Is everything automated these days?

[Parrot of Doom]

Had some 120 film developed and printed by a large high street camera chain store. Came back, some shots under-developed. Some shots cropped incorrectly and printed incorrectly. Very noisy blacks, like a poor inkjet printer. Prints seemingly divided into 4 quadrants on the darker images, the borders of each quadrant perfectly visible.

I can't be arsed complaining. The dimwits only want to sell videocameras and computer printers. They couldn't care less about photography, they didn't even know what the film was when I handed it to them.

And there was me thinking they sent it off to the correct lab (in this case, Fuji). I reckon they took it to a market stall.

[mneame]

not had any developed for ages myself. i do my own. if just black and white, a darkroom setup is so cheap now due to the wonders of digital.

could it be an option to get a cheap setup yourself and have a play around. really easy to do.

if not i'd recommend to get ilford film. you can buy it with the developing cost built into the purchase price (if needed) and you send it away to them. will be developed properly then.

[agent006]

Pretty much all the film i've had developed recently has been printed by machine and not done manually. You can see the pixellation on some of the cheaper ones.

[te51cle]

If you don't take it back and complain then the shop won't do anything about it and they'll think all is hunky-dory. If you do go back they might have another bash at it and do it properly. You didn't say if it was 6x4.5 6x6 or 6x7, I wonder if the machine operator knew the difference ?

[agent006]

Best to just give your business to the last of the proper processors who actually do the job properly and keep them going. THe big chains just don't give a toss about doing the job properly, it's about getting as many people's holiday snaps done as possible.

[Parrot of Doom]

It was 6x4.5, tbh you'd think that they'd take one look at the transparencies and spacing and see that straight away

I can't be arsed complaining, I think I'm going to buy a magnifier and do it myself It would cost more to drive back and complain than its worth.

[tank slapper]

Another vote for Ilford films here. I've had them do 35mm and 120 stuff and they always look nice.

[speedeight]

I take my 120 to Jessops, it gets sent away, takes 10 working days and isn't cheap. £7.99 for 12 exps, 6x6, 5"x5" prints. They do a very good job though and it is definitely done manually. I know this because I messed up rolling on the 1st two exposures on one roll, the operator realised and I still got 2 very decent prints.

It's in their professional section if they can't find the right product for you on their system.

[J111]

agent006 said:

Best to just give your business to the last of the proper processors who actually do the job properly and keep them going.

Peak Imaging produce consistently good results, for example.