End of An Era

<p>I work in a photolab in a large retail outlet. Been there for almost 16 years now. We finally got word we are no longer developing film. For a while there we were told we wanted to be the last one standing when it comes to film. Not the case now. There is another chain that will still be doing film after us. Our lab has cut the services we do for customers, our manager was let go, and our hours have gone down. We're thinking this could be the beginning of the end for us. But for now we still have a job at the lab. I still use film, mostly B&W and E-6. Rarely do I use C41, since I have a digital that I can use for that. I was always a film supporter in our lab, and now its time to say goodbye. That said when we went to a dry lab 4 years ago, the quality of scans we did off film went down in quality, so Im not entirely sad to see us no longer do film.</p>

<p>Sorry to hear that. Time to start up your own lab and run your own business. You have the experience :-)</p>

<p>Bad news. So is your lab only printing from digital files now? You might be okay since most labs can make prints cheaper than most users can print them at home. </p>

<p>Yes our lab mainly does digital files, but Im not sure if we will still take negatives or not. That Im not sure of. As for running my own lab, well no, there is no money in labs anymore. Our lab is very slow a lot of the time as is, I know what we make per day, and the store itself subsidizes the lab to stay open. We couldn't make it on our own. Problem is- most people don't print their digital pictures anymore, but keep them on their Facebook, etc. Just go look at what photo-albums are left for sale anymore. If it weren't for the fact we sell cameras (also way down lately), we would no longer be in business.</p>

<p>Scott wrote, "most people don't print their digital pictures anymore, but keep them on their Facebook, etc".<br>

There will always be a few remnants that would develop film as there are users and you just have to find them or process your own. On my area, they send the film somewhere to be processed and scanned to a cd on their shop but they are closing down too. Nobody is interested in printing digital pictures. Usually the bulk of printing jobs would have been Christmas season and graduations, but now it never came, but it's all in Facebook, etc...............The store photographer was in high heaven when digital cams came out, now he wished it never came as he is losing his job on the photo business he had for 50 years.</p>

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<p>Nobody is interested in printing digital pictures.</p>

</blockquote>

<p> <br>

Have any facts on this? Because there are facts on some of the big digital printing shops.</p>

Whenever I return from vacation I upload two or three dozen of my digital photos to a travelogue web page I make up.Then, I put 100-150 photos, equal to three or four rolls of film, on a flash drive and bring that to my photo store to have 4 x 6 inch photos made. My wife selects the ones she wants to put into albums and the rest go into archival storage i.e. shoe box.

 

The web pages will disappear when I am no longer around to pay the fees to keep them but albums and shoe boxes last forever unless physically destroyed or discarded

 

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<p>James,<br>

So true, after all, Photography is about, '<strong>Time</strong>.'</p>

<p>unfortunately is sad true in everywhere.here in Brazil,a lot labs went down because of digital and facebook. i still use film and develop my own film and photo as well,and i have no intention to stop,but for sure is bad for some people who depends on a lab to develop their film.</p>

<p>I still make prints but I either print myself or send them to a lab via internet using the labs own upload software. I actual prefer to print my own but for vacation snaps I send to a lab. I like those digital books too.</p>

<p>I am not in the USA but I can say .. the very local mall for us, the (2) film labs have vacated premises used to be a chain Fuji place and a Kodak place. Around us, kiosks might be available at the odd bookshop or the Kmart etc Chemists might do digital prints too. As for the CBD, there is just (1) place that does E6 now and maybe 2 places that does C41 (under the same brand) maybe 2 other smaller place that might do C41. But at $36US for a roll of 35mm slides and then $18US for a roll of slides developed unmounted I suspect few people use them. So for me, it is cheaper to import film from the USA and export them to the USA for development. I don't know anyone that still shoots film other than a few old timers who shoots B/W and develops them in their own darkroom. i went to a semi pro place that sells equipment (and film) too but does C41 only, when I said my older camera (Nikon D2H) he kidded around and thought I had a film camera. Given that I have to import and export - I use film sparingly fortunately, I am a plan and wait photographer so I really just shoot 6 rolls of b/w and 6 rolls of slides each 6 months so the expense isn't that high. I don't do sports, or walkabout much or social and if I did social it's just on digital when no people have asked for prints. If family have visited people overseas they might want a few 6x4s that's about it. </p>

<p>Scott is correct. Most people...especially younger people...are not getting prints made anymore. They usually leave the pictures they take on their phones or they upload them to facebook. I've had many discussions about this with people in the business for the last couple years. The two drugstore photo labs that I usually develop my C-41 at have had numerous employee changes in the last several years and I was even been asked why I needed my negatives that I had processed made into prints.</p>