Am I paying too much?

[nealjpage]

I know this has been discussed ad nauseum, but I gotta ask again: Am I paying too much for color (C-41) processing? My local lab charges $6.00 for processing and scanning to CD only. No enlargements. This seems a bit steep to me, but I'm not sure. What do you all think? I've been trying to avoid Wal-Mart and the like because I assume that they don't do as good of work. Am I wrong in thinking that, too? Thanks.

 

[JonnyVPA]

Honestly.... i dont mind the local Walmart... but the one i used to live near in Winchester, VA was absolutly horrible..... they had mentally retarted people doing alot of the stuff.... but the local is very good

all of these photos were developed at WM

http://www.flickr.com/photos/yourup/show/

but i mean.... check out your Walmart and if it dont work, see if theres a local mom and pop camera shop around where you live......

$6 bux aint bad though for the processing and cd scans... especially if they are scanning the negs at a High resolution

Good luck

 

[newrmdmike]

yeah, i think thats maybe a little high. but i've been out of the film loop for about 7 months. but with a cd, idk . . . its not outragous.

the processing at one place is the same at another if your not asking for specific developing. at wal mart you run more risk of them messing it up completely, or losing it more so than you would with a GOOD lab. i would use target before i would use suckmart.

edit: however, if you really care about your film and can't risk losing it, you are better off using a local lab. plus by using a local lab your supporting a better standard for photography and business in america

 

[JonnyVPA]

by using a local lab your supporting a better standard for photography and business in america

agreed, though the reason i go with walmart is because i cant afford much else.... unless im doing a fashion shoot or something thats makin me some bux, i jsut use WM though i was very suprised by the results of my venice shots, the kid who works there takes very good care of the stuff, he's a local student for photography at the university and makes sure my stuff gets treated a little better...... as well there arent any local lab's anymore ... all 4 of them ran out of buisness because of the digital sweep

 

[Torus34]

Have you factored in the costs of time and transportation?

 

[newrmdmike]

haha, yeah, were getting pretty nit-pickish about this price deal . . .

 

[el_shorty]

$6 is not bad, my local lab charges $9.

 

[Weaving Wax]

Well, I use those Wolf Camera stores and I don't have a problem with them, but they are expensive. Even with the discount card. I took a roll to Wallgreens by a friends advice and they totally ruined my shots. I'm never using them again. Where I am now, the nearest mom and pop place is 30 miles away which is too far of a drive for me. If you factor in the cost of gas & time. The wal*mart here from what I've heard, sucks. They ruin a lot of shots with bleedthrough from other shots and such. After my experience at Wallgreens and Wal*Mart, I'm leary of chain stores with photolabs in them, unless its a chain store for just photograpy..