Iris Photo & Digital

I don’t have too much to add to what the other negative reviewers have written. The customer service is horrible. They tell you what you want to hear on the phone, so that they can get off the phone, because they hate you, but then when you drive over to Northampton to try and pick up your pictures because they told you your photos are going to be ready, they are not ready. They are never ready. And then the same workers who were all «yes, we will have your photos ready» in a dismissive way on the phone, are similarly dismissive in person. Even though you drove over there. If you are going to do business with Iris, make sure you are ready to uncomfortably battle and nag and demand, and ultimately cancel your order.

Update: I did finally get my first set of prints. They came out great! The girl who helped me is named Sequoia, and she is very nice. She was the girl who helped me load my film the first time. She even asked my opinion about how I wanted to print my double exposure picture (since the dimensions were different than the other pictures). I was so excited, I brought in another roll to be developed! However, the printer broke again while I was waiting for them to be ready. I’m beginning to think they need a new printer. I would be annoyed, but I don’t mind, since the first set of pictures came out so beautifully!

As noted the customer service is not very good, but it is undoubtedly the best film developing shop I’ve been to this century. Actually, it’s the only film developing shop I’ve been to this century.

Iris is OK for printing the typical wallet size photos or 3×5 or 4×6 sizes.
But if quality prints are your desire, it is definitely not the place to go. Unfortunately this took me a long time to learn.
Anything bigger than those small prints turn out to be very poor quality. Compared to the digital files (shot in RAW or JPEG), the colors are not true –no longer vibrant and rich, exposure and contrast are usually off, and my personal gripe — skies that look fine in the digital file end up blown out. To test this, I recently printed a few out on my inkjet printer, and the prints were definitely closer to my digital files than the Iris prints.
In summary, Iris Photo is not the place to get an excellent print that is worthy of framing and hanging on the wall, or including in a photo book.
And, the machinery is way too often «down» or the photos are inexplicably delayed well beyond when promised.
Iris is mediocre at best. But it is conveniently located.

No huge complaints here. I was in and out and received my photos on time and the folks were nice enough. Three stars because I payed nearly 11 bucks for two tiny passport photos; I’m not sure if that’s the going rate but it seems a little steep.

Because Iris promised 8“x12″ prints in an hour, I decided to give them a try for processing two prints that I wanted to frame. I dropped them off one morning, and was told I could pick them up an hour later. Due to my schedule, I didn’t go back until the next day. Unfortunately, they weren’t ready. The owner explained that he had had a machine break down the day before, and didn’t get them done (so no one could call me or email me to let me know about the delay, since I was driving 20 minutes to get to the store?). But he did promise that they would be ready in 30 minutes. So I decided to wait. I’m glad I did. My prints came out beautifully, and I was able to get nice mats to use because the local big box craft store doesn’t carry mats for over-​sized digital prints. I now have two beautifully framed photos.
BUT, this lack of customer attention has happened to us before. Two months ago, my husband dropped off some negatives that he wanted printed; some of these were over 50 years old and we had been told that Iris could do them. He was told that it would take a week to print them out. When my husband went back to pick them up, he was told that the person who could have printed them had left the company, and there wasn’t anyone there with the knowledge to print them. Had we known that, we could have picked them up sooner. This seems to be a habit of Iris; not letting your customer know about the status of an order than can’t or hasn’t been filled.

What an incredible disappointment. One would think that they’d work hard to prove their film processing and printing would be worth the considerable cost and effort that film afficiendos make, but sadly they seem to churn out processing and printing without regard to the end result. Full disclosure, I worked for Vermont Color ten years ago, and their policy was to correct for poor exposure and give the customer as beautiful print as the negative would allow. This business does not have such a policy, given my experience. I am no novice when it comes to using film, but the prints I received were appalling. The last ten rolls that I processed here has at least one of the following: scanning of negatives that resulted in scratches on at least one frame per roll (without a consistency that would indicate camera error but instead their error), overexposure that could easily be corrected by a reprint even if the fault was mine, and overcharge of services that took two visits to correct.
A professional photographer I know uses Comcolor in Springfield, and I will follow her recommendation in the future. Also, as a former employee of Vermont Color, I recommend VC.
Iris has permanently lost my business due to the problems that are attached to each transaction.
Ps — the one positive review to date about Iris specifically referred to former employee Sloan, who has moved on to form his own business, but I have not yet experienced his work, so cannot make a recommendation one way or the other

I had a wonderful experience!
As I become serious about photography I realize It’s foolish to print my photos else where. The results are night and day.
On my first visit to the store I was greeted by a smiling, energetic young woman, Hannah. She took all the time I needed in trying to figure out how to present for my first show. Hannah took the time to go through various print, color and framing options. We sat at a large monitor and ensured the JPG was clear enough to be printed as large as I wanted. We even refined the clarity.
There are several self serve printers or for larger prints the staff will print. And unlike a previous post: they told me exactly when my print would be finished.
Thanks Iris, for a great experience!

The first time I brought in photos to be printed here, they came back looking fine, so I was happy, despite the rather rude man behind the counter. The second time was an utter disaster. Rude man had told me that photos are generally processed in an hour. I was hoping to print (some of the very same) pictures as a gift, and went through the online system to save time. In 4 hours, the photos were not only not ready, but the same rude man said «I don’t know who told you we can print pictures that fast. Try at the end of the day today.» I went back in twice more before the photos were finally ready 2 days later. They looked terrible. Really dark and over-​saturated. When I called (to save myself yet another trip), the person I spoke with (eventually) apologized and (begrudgingly) agreed to process a refund, which never came, despite repeated requests. Then I started hearing similar stories about Iris from friends. I like to support local businesses, but give me something to work with!

Went here looking for a new lens and the young woman who helped me knew absolutely nothing about cameras! I wouldn’t consider myself knowledgable regarding photography equipment so if she had been the least bit helpful I would have rated this place higher. Her attitude was very «blah» and she didn’t inquire if there was a manager around who could actually assist me.

The management here has pitiful customer service skills. When a print of mine came out too dark they basically said «tough luck» and when an order of mine was late because they misplaced my order form, I was also greeted with a «too bad» attitude. To top it off, some of my prints were cropped wrong and one was crooked.
With Iris, what you get is what you get, even if it’s not what you wanted.
It’s sad when a big company like Staples can outshine you’re service skills.
And I miss Ritz.

I love a place that is honest and customer-​service oriented enough to sell you a camera that they do not have in stock. Spoke with a guy named Sloan for a while on the pros and cons of several cameras, with both of us finally deciding that the best camera for me was one they didn’t have currently. Customer service is a huge factor for me.
It’s a small place so their stock isn’t as robust as big stores like Best Buy but you get personalized service and it’s always great to support local businesses. Highly recommended.