need quick advice....

[schrackman]

I just finished a roll of Portra 160 to compare against a previous roll of NPS 160, and I'm leaving in just a few days for vacation. If I take to my normal place for developing I won't be able to pick up this roll for two weeks.

But I'm impatient, and I wanna see my pics now! Should I trust Walgreens to develop it so I can have it in an hour, or should exercise control and wait? What would YOU do?????

[Greg McCary]

The Walgreens here in Rome has always done a good job for me. Even when I sent some slide off, it came back great. If it's not C-41 they will send it off any way.
Greg

[schrackman]

Okay Greg, you talked me into it (wasn't hard, was it?). Based on your advice I am off to Walgreens. Won't ya feel just terrible if they messed up my roll? I know I will!! LOL

To be honest, though, there's nothing terribly important on this roll. Just wanna see how it compares. Maybe I'll have pics up in a couple hours! See ya....

[schrackman]

Walgreens developed it just fine. Only took them 15 minutes, too. Should have a few pics up in just a bit after scanning. So far I like what I see from this film!

[MJS]

I used Walgreens quite a bit for souping negs. They had very tight quality controls and the local tech took great pride in her work. She even developed a channel for me on old NPS and Portra. Got the D70 then D200 and haven't looked back. I'm actually going ot ebay a bunch of darkroom gear so my photo club can get themselves an epson 3800 Pro. I already have CS3 extended going on all of my lab computers this week.

[another view]

C41 is C41 (in theory at least, more on that later) so you should be just fine if you're scanning the negs. Printing is where the difference will be - Walgreen's used to be Kodak, but lately (an hour ago, even) I have been noticing Fuji mini labs in their stores. I'll bet they're setup for most Fuji films based on the color differences of specific films. I have had Fuji developed at that store when they were Kodak and the prints didn't look good but the negs were fine. Kodak neg film seemed to be better on Kodak equipment.

There was a pro lab near Chicago that has closed down (like a lot of them, of course). They said that there was no way they could offer one hour processing based on the developing time of the film. The only way to do it in an hour was to raise the temperature of the developer, and in their experience that increased the grain. So - they didn't do it and would have your proofs ready later that afternoon...

[another view]

I used Walgreens quite a bit for souping negs. They had very tight quality controls and the local tech took great pride in her work. She even developed a channel for me on old NPS and Portra.

That's worth so much - and one reason why pro labs exist. It's pretty uncommon to find that in a place like Walgreens, but that's really great. Pro labs should mean consistency and pride in their work, but that's not always the case either...