Kodak DP24 Processing Mailer F/24 Exposure Prints
not cost-effective
The vendor charges ten point seventy \\"clams\\" as a shipping fee for all orders equal to or less than two hundred and fifty clams. Of the two main reasons that a photographer-customer would pay for a Prepaid Processing Mailer (convenience and savings), this steep surcharge (for such an intrinsically lightweight, flimsy article) diminishes the return on the retail investment. Unless you intend to order a whole mess of them at one time, I'd say that it doesn't pay to squander your moulah on Shipping for Mailing. The net cost is fair, although YOU pay postage to forward your exposed film to the processing laboratory. For those of you who DO opt to splurge on this very convenient (and quality) product, I recommend that you have the domestic Post Office affix a self-adhesive METER STRIP as postage to the mailer, instead of piecemeal postage stamps. Reason for this recommendation: once the Meter Strip has been affixed, the mailpiece need no longer be re-weighed, nor does it have to be hand-canceled. The downtime (and limited access hours) involved in waiting on line to submit the article for mailing with a Meter Strip might mean that you'll forego the optional advantage of letting the Post Office calculate the weight and applicable postage. Attention, vacationers overseas: yes, you CAN send your precious film to the stateside Kodak lab; do keep in mind that boat mail is too slow, and air mail in certain countries is still prohibitive... On the plus side, when you mail in your films from overseas, you'll have the lab-processed results awaiting your return home (Lord willing). Trivia: when Eastman Kodak divested itself of the labs and farmed the work out to Qualux (a misnomer: lesser quality!), it seems that the central reason was not to eliminate unionized hired help, but rather to \\"resolve\\" ?huge? pollution problems that were an issue with the federal EPA. We are blessed with Kodak now back at the helm of the labs, having survived the toxic-waste and quality-nosedive difficulties. Too bad that Amazon & Adorama don't currently carry the color transparency (slide) Prepaid Processing Mailers from Kodak. Perhaps we can persuade them to add slide film mailers. I took one star away because of the requisite shipping fee, and another star away because the maximum number of frames per roll is 24, not 36. Thoughts, anyone?