Lost Photos.

[TuscanR]

Dear all,
This is my first post on this thread and I would really appriciate your adivce and opinions.
I went to the British Grand Prix first qualifying (the first time I had seen a Formula 1 car in the flesh) I have a Cannon EOS 300V, In the past I have used Fuji Sensia iso 400 and 800 to good effect, with the 400 being process paid slide film. I purchased three rolls of film for Silverstone and snapped away to my hearts content. Now here comes the trouble in paradise, I sent two films to the Fuji lab a couple of days later and recieved one back three days later, a week passed and nothing and now nearly a month later still nothing, I contacted the Fuji lab and quoted the packaging number but they have no record of this film They weren't very helpful to say the least and I would love to get the pictures back, do I have any chance and how do I go about things ?? they were sent first class, can the post office trace them ?????

Any help would be greatly appricated.

[redshoes]

Did you send the 2 films together (in the same envelope) or seperately? I assume the latter as Fuji received one of the films.

Unless you sent registered/recorded delivery it's unlikely the Post Office will be much help. If you got a certificate of posting then you can claim for a lost item up to a maximum of £28. Effectively you'll get the cost of a new roll of film back. If you didn't get a certificate of posting (who does?) then you'll get nothing.

Most photo labs if they lose a film will only pay for the cost of the film, not the commercial value of the pictures, so again you'll be luck to get a new roll of film. Don't know specifically about Fuji that's the smallprint on most labs' order forms.

Have to admit it's something I've never done myself but some places recomend you put a label with your name and address on the roll. That way if it does get seperated from the envelope/order form there a chance it will still get back to you. Of course that's not much help to you now.

[TuscanR]

Thanks redshoes, oh well heres hoping for a miracle and that they pop through the door tomorrow morning!!

[Tim Falce]

You could try and push for a full claim, although not sure what sort of value you would be able to put on the films. There have been a few cases where people have won enough to pay for holidays where films have been lost, despite the processors get out clauses. Good luck.

[G_Ilott]

I had a film back from Fuji, two months after they had told me they'd never received it. Out of several dozen films sent to them, there has only been that one problem and it turned out okay.

[Les]

I always used to put those labels on the films just in case the envelope split which it did once. I had films come back one at a time but I did get them all back.

[iucrmh]

Not much good to you now, but a tip I heard on ten-tenths some time ago, was to produce an A4 card or piece of paper with name and address in bold and shoot that as your first frame. That way your pictures should turn up somewhere and be identified.

[G_Ilott]

Good tip, er, 'iucrmh'. Might be a bit impractical for motorsport where you're typically changing films quickly in order not to miss on-track action. I might try that out for my landscape photography though. Good tip.

Do you ever get slides back where half of the first frame is from someone else's film? My last batch had two films with someone's picture of (possibly Indonesian) coastline from a small boat.