Another wally world incident

[bobbuck19]

Just wanted to share a "funny" incident (it will be funny in a few more days).

I recently took a few mounted slides to wal-mart to get 4x6's for a photo album

I keep, yes I know most walmarts aren't exactly professional and I wasn't

expecting much just wanted some quick prints but what happened made my jaw

drop, after handing the young lady the slides wrapped in leftover A&I tissue

paper, inside an envelope and while telling her what I wanted she took them out

of the envelope and tissue paper stacked them together and picked up the stack

with thumb and forefinger planted smack dab in the middle of the transperancy!

not the mounts, not the edges, right in the middle of the shiny, pristine,

velvia slide! My jaw dropped, as politely as I could I said please don't do

that, you're getting fingerprints on the slide, while still holding them that

way she looked up and said, what do you mean? I explained while gathering my

slides and leaving. Lesson learned for the umpteenth time! Anyone know how to

clean greasy fingerprints off a slide?

[john_h.1]

This won't help after the fact but mention for future reference that I keep my slides in small Print File four count sleeves when providing to others. I generally wouldn't bring slides to "Wallyworld" but it keeps people from directly handling them until needed (in theory at least). Also, it helps keep two or more slides flat and not contacting each other. Finally its that much less dust landing on the image.

 

Maybe the person didn't know what a slide is but I suspect that they would just as likely handle a negative in the same way. Ivisited a Ritz store looking at a non SLR digicam and the sales associate got his fingerprints all over the lens front element (no filter) and then when I told him about it he cleaned it with his shirt.

[lex_jenkins]

I saw a Walgreen's button pusher "clean" the lens on their printer by licking his fat thumb and rubbing it all over the lens.

 

ROR - Residual Oil Remover - is recommended for lenses. Check their website to see whether it's suitable for film.

[lex_jenkins]

BTW, I've seen button pushers at minilabs - Wal-Wart, Walgreen's, CVS, you name it - dragging uncut negatives across the floor, stepping on the trailing negs. And they apparently handled negatives more carefully than the lab that does their send-out work. Every send-out negative I've seen was damaged with longitudinal scratches.

 

Several years ago I did a special project on film for a relative. I encouraged her to take the film to a local pro lab. Nope. She took it to Sam's Club. She came back with bitterly disappointed, implying that I had done a poor job. The prints were awful but the negatives were fine. I told her to have the negs reprinted at the local pro lab I'd suggested in the first place. She didn't like the additional expense but the prints were fine.

 

I can't remember the last time I saw any decent b&w work done by any lab, even so-called pro labs. Probably when I was a kid in the 1960s. Only custom labs - usually very small operations - seem capable of producing good b&w work, and their high quality work is priced accordingly.

 

Generally slipshod work has done as much to make film photography unpopular as has the relative convenience of digital.

[lwg]

Clean them with PEC-12 and a PEC wipe.

[ellis_vener_photography]

this is the right stuff to use to clean film with.

[sagephotoworld.com]

I always used to wash my film in Vosene shampoo. That used to work really well and had the bonus that it has a hardening agent as part of the formulation.

[pata]

Thanks for some good information about cleaning film.

 

Touching Wal-Mart with a ten foot pole scares the heck out of me. :-)

[cabbiinc]

This is only one more reason that I avoid Wally World like everyone in the place is infected with the plague.

[mendel_leisk]

Maybe you could email someone with Walmart a link to this thread? Or not worth it?

 

I find a lot of times the mechanics of finding someone to email are insurmountable, but might be worth a try.

[JDMvW]

Edwal Anti-Stat Film Cleaner. Works on pretty much anything except for some very old lacquered Kodachromes.

[steve_dittmar]

A drug store in my town started with a new high tech machine run by a young guy who really knew his stuff. He could make that machine do anything. After he quit, I took a roll of printfilm in and when I got them back,the prints were not only severely scratched, but you could see fingerprints (enlarged) on every one. The negatives were not only badly scratched, but were still in one long strip,bent flat every 6 inches or so to fit in the envelope. The store manager seemed amazed that I was so p---ed off. Incredible

[bobbuck19]

thanks for the cleaning advice everyone. to make matters worse earlier today i couldn't find the envelope and slides, seems my well meaning girlfriend saw the envelope on the table and knowing that i meant to drop them off the other day she took them and dropped them off after work at wally world! I very rarely use walmart only for things that don't matter much, we do have a rite aid in town that has kodak send off service and they are even worse than walmart. I like a&i for mail order, the machine reprints are fairly cheap $1.50 for 4x6 and $10 for 8x12 but the wait at the mailbox is really long, if my slides come back with even more fingerprints i'll post another gripe session, thanks for listening

[beauh44]

I once took some 6X6 slides I'd shot at Yosemite (stupidly) to a local Ritz for developing. I

asked them if they'd please put them in a sleeve and as the girl was cutting them, I watched

as she chopped right down the middle of - of course - the BEST shot of the entire trip. Cut it

right in half. Thanks, Ritz.

[lex_jenkins]

Ritz. Don't get me started. Not only just as incompetent as Wal-wart, but higher priced, arrogant and rude to boot. And I'm not talking about an isolated incident. Every Ritz in every city I've tried 'em was the same.

[steve_dittmar]

I think this has the makings of a new forum...

[Tim_Lookingbill]

Boy! Am I glad I bought me a digital camera and ditched film. From what's been posted

here it seems as if minilab workers want everyone to do the same.

[mohir_ali]

'Every Ritz in every city I've tried 'em was the same.'

 

Why do you keep going back?

[lex_jenkins]

Dunno, Mohir. Optimism?

 

Nah, after trying two in Florida and three in Texas, I gave up. Every chain store with minilabs has some good and bad eggs. I've seen Wal-Mart minilabs turn out some very good work. But the Ritz chain seems dedicated to providing overpriced, mediocre service and snotty attitude. (If you research the history of Ritz and Wolf, specifically related to internecine warfare and fratricide, the attitude seems to go right to the bone.)

[stevespencer]

The only thing I use Walls-Mart for is when I want to use one of their self-service digital print setups to print something myself. Even then, I have been acosted and rudely accused of copyright infringement almost every time. It was funny a couple of times but it is not funny anymore. It was especially not funny when their all-of-nineteen year old manager made a big public display of accusing me condescendingly and then destroying the photos I had printed. I guess they think I look too stupid to have done the photography myself.

 

I took some wedding shots on film to a Ritz and all I can say is I'm glad I did the rest on digital. Spots & scratches everywhere. Horrible scan to digital. Useless quality. They didn't even orient the images, some were upside down, some sideways, etc. Negatives were manhandled. This from people who knew better (in this case). Maybe they wanted to teach someone whom they perceived as an amateur trying to avoid hiring a pro by doing it himself a lesson? For whatever reason, they sure did a number on my stuff, and then served it up with a smile.

 

I can honestly say I know of nowhere to get decent developing and printing done for a reasonable price. No one knows how. No one cares. At least that's the way it seems.