very basic question

[shelly_rose1]

My questions are some very basic ones. I do not know anything about

developing photos, so I hope someone would help me out here. I

recently went on vacation in Mexico where I took some great photos

and was dying to get them developed. When I did I was very

disapointed.

I took in five disposable cameras, all of which were some different

type of Kodak. In four out of five (excluding the black and white

one) there was some mysterious hot pink marks showing up in some of

the picutres. The manager where I got them developed pointed out a

green mark on the negatives (where they appeared on the photos) and

said if the mark was on the negative then it was the film that was

bad not the developing. Is this true? Could all of the cameras had

bad film?

The other thing was that all the cameras had 27 exposures. I got

back 24 on all of them. When I asked why that was, the manager

mumbled and basically beat around the bush. I said "if a camera has

27 exposures than it dosen't mean you will get 27 photos"? She

said "no, you may get anywhere from 24 or more". Now I believe this

sounds like the biggest bunch of crap I've ever heard in my life.

Maybe I'm wrong...I have been known to be before. But before I made

a stink I wanted someone who knew something about this to back me up.

Any information would be appreciated. Thanks for your time.

[silent1]

Green marks on color negatives could be a defect in the film, but in my experience they're more likely to come from the film contacting another piece of film in the processing; the contact prevents chemistry from circulating and prevents one or more of the development processes from occurring or completing in the affected area. The damage, unfortunately, is permanent and irretreivable in either case, and the best you'll get from the lab is replacement of the film or disposable camera(s) -- if you can convince them it's their fault.

 

As for number of exposures, it does vary some; I routinely get 26 to 27 on a 24 exposure roll in my antique Pentax Spotmatic (and once got 40 on a 36 in a Rollei 35), but I load carefully and seldom burn an extra frame at the beginning of the roll, then I keep shooting until the advance won't cycle before I rewind. With a disposable, which is factory loaded (possibly by machine in total darkness, so you don't have exposed leader), you should see pretty consistent 26-27 frames; given the attitude you got from the lab, they may have just not printed, or even cut off and tossed the other negative frames. Check your negative strips, first -- you may find negatives there that aren't printed, and if so you ought to be entitled to prints of those frames, if they're printable images. Unfortunately, there's probably no way to know if the lab cut the trailer long when they unloaded the camera and simply discarded the remaining 2-3 frames; if you don't find them in your negatives, they're gone.

 

I would certainly consider a different lab in the future, however...

[steven_clark]

Actually that kinda sounds like the color light from a leak passing through a previous negative.

[david_nebenzahl]

Concerning the number of exposures issue:<br>

<br>

I regularly get 27 pictures on a 24-exposure roll too, since I don't waste frames needlessly when loading the camera. I <i>always</i> get at least 26.<br>

<br>

The disposable cameras say right on them that they contain 27 exposures, and they should yield that many, since the film is preloaded. So basically, my advice is that the guy at the lab you went to is full of shit, and you should go elsewhere in the future.

[RvdK]

Hi Shelly,

 

"if the mark was on the negative then it was the film that was bad not the developing"

 

Well, if the mark that you see on the prints is also on the negative, it only explains that they didn't appear in the *printing* process. However, that still says nothing about the *developing* process of the film! So, what the manager said isn't true.

 

But still, that doesn't explain how the marks got in the negatives. Possible causes are:

- a defect in the film

- a defect in the disposable camera

- a defect in the developing process

 

A factory defect in the film is possible, but not very likely. What might have happened however is a defect in the film that has developed afterwards, by storing it too warm (how hot does it get in Mexico?). Leaving film in a parked car in a sunny spot is asking for trouble like this. Another possibility are X-rays from the machines at customs.

 

A defect on the camera, leading to light leaks, is a possibilty as well. A big direct light leak would cause black spots from sunlight, but smaller light leaks can cause all kinds of optical effects like coloured streaks. Characteristic for these light leaks are the repetitive pattern across the film, because the light leaks in at the same place at every exposure.

 

The developing process is complex and virtually anything can go wrong. From that angle it is surprising that we usually still end up with any negatives at all! But seriously, to see what might have happened a picture would be nice. Could you scan some of the prints and negatives and put the scans up here?

 

Ok, my last remark. About the 27 exposures... as other people in this thread have mentioned, the exact number of exposures you can get on a film depends on the camera. In your case, the camera was included in the promise on the packaging of 27 exposures. So, there should be 27! Period.

[oskar_ojala]

Sounds very much like a film processing error as Donald described; since all four films are affected,

a manufacturing error sounds a bit far-fetched (Kodak most likely has some quality controls). I've had small dots

on color film processed at second-rate places. I think heat damage should be more uniform: color casts,

bad contrast etc.

 

If the texts on the disposables clearly said "27 exposures", then you should by all means expect 27 pictures.

[daniel_fortier]

Kodak has a good customer service, just send one strip of neg with defec & prints to kodak, you can get their info on kodak web site, they will frankly say who's to blame even if it's them.

[dave_redmann]

Getting 24 pictures instead of 27 is definitely their error. On the other hand, since the spots are only on some pictures, could it be flare? Are the pictures with the spots ones where you shot into the sun? What shape are the spots? Is there a line of spots, perhaps of different sizes? The spots may well be a processing error (and I am certainly suspicios after they lost three pictures from each roll!), but we ought to consider semi-reasonable alternatives.