Help me with this. It's been such a long time that I've used a film camera that perhaps I'm loosing my mind, but shouldn't I get back ALL the pictures from developing, regardless of their quality?? Shouldn't I get a chance to see that the frames were completely blank? Shouldn't they at least be on the negatives?
I put in three disposable cameras, when they were finished the gal said that some were dark (which I expected) and hard to see, but she allowed me to look through them and adjust the price for any unwanted photos. I quickly thumbed through them, distracted by the memories in the pics and my aching feet (and dwindling pocketbook from a day at Wally World) that I said, "Yep, they all look great, I'll take them all!" So she rang me up at the quoted price per camera, $7.00 + tax, and off I went on my merry way. Only when I got home did I realize that several shots were missing, and of course they are the ones I wanted the most, like the limo driver holding a sign that says "Mattias Kitchen Band" and pictures of Firewind on stage. Firewind was captured by many others, but I'm the only one who took a picture of the limo driver sign so it can't be replaced. I looked at the negatives for each roll and these shots, among others, weren't even on the strips or the thumbnail views on the cd card.
My question is this: Is it standard practice for film developers to throw out shots they think are unusable without allowing me to preview them, but still charging me full price? Also, are disposable cameras
that unreliable, where some pictures are so bad they don't even develop? AND, does having the cameras ran through the security carry-on x-rays damage the rolls in any way? One more thing, how do you all suggest I handle trying to get these missing photos? The last time this happened, years ago, I had to turn in the negatives and the prints for them to be re-developed, and I never saw them again. They got lost in some shuffle or misplaced by a disgruntled employee. I don't want that to happen again and risk loosing ALL the shots from that camera.
Anyone else have this happen before? I'm terribly upset because not only are some of those shots irreplaceable but also I may NEVER get them in my hands just because some chick running the machine thought they didn't look good enough. I can't understand how at least 5 pictures are completely botched yet they are in the same lighting as others that turned out fine. I take that back, ALL of the shots from the airport are gone.. is there some rule about that?
