8mm Forum: Qualex E-6

This is topic Qualex E-6 - $19.00 ?!?! in forum 8mm Forum at 8mm Forum.

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Posted by Ryan Reuterskiold (Member # 692) on November 16, 2006, 09:08 AM:

Interesting story...in October, I sent two cartridges of process E-6 super 8 film (64T) for processing through my local K-Mart, who I've always had good luck with. Price was $7.69 per 50 foot cartridge, which didn't seem unreasonable. (Although I can remember not so many years back when it was $1.97!). At any rate, I sent another 50 foot cartridge off last week and it was returned to me yesterday priced at $19.00!!! I argued for ten minutes with a high school kid who obviosuly didn't know movie film from mushrooms. (Said maybe he could send it back and have them return my negatives...yeah, OK.) I gave up, paid for it (because the film is of yours truly proposing to my fiance in Spain). Called Qualex this morning. The customer service rep there looked it up and said, yes, it's $19.00 now, probably due to that "nobody shoots movies anymore." She also said it's a 14 day turnaround because only one lab does it now (even though mine came back in 7 days). So, now I'm beginning to figure out what's going on. I tell her to look up, for interest, what 50 feet of Kodachrome costs. She tells me it's $7.69. Ah ha!! They inverted the prices in their system, which I was finally able to convince her of, but she tells me there is nothing she can do other than alert a supervisor because the retail store set up their own pricing structure.

So, couple words of advice: 1) Always be leary of Kmart (probably goes without saying) 2) If you want some K-14 done REALLY cheap, hurry up and send it off before they fix their pricing problem!!

Still does nothing for me...I don't even know how to go about explaining this whole mess to my local K-mart in hopes that they will beleive my story.

Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on November 16, 2006, 09:23 AM:

Direct to Dwayne's sounds better and better...

Nobody shoots movies anymore?

Well, then I'm "nobody", and proud to be!

I love the "negatives" story. I remember when I was a teenager and brought my K-40 to Fotomat. The pleasant young lady in the booth asked me "What kind of finish do you want on these?". I said this was movie film and didn't get a "finish". She said "Ohhhhhhh!!". Then she said "What kind of borders do you want?". I said "Sprocket holes.".

I haven't had the pleasure of trying 64T just yet. I still have a minor stash of K-40, and a massive backlog of films to edit before I should shoot any more. What do you think of it? I'm concerned that as large as I project the graininess will be intrusive.

Congratulations on your engagement! Why didn't I think of that? When I got engaged you could still get E-160, and with an XL camera the lighting in the restaurant wouldn't have been a problem! Of course with a cameraman along for the ride, it would not have been a great surprise for my wife!

Posted by Ryan Reuterskiold (Member # 692) on November 16, 2006, 11:25 AM:

Steve - Well, I guess guys like us have to "consider the source" when dealing with the younger generation who haven't a clue as to what a real "movie" is, but it is indeed frustrating. I think it's really a shame that Kodak's name is associated with Qualex - seems that a subsidiary of Kodak aught to know the difference between K-14, E-6, and the technicalities which would cause one to be more expensive than the other to process.

Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on November 16, 2006, 11:50 AM:

True, True!

Isn't the reason that Kodachrome was ended is because it is such a nightmare to process? At that rate 64T should actually be cheaper.

Back a few years ago when I wrote proposals for a living, we had a philosophy of never saying "no" to a customer, -at least not directly. Very often when we wanted to turn away business and not tweek the customer's nose we just priced it very high.

-could be something like that!

I don't want to sound old and crotchety here, but unfortunately many young people don't seem excessively curious, and don't dig very deep into most subjects. (They've made an entire philosophy of the word "What-Everrrr!".) As long as our young friend does his shift and gets his check, he's probably happy enough without actually having to "like-care" what his job is about.

Posted by Ryan Reuterskiold (Member # 692) on November 16, 2006, 12:28 PM:

Steve - I think you're absolutely right. Gone are the days when the clerk at the photo desk was there because he/she had a genuine interest in photography or anything related. Now it has become a necessary evil if someone wants to work in the same department where the latest Play Station games are stocked. I guess that's what I get for patronizing discount stores, though.

On the engagement...thanks. We were actually traveling with some other people, who also did not know this event was going to take place. I had with me a Kodak Instamtic M2 (the simplest, "one button" Super 8 camera I could easily transport and have a stranger operate without any explanation). At one point, when the moment was right, I simply handed it to a travel companion and said, "Point this over there, hold down this button, and don't stop filming." So, after a puzzled look, we were rolling and all of it was captured great. My fiance tought I was nuts for lugging a Super 8 camera, but she did admit that it was neat to watch the moment on screen. She said it makes her feel like it was 1965 that we got engaged!!

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