I just had to post, coz I'm fuming. I'm really angry about a company, and the worst bit is, it doesn't even directly affect me. I'll explain..... There's a company in our area that specialises in hanging around at malls, shows etc stopping women who go by and offer them either a free makeover, or entry into a competition where they can win a free makeover (which they miraculously do - all of them!). These poor deluded souls then go along, have the makeover and the company takes photo's of them in what can only be described as trite, tacky, 1800's style poses. You know the stuff, resting on feather boa, doe-eyed smile, soft lighting etc etc.... y'know , the tacky crappy poses that any photographer with a bone of decency wouldn't touch.... Anyways, the crux of it is, they then offer these photo's to the victi...erm, winner for massively over-inflated prices. OK, there's no obligation to buy, but y'know what women are like when you compliment them enough.... and yeah, they fall for it, hook line and sinker. Cheap these pics are not. Anyways, I just found out one of our friends was gullible enough to fall for this scam a coupla years back, and she asked me to scan the pics onto cd for her to email to a friend. I sits down, thinking oooh, 35 pics, standard 7x5's, scan at 600dpi, should take... what, an hour? 2 mins per pic - more than enough..... and starts working..... 2 hours on I've scanned 15. Why? Because these downright f******** expensive pics are a pile of crap.... on the first one I found a grey spot and thought my scanner was dirty, so cleaned it and fixed the pic in PS. Next one - same spot. Physically unscrews the scanner apart and cleans BOTH sides of the glass to make sure. Does blank scan - not a thing.... 3rd, 4th pics - the same. Coz the pics are the size they are, you have to look real close.... Then the fun REALLY starts.... of the 15 pics I've done so far, 2 of them have a hair in the picture - one just above the top lip and VERY noticable on the original... and ALL of them have more dust specks etc than a.... well, something rather dusty. I'm mad at them..... I can't wait until I see one of their reps approach wor lass sometime, coz I'm gonna be VERY vocal about what I think of their quality control.... I'm gonna stop ranting, coz this is already way tooooo long... thanks for reading this far and letting me vent... (",)

From one of your other posts: "Seriously, for peeps like me this is a BIG stumbling block - and at the moment I NEED models for the work I'm starting on." Sounds like you have an answer right in front of you; have the models pay you! Too bad it was a coupla years back, otherwise your friend could make a big fuss in the mall and get clean reprints.

Wow! Are you telling that there is some place on this earth where spots and hairs on the printings are condidered NOT professional? Sorry to intrude in your rant, but I'm pretty angry mysels... If only see what they have done to my slides! They scratched my film the whole lenght, while developing it... And "you cannot expect that there won't be some minor flaws, you know", is all I could get when I complained... MINOR FLAWS!?! Now I think I'm going to post some samples, or it will be unbelivable...

Oops, I've put so much typos in these posting... blushes

As a customer, when things go wrong, you have 2 options. 1. Complain - You did that and nothing was done. 2. Take your business elsewhere - In other words, get a new lab. That seems to me to be your only option at this point. You'll notice that the 'tramlines' run along the top edge of the entire film - the top edge of the horizontal shot and right side of the vertical shot - this means you turn your camera clockwise (from your POV) to shoot a vertical. So, the assumption is that the lab's processor has dirty rollers - grit caught in them, which scratches the film from beginning to end. Not good. I'd shop around for another lab. mac

Option n2 is what I'm going to do... but this is the 5th time I have to 'get a new lab'... :( What makes me despairing to find a good one is that no one in the labs in my city seems to understand why I am so disappointed with the developing of those slides :( deaming about the time I'll have a digital camera, and I'll be in need of no damned lab!

jgeorge - I'd suggest trying to find a photo club that's local to you. Most of them will have a website, forum or mailing list. Ask them who they use. Or try to find a pro lab, that's what I do. -=>Donald

I've gotten chromes back that have liquid spots on them....what does one do about that considering there's only one place in the whole country that develops them?! Not only did I have to wait 4 weeks to get them back, but they come back damaged..... It was my first and last time using it........ :~(

Scratches are really bad! The first thing you want to be very sure of is that there are not any sharp edges or grit anywhere inside your camera. This could be either on some of the rollers, or the pressure plate in the door. It doesn't take much; just some chipped paint. When I'm in a hurry I still go to the one-hour JiffyMart; most of the time the results are OK, but sometimes I've seen similar scratches. I guess if folks don't complain they have no reason to keep their machines clean? When I'm not in a hurry, I drive about 15 miles to a "professional" lab. They have what they call a "dip and dunk" processor, rather than the more common roller variety. Excellent results. It is really not (much) more expensive, just inconvenient. But not as inconvenient as throwing away good shots.

'there's only one place in the whole country that develops them?' Where on earth are you, michelle? Can't you get stuff done by mail? mac

The lab I brought my chromes to told me that there's only one place in the US that develops them.... and that no matter where you bring them they all go to the same place to be developed! Was I lied to?

You could be correct 'chelle. Kodak is the only one who can develop kodachrome. They may indeed have only one lab. [Such nice bright colors...]

Oh yeah, If it's Kodachrome, then they're right. It all gets sent to one lab - the Kodak one. Same deal here in europe. It all gets done in switzerland, I think. I think that's why no one ever uses Kodachrome (amongst professionals anyway). They're all on ekta or fujichrome, E-6 anyway. Pity, It's a nice film. mac