friend of mine is in the process of retiring from there after working in their photolabs for decades. He was in fact, in charge of implementing them in a large number of the stores, although in more recent years he was working in one particular store.
London Drugs still has one store that does 35mm E6, and owns a lab in Winnipeg - half way across the country - where they develop normal black and white film.
I don't think they separate the C41 films out - colour and black and white - but they do process them in batches.
A friend of mine is in the process of retiring from there after working in their photolabs for decades. He was in fact, in charge of implementing them in a large number of the stores, although in more recent years he was working in one particular store.
London Drugs still has one store that does 35mm E6, and owns a lab in Winnipeg - half way across the country - where they develop normal black and white film.
The good old days weren't really all that good. If you plug today's costs into an inflation calculator and go backward and then compare to the costs then I'd say it's more like costs are finally catching back up after a long cheap period.
I don't like it either, but "it is what it is." I've been mailing out color this entire century, don't know what padded bags the OP even meant. I just put 35mm in the plastic can, 120, heck, I've just sealed it with the tape and sent it like that, dropped them into one of the padded mailers from the office supply section at Wal-Mart, and sent it on its way. Maybe I'm too casual but on the other hand I never had a problem with doing that and think others tend to worry too much and over think these things.
Freestyle has both C41 and RA4 as well as RA4 paper. A few things are out of stock if you're stuck on a certain brand, but they do have both C41 and RA4 complete kits in stock. Likewise with paper - some combinations of surface and size are out of stock (no 16x20 in glossy or lustre - 16x20 is showing in stock only in matte) but they have paper. I didn't bother checking anywhere else because they have it.
I haven't lived anywhere I could buy paper and chemicals over the counter - well, EVER. When I lived in TN only one store within 100 miles had a limited selection and it was hard for me to get to when I was in high school. Later in the 90s I COULD, but I had far better selection and better prices just ordering from NY or Freestyle, which is what I did. By the time I moved to the Atlanta area AND got back into photography, none here either at least out in the suburbs and I do not drive into Atlanta proper any time I can avoid it. Besides, the Internet was now around and I could order any time I wanted, which often IS the middle of the night for me, and have Santa's magic UPS or FedEx sleigh drop it right at my door sooner than I could have found time to go get it anyway.
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Good comparison. I know that less urban areas pay less but here in metro Atlanta even fast food starts at north of $10/hr, more like $12 last time I talked to anyone working in that. Given that almost every place I go now has help wanted signs, I expect they may pay a bit more now. A roll of color film could be paid for by an hour of burger flipping. It still can. There was an in between period, as people have pointed out, when prices were quite low compared to both before and after. That time is gone. I wish it wasn't as well, but it is.
Separate bleach and fix will last longer than bleach-fix aka "blix." Get a separate bleach if storage life is a concern. But otherwise, I also found back when I did color that it lasts far longer than the literature says.
It is much more convenient to take my film to Samy's Camera, a 20 minute drive each way twice, than to develop the film and set up the darkroom to print one or two copies of 12 or 36 photographs on 5"x5" or 4"x6" paper respectively. Even if I have a lot of film from a trip, I would rather get the photographs in a week than develop and make one or two sets of prints that will mostly not be enlarged later on. To me it is just the cost of doing photography.
The only way I can think of, to make a lab do their job correctly , is to vote with your feet and wallet.
It's a pity they are so sloppy because it is just as easy to do it correctly as badly. These ones give minilabs a bad name.
The guys defensive attitude is poor customer service so I suppose if they don't care about the customer, how can you expect them to care about your film. Very sad.
Bad practices and bad business should not survive. Find another place, there are good labs you can send your film to and they deliver the negatives back plus scans if needed (sometimes downloadable via internet).
Sadly, I have to agree. I have run into the same situation here in Southern California. The commercial C-41 developing that I seem to keep running into is scratching the negatives, but the digital software used for the machine prints hides the defects. The lab has been in total denial about it, despite a couple of damning tests. This has driven me into developing my own. I'd rather support a lab with decent QC, but am tired of having my photos damaged.
Going to drop off 14 rolls of C41 I just shot (120 & 35) at Paul's Photo in Torrance.
It's not going to be cheap but I do dev only.
No-one is making us do this, so I don't see the point of complaining about it. Shooting film - color and B&W - brings me pleasure and often makes me money so I'll be doing it as long as it is available.
We decide how we spend our money - I think I've mentioned this before but my most modern car is from 2013. I don't go out for coffee. Don't smoke. Hardly ever drink. Don't go to football games. Hardly ever go to the movies etc etc.
It's not going to be cheap but I do dev only.
No-one is making us do this, so I don't see the point of complaining about it. Shooting film - color and B&W - brings me pleasure and often makes me money so I'll be doing it as long as it is available.
We decide how we spend our money - I think I've mentioned this before but my most modern car is from 2013. I don't go out for coffee. Don't smoke. Hardly ever drink. Don't go to football games. Hardly ever go to the movies etc etc.
What lab?
Huss,
This was some years ago. I had been sending the film out thru a camera store. Supposedly, it was going to a lab that proudly proclaimed that they use "dip and dunk" processing, so scratching was impossible. Their prints masked the fine regular scratching due to their use of ICE. I like bigger scans than they do, and I didn't much like the auto clean function on their scanning. As a result, when I scanned the negatives, I kept running into scratching. Finally I ran a half exposed roll thru the process and came up with the same scratching on the stuff that never touched the camera's gate. For all the world, it looked like a badly maintained roller based processor. I switched to sending my film to directly to another lab in the LA area with much the same results. Possibly the small labs were sending each other sub-contracted work to run multiple lines. The problem is when that is done, there are more opportunities for "stonewalling" a QC attempt. Maybe I'm being over-picky, but I sure got better results back in the '80s and 90's. Anyway, I do my own stuff now and am in charge of my own scratching for less money.
This was some years ago. I had been sending the film out thru a camera store. Supposedly, it was going to a lab that proudly proclaimed that they use "dip and dunk" processing, so scratching was impossible. Their prints masked the fine regular scratching due to their use of ICE. I like bigger scans than they do, and I didn't much like the auto clean function on their scanning. As a result, when I scanned the negatives, I kept running into scratching. Finally I ran a half exposed roll thru the process and came up with the same scratching on the stuff that never touched the camera's gate. For all the world, it looked like a badly maintained roller based processor. I switched to sending my film to directly to another lab in the LA area with much the same results. Possibly the small labs were sending each other sub-contracted work to run multiple lines. The problem is when that is done, there are more opportunities for "stonewalling" a QC attempt. Maybe I'm being over-picky, but I sure got better results back in the '80s and 90's. Anyway, I do my own stuff now and am in charge of my own scratching for less money.
I dunno. Freestyle has a Cinestill C41 kit that will do 8 rolls for $30. I'm doing ECN2 with the QWD kit for not much more than that per roll, but the film is much cheaper.
If you can make Kraft Mac and Cheese from the box, you can process B&W film.
If you can process B&W film you can do color from a kit.
If you can make Kraft Mac and Cheese from the box, you can process B&W film.
If you can process B&W film you can do color from a kit.
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