Qualex is GONE!

Let it be known that there are other ways to process film than sending it to kodak. Kodak was never the high quality option when processing, and if you really care about your film do it yourself or send it to a pro lab.

There will always be processors. A minilab machine doesn't need much throughput to continue running. I am concerned for my grandmother, but I don't see this affecting many professional photographers. They handled what remaining amateurs there were; seeing as that market is gone I can fully understand why they are too.

Of course they're not pulling K14 yet. They have a huge stack of unprocessed film waiting to be sold. That would be stupid.

The market they serviced is gone, there's no need to take it up. You should find a pro lab or process the film yourself. It's fun.

The eternal question: no. It is the death of the amateur 800 ASA market.

THIS IS NOT GOOD. It will probably cause more consumers to go digital which will put film one even more of a decline. Kodakchrome will not be as easy to send out and will be more expensive(for most people..I send directly to dwaynes). Digital strikes again!!

I doubt there are very many uninformed folks using Kodachrome these days due to the limited number of mass marketers who still sell the film - those who are using it are probably already sending it direct to Dwayne's or know that other processers such as Fuji will take it in and send it to Parsons KS for you.

I'm not going to shed any tears for Qualex - the day in 1988 when Kodak created them and started moving away from directly owning its processing operation was the beginning of their slow decline, long before digital came along.

I worked at the Pennsylvania lab as a quality assurance technician calibrating printers processors and minilabs when digital was just a few years old. It was the largest Qualex plant in the world. On a slow night we processed 12,000 rolls. After a major holiday we might process 73,000 rolls in one night. The production staff was between 75 and 90 employees. Our paper WASTE in one month might come up to 13 tons. It was an amazing experience. Damn we were good.

Walmart in Canada dropped Qualex earlier this year. I guess I'll have to get my Super 8 Kodachrome sent directly to Dwaynes now.

I just called Qualex and they did not have any alternative to tell me about. As far as your Kodak Mailers....don't they all expire in March 2009? I am really thinking that this is more of the death of film. Everytime I turn around I see a local place closing, never mind Qualex! I will just continue to send all of my C-41 and E-6 to Dale Labs for beautiful processing and send some E-6 and all of my K-14 to Dwaynes

IIRC, the mailers are good until 12/09. Maybe someone else can confirm

This is a knife in the back by Kodak to all their loyal customers throughout the years who used their convenient dropoff locations like CVS.I've shot hundreds of bricks of E6 Kodak film over the past thirty years and I'll guarantee them I've purchased my last one.Another thought,don't count on me ever purchasing another product with your name on it because I hate to get screwed twice.

Douglas-Why don't you just send your E-6 through the mail to a good lab?