Costco Film Processing

<p>I heard many people said good things about Costco photo lab. I visited my local Costco today and it seems that they don't have a C-41 processor. Do your Costco have a C-41 processor?</p>

<p>Some do; some do not. The Costco nearest me closed their C-41 processing unit a few months ago. I understand another Costco about 15 miles away still processes C-41 film. We shall see next week when I shoot a roll.</p>

<p>The C-41 processing at the Costco near me was very good until the closed the unit.</p>

<p>They are hit and miss. I used to go to them years ago but then their work was horrible so I stopped going</p>

<p>The Costco in Hackensack, NJ, still has a wet minilab. Quality is pretty good, the techs seem to know what they're doing, change the chemistry regularly. Sometimes the negatives come back scratched, more often they are OK. They also wet print all the digital orders, so none of that crappy dry prints or enlargements.</p>

<p>Best to check the various Costco locations near to scope out which still have wet minilabs.</p>

<p>Yes, mine does. Good every time.</p>

<p>Mine still does (and they have always done a decent job), but they told me they're shutting all C-41 processing down in the entire metro-Phoenix area at the end of May...</p>

<p>We have three Costcos in Houston. The two oldest (both opened in 2001) still process C-41. The newer one, which opened in about 2008, prints from digital files only. I talked with one of the techs at the Costco nearest me about this -- one of the stores that still processes C-41 -- and he said that they will continue to offer C-41 processing for as long as the equipment lasts. When it starts to break down, it will be retired and won't be replaced. All I can say is, I hope it lasts a long time. Because my Costco processes C-41 for cheap and they do an excellent job.</p>

<p>There is another Costco that will be opening here this summer. I'm sure it will not be processing C-41. That, at least, seems to be a trend company-wide.</p>

 

<p>The tech told me the same thing, once the equipment breaks and is unrepairable, that will be the end of C-41 processing and they will go dry. He said--as we film lovers know--that the quality of the dry prints will not match the wet-printed ones at all.</p>

<p>Winnipeg regent location has one I believe</p>

<p>Mine does, and the party line is that once it requires a MAJOR repair, that's it. Those things cost about $25 every morning just to get up to temperature, and I'm sure Costco isn't making back even that money over the course of most days.</p>

<p>I used to run a 1 hr. lab and every morning one should start it up to temperature and then run a test strip. I imagine a test strip would cost the $25. Without sufficient volume it hurts the quality because the process won't be as stable as one with a lot of volume. <br>

I hate to do it myself because to be sufficiently consistent doing it by hand I would have to use one shot chemistry which would cost a lot more that the lab charges. </p>

<p>Our CostCo stopped processing film several years ago. Our Target store stopped this January and that was the last film processing in my county. Actually the entire photo lab at Target is closed and all they have is a Kodak Kiosk. As far as I know the closet lab is about 65miles from the house.</p>