To all those admittedly hipster owners of the trendy Instax camera, UP Town Center has become home…read moreto Fujifilm's well-loved Wonder Photo Shop from the Land of the Rising Sun all the way here. Though not a 2-storey building like its flagship store, the shop still excites the young'uns obsessed with anything retro. Fujifilm's trademark film cameras are available other than the Instax which comes in different colors and a few other designs including Hello Kitty and Minnie Mouse. Other than products catering to Instax and film camera owners, Wonder Photo Shop also offers tripods and camera bags, although that's about the only thing that could possibly catch the eyes of the male crowd. This store also provides a photo developing service, so no, non-users of Fujifilm are not entirely banned from this photography boutique.

I went to the shop just the other day to have an artwork printed for a client. I was assisted by…read moreAnna. When I returned after 30 minutes to claim my prints and USB (which contained important work files), they couldn't find my USB anywhere and, on top of that, Anna had printed the wrong images. I was told that Anna had already gone home and it seems that she took my USB with her. What made things worse was that they did not have Anna's contact number, and all they could do was message her on Facebook. The supervisor, Aris, and everyone in the store was very apologetic about it, but this kind of thing is unacceptable, especially since it concerns artwork/important work files. When I went back the next day, Anna didn't even apologize or bother to explain what happened. When I finally asked her, she said she took my USB because she didn't want it to get lost. I told her that I hadn't claimed my prints yet, and so I was actually going back to the store, and that they also have my mobile number in the form that I was asked to fill out. She had no answer to that and remained unapologetic. So it was a bad experience all in all. Store management was poor and inefficient, and Anna was very sketchy and unprofessional.

hindi helpful ang staff, tapos pinababayaran ng 1000 pesos per picture in excess sa package mo and…read moretake note soft copy 1000 pesos each! Great image sm aura bad experience

Looking for cute alternatives for Christmas cards and messages to send to families and friends…read morethrough the post and social media, one would perhaps invest in a studio-type set up with very flashy messages, editing, and make up options to send the message across with a picture in a very personal manner. For me, another option was the Tronix Imaging Center in Blue Wave, which was convenient, affordable, and allowed me to keep the digital copies of the photos I had made for a small price. With it, I was led into a room where there was a small studio that provided suggestions of what poses I could make. Then, I could select any backdrop or frame for my Christmas picture and message that they had in their collection. Within a few minutes, I had a personalized Christmas picture that doubled as a viable message to send via post, or to alternatively upload on Facebook to wish everyone a happy holiday season. Fast, convenient, and worth every Peso.

Fujifilm is considered as one of the leading photography and imaging company in the world. Whenever…read moreI have to develop images or I need photos to be digitally reconstructed, this is the first place that I go to. Fujifilm has all types of advanced digital and photofinishing equipment to make sure that they provide the best service to their loyal customers. I don't really print photos anymore. All of my memorable photos are stored inside my laptop. I usually go to Fujifilm for digital reconstruction. I have pictures of me and my family taken when I was a still a child and unfortunately, most of them are no longer in good shape. A lot of these pictures have been torn to pieces and there's no easy way to fix it unless you're an expert in using Photoshop. Good thing Fujifilm is here to fix all of these photos. When they were finally done digitally reconstructing the images, all of the photos looked good as new. It only took them an hour to completely finish everything.

All things analog have been getting a resurrection lately. The dust is blown off old vinyl records,…read morean old record player is given new life, and even the shutter of an old analog camera goes off again. More and more of my friends have been taking their old analog cameras for a spin again. Since they know that I have penchant for film photography, inquiries regarding film-processing centers is something I've been asked repeatedly. So for you old school shutterbugs out there who want their rolls of film developed, my suggestion is to visit the Fujifilm branch located in the basement of SM Megamall A. The shop does C-41 Processing (for color negative films) but they also accept cross-processing jobs for slide films. Having a roll processed will cost you less than Php 200. I usually don't have my photos printed. Instead, I have the photos scanned and saved into a CD. I just personally prefer to have a digital record of all my photos rather than having them printed out and gathering dust in my room. The whole service takes an hour, ample time for you to check out the rest of the mall.

I wanted to surprise my mom with a photo album filled with photos of our last family trip, all…read moreprinted out, captioned, and organized. She always complained how we never develop our photos anymore and just because it's all digital, it always just goes straight to Facebook. "Pano pag mawala na sa Facebook?" I would always chuckle but then I'd remember the very real situation of uploaded-photos-being-erased like what happened with Multiply. So I wanted to look for a good photo printing place for those precious travel photos. My experience with the more easily accessible printing centers in malls was quite wanting. My photos were always overly edited, colors were too saturated, or the print wasn't that clear, like it were just printed at home. So I was looking for the old "master" which was Kodak. The problem was there weren't much kodak stalls around anymore and since I heard they were going out of business internationally, I thought maybe they were gone here in Manila! But finally, I found one right inside Xanland in Katipunan. This was a Kodak Express and they were very much alive and kicking, yay! The prices were right, just the average (even similar to those below standard photoprinting places), and they had all printing options available. Matte, glossy, various sizes, white margin or none, etc. They were very much ready to receive my over a hundred photos and I trusted that it would all come out well. The lady who assisted me was also very nice about me making just a super minimal downpayment because I didn't have a lot of cash at the moment. When I picked my photos the next day, they were all perfect! Here's to hoping this store won't close out soon! I realized we still need these kinds of place, huhu.

While some would say that Kodak didn't really manage to come to terms with the digital age, it is…read morestill thriving, alive and well in the Philippines with its offers for quick printing and for the various needs of 1 x 1 or 2 x 2 photos for work and office related purposes. It is not uncommon to see a Kodak still in business in the country, making sure that precious moments are still printed and immortalized in glossy or matte photographs, and also ensuring that there is always a go-to area for the standard pick up and creation of photographs for applications or other such purposes. Ever a necessity for students, workers, or even those who are just fans of old-fashioned scrapbooks, the Kodak business manages to maintain a strong following today for its reliable and dependable services that still continue to produce good quality products, even in an age where most soft copies do not see print and uploading photos on social media is the trend.

Every once in a while, you are reminded that although the world is mostly in digital, people still…read morehave their photos printed and you will occasionally need to do that as well, in the form of an ID photo. I was getting a new account at Landbank in Ali Mall and I needed to get ID photos, so I went on down to the Photoline to do it. I pass by the place all the time and have always noticed the fair number of people in the place all the time, as well as the all too familiar vinegar-y scent of film stop bath, which I guess is still used even in this day and age. The place only had a staff of two, and even if there were only us three customers there, it did take a bit of time to get my ID-taking arranged and actually get photographed. The photo studio itself was big, like a good third the size of the whole store, though most everything in it felt a little makeshift, other than the lights. There was a bunch of supplies in the corner and the risers they had looked a little ratty. And just a suggestion to them: maybe you could have their mirror raised to eye level, guys? The dude snapped a pic of me and I went on my merry way to wait for thirty minutes. I was surprised it took so long still to get an ID picture--they should have those rush ID photobooths in the corner, I'm sure they'd get a lot more customers in there reliving that magic. All in all, it was an okay experience and I got my photos fine. I looked a little fug in them, but that's my fault more than theirs.