Depth of field didnt work, all blurry[manual]

Placebo

I gave in my film to FUJIFILM minilab in Liffey Valley, all photos bar 2 came out blurry, im going through my foreground in focus, rest blurry phase so i usually have subject up close and aperture at 2.8 - 4.0 and foreground subjuct in focus,
And i think we all know i can focus

so question,
Could it be the lab
or could it be the film [i used cheap buy 5 for 15, fujicolor c200]
or is it me?

so depressing, shots over a period of 2 months, wasted *tears*

Zillah

Sounds like a lens problem. Have you checked the negatives?

DaireQuinlan

Placebo wrote:

I gave in my film to FUJIFILM minilab in Liffey Valley, all photos bar 2 came out blurry, im going through my foreground in focus, rest blurry phase so i usually have subject up close and aperture at 2.8 - 4.0 and foreground subjuct in focus,
And i think we all know i can focus

so question,
Could it be the lab
or could it be the film [i used cheap buy 5 for 15, fujicolor c200]
or is it me?

so depressing, shots over a period of 2 months, wasted *tears*

blurry how blurry ? REAL blurry ? Anything in focus at all ? I suppose its possible that their scanner was misaligned or something. The best bet would be to check the negatives with a loupe or magnifying glass or something. If the negatives are blurry then its almost certainly the fault of either technique or a lens problem or something. Judging by the rest of your (in focus !) shots on flickr I'd maybe take a look at the camera. Specifically the lens/ lens mounting, the mirror alignment and the film pressure plate and see if any of them have been knocked around. Could be just a matter of millimetres so I'm not sure if theres any way to check for sure. Put another roll of film through it some day, tripod mounted, and use various apertures and then just throw it in to get developed and see what comes out.

Roen

You'll have to stick up a few examples before anyone can make a call on it.

ThOnda

And don't go to FUJIFILM lab in Liffey Valley...:(

DaireQuinlan

ThOnda wrote:

And don't go to FUJIFILM lab in Liffey Valley...:(

LOL yeah, I just noticed that now when you pointed it out. Maybe they've found some other way of inventively screwing up a roll of film !

Placebo

ThOnda wrote:

And don't go to FUJIFILM lab in Liffey Valley...:(

wish i read your post before hand

anyway

click above to enlarge

both pic taken on different days, i think theres 2 weeks gaps.
Was it my mistake? looking at the 2nd pic, the background is more blurry then the foreground, so im kinda 50/50 here think it could be there fault but then how can the first develop properly.
checked camera anyway and it seems fine, i was thinking maybe i mounted my lense on wrong and got my settings wrong but its fine.

Borderfox

These guys are real cowboys.

magicbastarder

well, the dust is in focus...

Zillah

Have you checked the negatives?

irishcrazyhorse

gone off film??

magicbastarder

no colour cast, or splotches. i've never heard of this sort of problem with film.

ThOnda

Try different minilab, however it looks weird.
I thought that it was just badly focused at first. Just that your eyes are not working properly (it's not funny). Just be sure, that you are having the same prints from the negative. If yes, get the camera back, till it is under warranty.

Placebo

im gonna try scan negatives non friends negative scanner.
i dont think it was a problem with my eye/focusing technique because thats over a few days. and olympus om10 focusing is fairly easy

Rojo

You hit off the diopter?

magicbastarder

no dioptre controls on an OM10, i think.
the OM10 is known for shutter magnet problems, but this wouldn't be anything related to that.

Oriel

That looks like a problem with your the operation of your camera, not with the minilab.

Valentia

The woman in the foreground of the first one seems to be in focus. The strap of her bag looks clean and sharp. So that's just human error.That would indicate that that is the likely cause of the second one too with an added ingredient of overexposure.

Rojo

magicbastarder wrote:

no dioptre controls on an OM10, i think.
the OM10 is known for shutter magnet problems, but this wouldn't be anything related to that.

I see... I wonder what the problem is. I'm quite curious to see whether liffey valley FUJIFILM fúcked up again...

pete4130

I worked in a Fuji Lab before and there is no way that the lab can make your images blurry if the negatives were sharp and in focus. All they do is run the exposed negs through an automated machine which develops, fixes, washes and dries the negs and they come out the other end. If your negs do turn out to be sharp and in focus then yo uknow the problem lies with their printer and not your camera or lenses. The minilab printer I used was a bit older even a few years ago when I worked there but it had a small screen that you could see the image from the negative to adjust any colour casts etc as best you could. The only thing that might have gone wrong is if the minilab printer wasn't calibrated properly and it didn't print from the negs correctly. If this is true, you wouldn't be the only person going back to them about your photos being ruined!


Here is a related story of when I worked in a photolab (not idirected towards you Placebo....more towards the obnoxious attitude of the people who reside in and around Blackrock Shopping Centre )

I do remember one time an irate woman came in to have a go at me because her photos were blurred and blamed the shop for it. I tried to explain there was no physical way we could have done this to her images but she insisted that her faitful camera had been taking "excellent" and "perfect" photos for 10 years and there was "no way" the camera could be at fault....."absolutely no way" she said........I bit my tounge, checked the negs, saw they looked a little soft but told her I'd run a few prints from the roll and see how they looked (I had to do this before she would let me even look at the camera....remember it always took "excellent" and "perfect" photos!).
Anyway, the reprints were jsut the same. I offered to shoot a roll through her camera in the shop thee and then and process them and print them to see if the problem happened again if I couldn't see anything wrong with the camera.
I slid open the lens cover when I got the camera and instantly saw the problem....fingerprints smeared across with god kows what....as the camera wasn't SLR and used an approx viewfinder she never noticed the smudges. I assured her that the camera would continue to take "perfect" and "excellent" pictures for another 10 years if she managed to not smear crap across her lens.

PaulieC

OT...
I love those kinds of stories, where the customer comes in all indignant, shouting the odds, only to be proven wrong in the end and leaves with tail between their legs. I bouught a bathroom mirror with lights a few years ago from a bathroom shop on the Longmile road, went home and wired it up and fixed it to the wall. The next morning I heard an unmerciful crash and went into the bathroom. Lo and behold, the mirror was in pieces on the floor and the wiring was pulled out of the wall. In my anger, I picked up all the pieces, put them back in the box and straignt out to the shop. Walked in, ready for a big argument over faulty goods, only to be told by the woman in the shop that I hadn't fixed it to the wall correctly (which turned out to be true:o ). My wife was with me and she burst out laughing as she saw my face change from indignant to embarassed. In fairness, the shop knocked a few quid off the price of a replacement and I learned never to go off half-cocked any more...

Placebo

Ok thanks people, il try scan negs tomorrow. I really doubt its my error, its really child's play at this stage, anyway the negs will tell.
As for the lab, it really reeks of amateur, i think its really more pushed towards DIGITAL prints, theve alot of them machines there, poor old film is dying.

DotOrg

just look at the negs help up to the light. you should see if they are sharp or not

from the various fuji labs i've worked on, it is near impossible to make pictures turn our blurry