So a few weekends ago I was shooting this wedding, and I brought my big-boy film camera, an old Pentax 67. I shot three rolls of 120 film. Now, usually, I go to a hip Soho place to get the negs processed with contact sheets. They turn it around in like two days. Top-notch quality work. But I LIVE right above a Camera store. So I was in no rush to get the film back, so I opted for a more convenient location for pick-up by going through them. They sent the film to KODAK to process and do the contacts.
What a nightmare.
First, Kodak received the film, processed the negatives and sent it back....sans contact sheets. At that point, if the store had contacted me, I would have said forget it and picked up the film. But they sent it back. The nightmare continued. What was estimated to take 10 business days, ended up taking 19. And after they sent my stuff back piece-meal, it was still ALL WRONG.
They printed the 6x7 film on a contact sheet, where the images were SMALLER than a 35mm contact sheet. They also had the extreme un-professionalism to just throw my negatives in an envelope, unprotected. WHAT GIVES! This is KODAK! What other name should we be able to trust on NAME ALONE than KODAK? So I paid for the processing, and refused to pay for the botched contact sheets. I voiced my concern at Kodak's handling of the negatives and their reply was, "Kodak aint what they used to be." Then the manager said right there and then, "That's it, we don't process 120 film through Kodak ANYMORE!"
So, I'm going to buy a flatbed scanner today and do my own damn contact sheets.
And just a quick lil story. The Pope is in town this week. I went to mail some stuff at a street mailbox and it was sealed shut. Sometimes these things stick or have mail crammed in there, so I struggled with it a bit. Then some guy comes up behind me and says, "The Pope is coming! No mail here."
I hadn't thought of that. It totally makes sense. Nobody wants any bombs thrown in the mailboxes! I wonder how they lock them shut? Probably from the inside, like jamming a chair underneath a door handle type deal?
