MAX SPIELMAN

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samtheman

Suspended / Banned
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27
Edit My Images
No
Right, I am mega annoyed
I took my black and white film to them for them to send away because i didn't want to ruin the pictures i'd taken by developing it myself
The man looked at me completely gone out, as in, what the devil is film
So the manager came over and took control, she got out her price list, 6x4 black and white came to £8.99, £1 cheaper than Jessops haha
So I was like 'ok, heres the money', they wanted paying when the prints come back
They gave me my ticket and was told it would take 7-10 days, and they would phone me when they were in, that seemed ok
So its now been 10 days, I phoned up and asked if my prints were, and I have just been told it could take up to three weeks, THREE WEEKS
Has anyone else used them? What was your experience? I am so annoyed, i could have had them done at the ilford for the money I paid
Do you think I should complain when they come in about not being told about the three weeks waiting time?
Sam, 15
 
Save yourself the stress Sam, you can complain but what's done is done and they probably won't care which will make you feel even more annoyed. Collect your prints then never use them ever again.
 
They used to be OK 'back in the day' - a reasonable alternative to BonusPrint but no high-street processor was any good even back then.
I doubt any could be considered 'good' nowadays - there's just not enough volume to keep the standards high.
Plus, you'll probably find that unless they do it on-site, then all the outlets in a particular area use the same lab anyway.

Chemistry is the main problem. The bulk processors like the Fuji Frontier actually require a throughput of at least 100 35mm films per day to age the chemistry properly.
If not, then additional chemistry (which cost more money) has to be added - the sensitometric evaluations required to judge how much added chemistry and when isn't something a shop-assistant can do...
Fuji's basic user course for a Frontier is two full days and an additional week-long training course is required to be able to use it really effectively. You used to see the certificates on the walls of the processors - it was something worth hanging-up...
You also need to be using it all the time so as to spot problems before they occur.

I and many other serious photographers would ask a processor what days they 'dropped' the dev, as fresh dev was way too fruity. We'd wait til it had had a few hundred rolls put through before taking ours in - and that was with Professional labs, performing constant sensitometric evaluation, catering for high-end users, not high-street ones, where the chemistry was hit and miss at the best of times.
 
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