Truly appalling Truprint processing

benjiboy said:

It's the same in the U K, 1 hour photo, mini labs, and mail order usually have these terms and conditions, the point I'm trying to make is if your work is important, it's best not to send it to these places, but to find a professional lab,( one dedicated to processing the work of pros ) first checking their legal liability in case of loss or failure on their part before entrusting your work to them, even then it's no guarantee they won't f***k it up but at least they wont blithely tell you "sorry we've lost/wrongly processed your films, but here's some more films free to replace them.

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I agree entirely, and it's a matter, obviously, of using common sense as to the value of your photos whoever you entrust them to.
For important work, some sort of insurance is alsolutely essential, and IMHO that is more important than the lab chosen.
Even in the glory-days of Kodachrome and Agfachrome slides process-paid in the manufacturer's labs, their liability was restricted to the value of the film material, (and I would have thought, of anyone, they would be the most reliable...as, indeed they were, 99.999% of the time).
I've even been known to mess-up the occasional film when doing-it-myself! :rolleyes:

In my experience, though, I would re-iterate that that one cannot rely on so-called pro labs always being better than the "cheap-and-cheerful" operators. I can willingly email you with my list of cock-ups and the names of the "pro-labs" responsible....they are well-known labs, not one-man operations.

No argument.

railwayman3 said:

I agree entirely, and it's a matter, obviously, of using common sense as to the value of your photos whoever you entrust them to.
For important work, some sort of insurance is alsolutely essential, and IMHO that is more important than the lab chosen.
Even in the glory-days of Kodachrome and Agfachrome slides process-paid in the manufacturer's labs, their liability was restricted to the value of the film material, (and I would have thought, of anyone, they would be the most reliable...as, indeed they were, 99.999% of the time).
I've even been known to mess-up the occasional film when doing-it-myself! :rolleyes:

In my experience, though, I would re-iterate that that one cannot rely on so-called pro labs always being better than the "cheap-and-cheerful" operators. I can willingly email you with my list of cock-ups and the names of the "pro-labs" responsible....they are well-known labs, not one-man operations.

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I agree with your remarks broadly, I was just pointing out the possible pitfalls of the one hour labs, and that if you can find a reliable pro lab, especially a local one for your important work (although there's no guarantee they won't f**k it up,) they do tend to take more care of their customers work in my experience.

Certainly you can get problems with labs at times whether they are amateur or professional orientated. My concern is for some consistency so though I fully accept that railwayman3 had good results from Truprint, my experience with them was that the quality varied tremendously. And more often than not the results were disappointing which is why I no longer use them. For excellent results and consistency I found Asda's inhouse service met my needs but as I've said I'm now a long way from one unfortunately.

(At the risk of being boring!), I've just had a couple of my films back from Directfoto ("Truprint"??), and they are fine, good color, clean and sharp. (Any and all faults are entirely the responsibility of the man who was behind the camera. :rolleyes.

With such big differences in our experiences, I'm now beginning to wonder if "Directfoto" is, in fact, actually a trading name of Truprint, or whether the work is just contracted to them...maybe even with better QC than the main Truprint brand. :confused:

My only grumble is that you get a "free" Kodak Color Plus 200ASA film with each set of prints. I've got a fridge full of the things...I much prefer 100ASA when I want max quality or big prints, or 400 or 800 when light is bad.
200ASA always seems neither-one-thing-nor-another, and I'm sure that "Color Plus" isn't up with the best current Kodak emulsions....bit like a "snapshot" film, probably forgiving in exposure latitude, etc., but more like the branded films of 10-20 years ago.

There have been some amalgamations & a lot of closures in the photo-finishing business. When I last used Truprint a good few years ago they had been taken over by a group who ran a business called Excel (or Excell) in Exeter Devon which also had another lab in the Devon area whose name escapes me. If you look at the Directfoto link you will see a potted history but I think a lot has been missed out. When I used Truprint they originally had an address in Telford Shropshire but later it was in Devon. Now it rather looks as if the processing is done in the Channel Islands so maybe the change of lab has led to an improvement in quality. http://www.directfoto.co.uk/about/

In the years I used them the "free" film was a Truprint own brand. It was I think Agfa made. The Kodak film you're getting doesn't seem to be the latest generation product. It was/is distributed by other mail order processors and I've got a little pile of them sitting about slowly going more and more out of date.

Truprint and many other labs dont require need to produce High Quality images as their target markets are the point and shoot photographer who wouldnt recognise quality anyway!

The quality of your prints is mainly down to the lab operators and wether they are capable of using the equipment to its full potential as most mini labs are set to work fully auto with no corrections made to colour/density etc. (pro labs use mini labs too!!)
Having worked in the photo industry years you will get the best results come from making friends with the actual person who will print your film and get them to print each frame on manual settings where the amount of cmy k can bet adjusted .Good luck with this as most people who can do this have left the industry.

Steve Roberts said:

Sticking up for Truprint, I've used my local Plymouth shop (near Drake Circus - there are two) for colour neg processing for many years and have never had a problem or any reason to complain (unlike Jessops, who I previously used). I normally go for the 24hr processing, so maybe that's treated differently to one hour - perhaps it's done elsewhere. The staff working away on machines back behind the counter always seem to be wearing cotton gloves and treat the materials they are handling with a lot more reverence than I've seen in "professional" photo establishments. When I've had special requirements for selective enlargements, the very helpful counter staff always call on a printer to have a word about exactly what I want. Steve

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Well, how opinions can change. I've just collected two sets of prints from the Truprint branch that I previously enthused about and found that they were covered in white specks, hairs, etc.. On closer inspection the negs were covered in fingerprints. I returned to the shop and pointed these things out to a woman (who I've always assumed to be the manageress) and she kindly explained to me that fingerprints on negatives didn't matter because "you'd never see them on the prints" (well that's OK then!) and anyway they couldn't have come from Truprint because the staff handling film always wore gloves. Working away behind her was a gloveless person stuffing neg strips into wallets......
After a bit of muttering about static, she reluctantly agreed to re-print everything, so I await developments (no pun intended) tomorrow. I guess this bears out what someone once told me that it's not how a firm treats you when things are going right, it's how they treat you when things are going wrong.

Steve

Hi there,
i am also one who is pissed off with receiving scratched negs, although i carry neg insurance, it is still time and effort to get what you originally wanted!!

which got me thinking..........

so tell me if you think that this this is a good idea.
What i want to do is start up a nice little processing plant at home where i can develop my film without scratching it!!!
Eventually what i have now thought to do is to offer this service to everyone else where yours truly hand processes the film. by doing this i would be able to give options like Push/Pull, Cross processing etc.
This whole idea would be a completely hand touched and bespoke service.
although i am unsure as to what i should offer in terms of processing, which is where i need your opinions!

C41 & B&W will be on offer, but who out there would like an E6 service?
i will acommodate films 35mm,120,220 and 5x4

However (dont shoot me on this) what i would do with the films would be to scan them in, colour correct (will have an option to leave this out as i know some people prefer the first result) and place them onto a CD for you. i have not thought about supplying prints at the moment, but what i would offer would be inkjet prints upto A2+ using an epson 3800, with a variety of papers and test strips. this printing would be at a later stage should demand be there.

the P&P, would consist of a CD in Jewel case, and negs in a Neg bag

I Reckon around £6 - £7 inc P&P for the Dev and the CD, it will be a fixed price so there will be no difference between which format you send.

tell me what you reckon also is there much of a demand for E6?

Basically, you would be setting up a small custom pro lab, and I am sure that you would get business.

However, I've acted in the past as an advisor to new small businesses....it's actually not that easy to transform a hobby into a business and I'd particularly suggest that (as with any business) you would need to look carefully at the volume of work you might get, especially if it is a success. Could you handle this yourself, and maintain the quality with a reasonable turn-round time? And what happens if you are on holiday, or unwell? What is enjoyable as a hobby can become a burden if things don't go smoothly.

Remember that your customers will be, by definition, serious photographers, so you need to offer (and reliably deliver!) something more than they are getting at the moment. So you have to consider if you really want the ongoing commitment.

I'm not being deliberately negative, good luck anyway.

What you would be providing is essentially one service of many provided by the other pro labs out there - the key thing is that they offer other services along side the processing so as to make their general offer more attractive. Most of your customers would have other requirements in addition to process and scan, such as print. Ultimately, unless you are substantially cheaper, it would be difficult to see why anyone would choose your service over an established pro lab.

In terms of price, ultimately I think you will find it hard to charge less than the established pro labs for the pro service you are offering, especially when you add up all the time, materials etc. and then adding in a margin on that - I think you will find time is the biggest overhead.

Matt