From: bear@harlqn.co.uk (Andy Edwards)
Newsgroups: rec.photo
Subject: Re: Lab Screw-Up!
Date: 14 Apr 92 20:27:30 GMT
Organization: Harlequin Limited, Cambridge, England


Ouch!

*>Hello,
*>	I'm writing this post in a state of uncontrolled rage so please
*>excuse any whatever typos/incoherencies may follow.

Ouch! Here's a bucket of water.... szzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzsssssss

Pin back lug'oles for some experience...

*>I just had a photo lab, "The University of Chicago Audio Visual Dept",
*>RUIN a roll of film. The role was an assignment on which I spent all

Hate to say this: if it's valuable take it to a professional lab...
errrm, you did say it was a professional lab, didn't you?

*>of the preceding weekend, not to mention considerable expense. The due
*>date is tomorrow and so I have NOT A CHANCE IN HELL of reshooting. Their

Hmmm, reminds me of:

  +-----------+
  | PLAN AHEA |
  |         D |
  +-----------+

Really, couldn't you have shot your assignment a fortnight beforehand?
So you'd got a week to reshoot? Throwing caution to the wind just
includes other random variables...

No one on this planet has the chance of a second shooting (unless
you're the luckiest dog born under a lucky star & your name is lucky
too): skin ages, poses tire, enthusiams wax and wane, light changes,
moods swing, inspiration faulters... (funny: that reminds me of the
old blind man sketch in the life of brian, or was it the blind old man
sketch... hmmmm)

Once that moment is gone, it's gone, you have to remember: this is why
you are a photographer.  If you've captured it keep your fingers
crossed.

*>official response: "We're sorry, but there's nothing we could have done
*>to have avoided 'it'"   "IT" entailed pushing a roll of EES (exposed
*>iso 1600) SIX stops instead of the required TWO. So what did they do
*>about "it"? Well, they ever so generously reimbursed the processing
*>charge (I'm so grateful- ya, right) and gave me two rolls of Ektachrome
*>100 in liue of my original roll of ESS which they don't stock. Well folks,

Yep, well that's the only usual response you'll get and the
reimbursement that any lab can ever give. They can't resurrect the
dead you know... they're even more hopeless at films ;-)

*>that $7.25 processing reimbursement and whopping $12 of film makes neither
*>a spit worth of difference nor does it BEGIN to compensate me for the time
*>lost and missed assignment, the cost of materials, or even the cost of
*>repairing the damage inflicted by myself on home and personal belongings

The question that arises is:
  Is cheap developing worth the risk?

If you have special instructions/ you value your work/ you've paid
millions to the top fashion model/ it's pricless/ it's unique or you
wouldn't trust any tom, dick and harry with auntie maudes photo's, the
answer is:
  No.

Take it to a professional lab: they'll respect you, your film, your
work & your wishes (and hopefully give you a better chance at
delivering the results you wanted). Red alert warning: You may pay a
small price for this.

If it's a kodak film take it direct to a kodasnap place (or whatever
they're called in the US). If it's agfa, take it to an agfa lab.

*>after the kindly people at the lab called to inform me to say, "Hi,
*>remember us? Well, we fucked up, but it wasn't our fault, it was the
*>machine's, so hey, shit happens, right?"

This is just another case of "Up yours Jack developing". Didn't you
give the manager a good ticking off too? ;-)

Oh yeah, a year or two ago I sent a EktaChrome slide film into an
ordinary chemists (Boots if you UK'ers want to know) and they
forwarded it to a real kodak lab. The one and only EktaChrome
developing etc lab in the UK (which according to Kodak UK Head
Quarters) is in Manchester (so if you want to blame anyone...). Well
they developed the film, really nice colourful pictures - I was
pleased with the film. I was please with the subjects I'd snapped.

YEAH WITH TOTAL CRAP CUTTING.

Apparently they have a stroboscopic cutting machine that's operated by
your average school leaver who lines up a batch of film to be cut &
mounted in neat white plastic slides. The cutting machine uses the
light to show the operator each picture going through the machine &
where it'll cut. Of course, he (the average school leaver) couldn't
give a toss if the alignment is accurate.

Mine were not accurately cut. They varied between 2.5 and 3.5 mm off
the black (ie an edge of the frame was on the next slide). It was so
kind of them to have the slides artistically cropped for me. Thanks
kodak! %^#

Boots gave me two free films after a heated row in the shop. I've
vowed never to use EktaChrome ever again & never to use Boots for
developing (they've screwed up other films in the past too).

Unless if it's KodaChrome (the 64 asa stuff that comes with the
special post off for devloping packet) - if it's some other slide
film: don't get it mounted, do it yourself by hand - you can buy the
slide jackets and you can always be sure of your own cutting.

*>What I wan't to know, is what kind of legal protection (if any) do      
*>photographers have against the incompetence of others?

I don't know, none I suspect, but you can safe guard against this next
time: borrow a friends camera, get two lots of film, use both cameras
and send the films to two independent professional labs.

*>Andre.

There are too many nasty cogs & wheels to get caught up in on this
planet.

Cheers, better luck next time

+--: Andy Edwards :----------*=================*------------------------------+
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