Beginner Developing old film

[Horsey]

View attachment 38628 View attachment 38628

Hello Folks, looking for some advice please.

I have acquired these film reels from my mother. Some of these are up to 35 years-old and naturally I'm very keen to crack these open and find out what's inside. As can you see, I have taken one of the 110? reels (sorry, I'm not good at identifying sizes) to snappy snaps, who processed it into the film roll you can see to the left. They have said the the bigger reels have to be sent away to be processed.

I don't know what to do from here. I'm quite happy for them to convert these into film, but the cost of converting them into a digital format is going to run at £20 per reel. My scanner does not have the facility to scan negatives and the film reel is too small for me to work with; therefore I am looking for a cost-effective way to go about this? Maybe a film/negative scanner I can buy in which (anything from about £80-100) to do this myself, and what sort of results I can expect with image quality, where the images were captured such a long time ago.

Thanks you anyone who can help, sorry if all this seems obvious but I'm a complete duffer at this sort of thing.

 

[swanseamale47]

The quality can vary, I've developed old black and white and got fair results, colour tends to degrade more though, how well they've been stored is also a factor. Scanning in 110 and 126 films (if they come out ok) should give a reasonable result, don't expect it to match what you get from a modern digital camera, 110 and 126 camera usually had cheap plastic lens.
I'd suggest you ask around your local photographic retailers/printers and see if anyone can dev them for you, then you'll be able to see whether it's worth converting them to digital. Keep in mind these cameras were often given to children to play with, or just used for snap shots the pics might not be what your hoping for.

 

[skysh4rk]

View attachment 38628

Hello Folks, looking for some advice please.

I have acquired these film reels from my mother. Some of these are up to 35 years-old and naturally I'm very keen to crack these open and find out what's inside. As can you see, I have taken one of the 110? reels (sorry, I'm not good at identifying sizes) to snappy snaps, who processed it into the film roll you can see to the left. They have said the the bigger reels have to be sent away to be processed.

I don't know what to do from here. I'm quite happy for them to convert these into film, but the cost of converting them into a digital format is going to run at £20 per reel. My scanner does not have the facility to scan negatives and the film reel is too small for me to work with; therefore I am looking for a cost-effective way to go about this? Maybe a film/negative scanner I can buy in which (anything from about £80-100) to do this myself, and what sort of results I can expect with image quality, where the images were captured such a long time ago.

Thanks you anyone who can help, sorry if all this seems obvious but I'm a complete duffer at this sort of thing.

To get better advice, you might want to consider posting in the film section of the forum rather than the post-processing section.

 

[TheBigYin]

To get better advice, you might want to consider posting in the film section of the forum rather than the post-processing section.

Sorted

 

[TheBigYin]

and now you're in the correct section...

start by having a look at some of the resources in here

more specifically - for the 110 and 126 (that's the big one - you can tell because it says 126 on it!) try these people...






Specialist: 110, 126, 127, Kodak disk, Kodachrome, etc.


110 Processing [City Photographic, Southampton]

AG Photographic C41 only 135/120/110/126 formats [Birmingham]

Fuji-The PhotoHippo Group [Burnley, Lancashire]

Old Film Processing [Ruislip, Middlesex]

Photo Supplies UK [Ventnor, Isle of Wight]

 

[ChrisR]

Hi Stuart, not sure if you're still interested in this. For those older formats, you'll almost certainly have to send the films away for processing. Of the quality labs most folk in F&C use, both Peak Imaging and AG Photolab (part of AG Photographic) do 110 and 126. Others may do so, but I'm not sure. Peak processing is excellent quality and they are fast turnround, but their scans can be a bit expensive:

Non Standard Film
We can also process 127, 126, 110 and a selection of obselete film including Kodachrome and C-22.
Please call 0114 224 3207 for details or email sales@peak-imaging.com.

AG Photolab mention these formats here; their prices are usually excellent, but their turnround can be quite slow. This may not be important if you're not dealing with current work. I see from that page that they offer a reasonable process only price, and a quite expensive process, scan and print price. You could try contacting them to ask about process and scan, no print, that could save you a bit.

Scanning some of these formats yourself could be a hassle, as film holders would be very hard to find. Don't buy one of those £80 scanners that's basically a 5mp camera in a box; you'd be better using your own digital camera with a light table, eg an iPad? I don't know how easy it would be to scan those formats on the Epson V500, a common work-horse scanner, but someone may come along and say.

 

[steveo_mcg]

Scanning those on a V500 will be a bear. You'd likely need to make film holders or get special glass to get a decent scan. I've tried laying film flat on the bed and it is far from satisfactory. If the developing company are offering scans for reasonable money I'd take it.

 

[TheBigYin]

If the developing company are offering scans for reasonable money I'd take it.