WalMart film to CD

Dagwood56 · Feb 11, 2008

I have never used WalMart film processing before today. I took a roll of film in and had it developed and put onto CD only, no prints. Anyway, I just looked at the photos on the CD and they are awful! The ISO of the film was 200, and the graininess and noise in the photos is unbelievable!!! Does WalMart do adjustments to the film during processing or rather when putting the photos onto a CD? I'm really ticked off!! :grumpy:

Luckily the shots aren't anything that important, but I have some more film with shots that are important and now I'm wondering if I should go somewhere else to have them processed and put onto CD. Anyone else have any bad experiences with WalMart processing?

When I have more time I'm going to scan some of the negatives and hopefully find the problem lies only with the image to CD transfer......man I'm mad!!!! :grumpy:

ScottS · Feb 11, 2008

Post a photo?

Big Mike · Feb 11, 2008

I've never been pleased with their photo CDs. It's been several years since I've used that service though.

jedithebomber · Feb 11, 2008

Wal-Mart just does a crummy job with thier scanning. In fact any company that uses a Fuji Frontier set on automatic usually gets similar results. Try asking them to turn down the sharpening. Good luck on that one tho...

That One Guy · Feb 11, 2008

i used them ONCE for prints..........just once.

all of my prints came out with a thin red line thru the middle of them. they offered to do it again but i refused.

Jeff Canes · Feb 11, 2008

never used them, but most folks around the TPF do not seem to like their sevice

Garbz · Feb 12, 2008

No offence but were you expecting something else?

Scanning film or enlarging is something that needs to be done properly.

Battou · Feb 12, 2008

Yes they do for the most part

Dagwood56 · Feb 12, 2008

Thanks everyone. I assure you I will not be getting ANY more processing done at WalMart. I guess I should consider myself lucky that I had the film container labeled wrong and they got the roll they did. Had they gotten the roll I thought I was giving them, I'd have lost a lot of great barn shots.

Thanks again.

ghpham · Feb 13, 2008

Walmart, Walgreens, Cosco, and the like, is for the P&S crowd. Why you would considered them in the first place is beyond me.

Big Mike · Feb 13, 2008

I'd have lost a lot of great barn shots.

They don't usually ruin your photos...they just do a poor job of scanning/printing them. You still have the negative, so you can take it anywhere to get printed.

On the other hand, I had a bunch of negatives scratched up over the years...I've not sure if it was the cheap Wal-mart/photo store printers that don't clean their machines enough, or if it was my camera.

Walmart, Walgreens, Cosco, and the like, is for the P&S crowd

Actually, Costco is often much better than their low price would lead you to believe. I haven't seen pro quality from them, but I'd get unimportant shots printed there. Actually, I used to live by a Wal-mart that had a pretty good photo manager. While he was on duty, I could get good results.

ghpham · Feb 13, 2008

Big Mike said:
They don't usually ruin your photos...they just do a poor job of scanning/printing them. You still have the negative, so you can take it anywhere to get printed.

On the other hand, I had a bunch of negatives scratched up over the years...I've not sure if it was the cheap Wal-mart/photo store printers that don't clean their machines enough, or if it was my camera.

Actually, Costco is often much better than their low price would lead you to believe. I haven't seen pro quality from them, but I'd get unimportant shots printed there. Actually, I used to live by a Wal-mart that had a pretty good photo manager. While he was on duty, I could get good results.

Yes...I agree for the most part. However, I do find it funny that people takes their pictures to be developed at Walmart, then complain how it's not up to par with professional labs. For unimportant pictures, it's fine, but if you considered your photo's to be good art work, you should not have them printed at Walmart. Agreed?

Dagwood56 · Feb 13, 2008

They don't usually ruin your photos...they just do a poor job of scanning/printing them. You still have the negative, so you can take it anywhere to get printed.

In my case, lets just say that the "A" team must not have been working when I left my film on Monday. I did scan a few of the negatives and I'm not happy with them either. lol

Walmart, Walgreens, Cosco, and the like, is for the P&S crowd. Why you would considered them in the first place is beyond me.

Cost - I don't have lots of $$ to throw around. I got the film for my birthday and didn't think about the developing costs till I used it.

Can anyone recommend a place that does a good job of film to CD? I've got 8 rolls to develop and I can't afford the cost of prints so film to CD is my only option. My husband mentioned Ritz camera or CVS. Any suggestions?

nicfargo · Feb 13, 2008

I'd look for a local printing place. You'll get professional quality at a pretty reasonable price. I wouldn't print all my stuff there though, as it can get pricey if you're printing stuff you don't really care too much about...for that stuff I'd go to Walgreen's. For important "keepers" I'd go to an actual printer. They'll produce a much nicer photograph for you.

Battou · Feb 13, 2008

Dagwood56 said:
Can anyone recommend a place that does a good job of film to CD? I've got 8 rolls to develop and I can't afford the cost of prints so film to CD is my only option. My husband mentioned Ritz camera or CVS. Any suggestions?

Stay away from CVS, You are close enough to me to make it a safe bet your CVS uses the same processors I have....Nothing but problems of all shapes and sizes.

just one of my many complaints, The only reason I continue to use them is I scan my own negs, so all I need is the negitives out of them.