Re: [Leica] Shipping film

[Jim Brick <jim@brick.org>]

Art, please don't take the following as a criticism of your sending film in
mailers. Reading it prompted me to write about my feelings on the matter.

Many many years ago I made a pact with myself. I said, to myself, "I've
paid a small fortune for my equipment, I buy the best film and treat it
properly, I spend money on photographing (travel, lodging, food, time,
etc.). And most of the time the images that I make aren't easily
repeatable. Maybe not at all repeatable. Basically if you look at it, the
investment I (probably the rest of you LUGgers as well) have in each and
every photographic image is substantial. My pact was to not let my film out
of my possession for any longer than absolutely necessary. And that meant
that I would not mail, UPS, FedEx, or in any other way, ship my film off to
some unknown place, unknown people, savage mail handlers, etc.

If I cannot walk my film into a lab, then walk in later and pick it up,
I'll process it myself. This is one of the reasons I stopped using
Kodachrome many years ago. Kodak Palo Alto, for twenty years, was 15 min
from my house. When they shut down, I stopped using Kodachrome.

Obviously everybody doesn't have easy access to a great Pro Lab (Calypso,
in Santa Clara, CA, 10 min from my house) but processing any film, other
than Kodachrome, is also very easy.

When I use a carrier to send original images to a printer, I use FedEx. I
have an account and also get a 20% discount via either the Brooks Inst.
Alumni Association or the Kodak Passport Association. FedEx's web sight
will allow you to track exactly where your shipment is at all times. Over
the years, I've shipped a lot of original images to a printer in Hong Kong
via FedEx. Knock on wood !!! I've never had a problem. I either duped my
originals (repro quality,) or put them all on Photo CD so I have a backup.
This cannot be done with unprocessed film. Which is why I'm such a fanatic
with my unprocessed film.

Sorry I ran on and on,

Jim


At 11:42 AM 5/17/98 -0400, you wrote:
>Tip:  When using Kodak Mailers put your 35mm film cassettes in the
>plastic containers before you put the film inside the mailer.  This
>will keep the film cassette cap from popping off during rough handling
>by the post office.
>
>I learned this lesson the hard way.  Having just switch to exclusively
>using slide film for  a while, I decided to use mailers to save some
>money.  I didn't put the film cassettes inside the plastic containers
>before putting them in the mailer because I didn't think they would
>fit, but they do.  I managed to get away without a problem for a while
>but I lost 7 shots on the beginning of my last roll of film and got a
>"PhotoGram" (form letter) from Kodak that read "To help prevent
>shipping damage to processing orders, be sure to use film containers
>when they are supplied".
>
>Anyone else ever have this problem?
>
>Art
>
>Art Searle, W2NRA, w2nra@erols.com, Lake Grove, Long Island, NY, USA
>