Film Developing in the UK

It's good to see there are new labs popping up. Although, given the price of film these days it's probably more a leap of faith than anything else.
 
Plain Nev said:
It's good to see there are new labs popping up. Although, given the price of film these days it's probably more a leap of faith than anything else.
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I'm not so sure about that. At least one company is moving back into film processing equipment

www.catlabs.info

CatLABS

Large format cameras, lenses, film holders, darkroom equipment, Jobo sales and service. We carry large format cameras and lenses, Jobo machines,...
www.catlabs.info www.catlabs.info

although at $75,000 dollars and the necessity for a larger darkroom I think I'll give it a miss.

It seems that they think the demand is there.
 
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New price list for Filmdev from 1 April this year. Now have dev-only options (£3.50 C41, £6 BW). Dev plus small scans £4.50 and £8 respectively, and medium scans £6.50 and £10. They also now offer "12x8 inch digital contact print" for £3 either way. Also, there's now a minimum £1.50 fee for return of negatives, though they will securely destroy them for free!

I'm guessing many other providers will have put up prices, who can blame them? I suppose I should gird my loins for an update on the nifty dev/scan price comparator, which is definitely very out of date...

( wonder if G$$gle Docs can upload from an Apple Numbers document, now that Excel has stopped working on my Mac? If not, I'll have to export as Excel first, I guess.)
 
I have found that I can upload unreadable-on-my-pc Microsoft documents to Microsoft OneDrive and read and download them (in readable format) back to my PC. It might work for you if the software is Microfossil (an amusing autocorrect for Microsoft I encountered years ago :)).
 
ChrisR said:
New price list for Filmdev from 1 April this year. Now have dev-only options (£3.50 C41, £6 BW). Dev plus small scans £4.50 and £8 respectively, and medium scans £6.50 and £10. They also now offer "12x8 inch digital contact print" for £3 either way. Also, there's now a minimum £1.50 fee for return of negatives, though they will securely destroy them for free!

I'm guessing many other providers will have put up prices, who can blame them? I suppose I should gird my loins for an update on the nifty dev/scan price comparator, which is definitely very out of date...

( wonder if G$$gle Docs can upload from an Apple Numbers document, now that Excel has stopped working on my Mac? If not, I'll have to export as Excel first, I guess.)
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Might be worth getting a free copy of LibreOffice, which can handle most file formats and I think talk to your Google account.
 
Thanks @StephenM and @Retune. I do have LibreOffice, though not a Microfossil account (interesting that Microfossil is NOT flagged upas a miss-spelling). I'm going to stick with Apple Numbers though, it's generally easy enough to use and everything is there, just in a slightly different place or with different nomenclature. In the main, it's Exc€l formulae that drive me bat-sh!t crazy, specially when I have to express things like "display the sum of the 135 and 120 costs for C41, E6 and BW films except where there are a non-zero number of E6 films, in which case display X for all costs", which currently appears as:

IF((35mm Base data::Table 1::confused:D$5+35mm Base data::Table 1::confused:C$5+120 Base data::Table 1::confused:D$5+120 Base data::Table 1::confused:C$5)=0,35mm Base data::Table 1::N12+120 Base data::Table 1::N12,"X")

...which is apparently wrong, since it throws an error in some cases! However, this is surely not the place to get into a diversion on the detailed horrors of spreadsheet formulae (generally speaking, I think I have to re-cast all the formulae).

It's probably also not the place to divert into a discussion of postal costs going up, £4.45 for small parcel bought in the Post Office!!!!!

I wonder whether folk think it a good idea to include a link for each provider? Also, date last checked on the Summary rather than the base data pages?

Anyway, I also note now that Filmdev have only put their C41 prices up by 50p (and added a return postage charge), BW prices not changed at all. AG don't seem to have changed their prices, and Photo Express up by £1, that's all I've done so far.
 
ChrisR said:
It's probably also not the place to divert into a discussion of postal costs going up, £4.45 for small parcel bought in the Post Office!!!!!
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Just been caught out by this increase from £3.85 this afternoon, but went for first class to hopefully have it delivered to Filmdev before the holiday weekend. Second class has only gone up by 15p to £3.35, so that'll be the norm in future I think. Even the woman in the PO said it seemed outrageous for a single film that weighs next to nothing, but "size matters" as the car advert used to say. :grumpy:
 
Peter B said:
Just been caught out by this increase from £3.85 this afternoon, but went for first class to hopefully have it delivered to Filmdev before the holiday weekend. Second class has only gone up by 15p to £3.35, so that'll be the norm in future I think. Even the woman in the PO said it seemed outrageous for a single film that weighs next to nothing, but "size matters" as the car advert used to say. :grumpy:
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I manage to get my 120 through as large letter which was £1.29, 35mm depends who is at the desk whether I get large letter or small parcel, fortunately I don't use much 35mm. The irony is if I run the film in myself to Spectrum in Plymouth by motorcycle it costs me less in petrol than postage on small parcel. Plus I get a ride. :D
 
ChrisR said:
(interesting that Microfossil is NOT flagged upas a miss-spelling).
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Microfossils are exactly what you might think they are - tiny fossils! Under 1mm or so in size so tiny seashells, pollen grains and the like.
 
Topsy said:
I manage to get my 120 through as large letter which was £1.29, 35mm depends who is at the desk whether I get large letter or small parcel, fortunately I don't use much 35mm. The irony is if I run the film in myself to Spectrum in Plymouth by motorcycle it costs me less in petrol than postage on small parcel. Plus I get a ride. :D
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There are a few who do this Paul, but the problem comes at the delivery end when too many like this would end up in excess charges to the recipient. While Filmdev might do this for the odd film, I can't see them being happy to do it on a more regular basis. (Do I take it that you don't use a padded envelope then?)
 
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Peter B said:
There are a few who do this Paul, but the problem comes at the delivery end when too many like this would end up in excess charges to the recipient. While Filmdev might do this for the odd film, I can't see them being happy to do it on a more regular basis. (Do I take it that you don't use a padded envelope then?)
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I do use a small padded envelope Peter. I post in a small village Post Office, maybe they are a bit more liberal with the sizing but I have never had a problem from RM at the other end. I could go and fetch my negs from Spectrum (probably should because his P&P is over 4 quid. I don't know what other labs will do but I have a good relationship with Spectrum and they are close enough for me to drop off and pick up and until now I have usually used the RM but as the prices have risen I may go to drop and collect for cost purposes. I should point out that when I ride my bikes I don't count the fuel costs because it's pleasure. :D
 
Bike parking is also usually free!
 
ChrisR said:
I wonder whether folk think it a good idea to include a link for each provider? Also, date last checked on the Summary rather than the base data pages?
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Yesterday I re-checked the prices for the nifty dev/scan price checker, re-did various formulae, and added links and "last date checked" to my local version (in Apple Numbers). Today I hope to give it a few more checks and upload to G@@gle Docs. The biggest problem I can see at the moment is inconsistency in "small" and "medium" scan sizes for 120. I'm using 6x6 as the comparator where they distinguish between the two, but I'm pretty sure the sizes are very different.
 
ChrisR said:
Yesterday I re-checked the prices for the nifty dev/scan price checker, re-did various formulae, and added links and "last date checked" to my local version (in Apple Numbers). Today I hope to give it a few more checks and upload to G@@gle Docs. The biggest problem I can see at the moment is inconsistency in "small" and "medium" scan sizes for 120. I'm using 6x6 as the comparator where they distinguish between the two, but I'm pretty sure the sizes are very different.
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OK I've uploaded a new version of the Nifty Dev/Scan price estimator. G$$gle Docs wouldn't accept Apple Numbers, so I had to export it to Excel first. I got a slightly weird message in the process, so this needs checking. I've also attempted to protect the sheets so that only the 6 cells for updating the numbers of rolls are editable. Could someone please check that (a) you can edit the number of rolls, and (b) that the rest is un-editable? Thanks, Chris

PS I'm aware that the Photo Hippo answers are not in currency format. Not quite sure why this is. Rather than re-upload it, I tried to edit the sheet, and got an answer in dollars! If anyone knows how to change that to £ I'd be grateful. Thanks
 
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ChrisR said:
OK I've uploaded a new version of the Nifty Dev/Scan price estimator. G$$gle Docs wouldn't accept Apple Numbers, so I had to export it to Excel first. I got a slightly weird message in the process, so this needs checking. I've also attempted to protect the sheets so that only the 6 cells for updating the numbers of rolls are editable. Could someone please check that (a) you can edit the number of rolls, and (b) that the rest is un-editable? Thanks, Chris

PS I'm aware that the Photo Hippo answers are not in currency format. Not quite sure why this is. Rather than re-upload it, I tried to edit the sheet, and got an answer in dollars! If anyone knows how to change that to £ I'd be grateful. Thanks
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It appears I didn't actually include the link to the nifty dev/scan price estimator in that last post! Now updated, and also here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...nXEHQzeJ6jHeoT7sZZylDSzjo/edit#gid=1698421248

Now it's Photo Express that is integers rather than currency. Colour me confused!

PS, it appears if you add one 135 and one 120 film, the Filmdev numbers (at least, may be true of others) count the postage twice! I thought I had code in there to stop that. Drawing board again...
 
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I hope I've corrected the bugs, and simplified the formulae in the process. A new version of the nifty dev/scan price estimator has been uploaded today here:

docs.google.com

Nifty UK dev/scan price estimator

Summary UK Film processing and scanning price estimator (Beware, prices may be out of date),For Talk Photography users! Enter the number of film rolls in appropriate boxes below: Numbers,C41 colour neg,E6 slide,Black and white,Totals 35mm (135) FILM,2,0,0,2 120 film,0,0,0,0 2,Total films Supplie...
docs.google.com docs.google.com

The page should be protected except for the 6 cells where users can put in their film numbers. I'm never sure if I've done this properly. Can someone please check and confirm that (a) you can change the numbers of films, and (b) you can't change anything else? Thanks
 
ChrisR said:
I hope I've corrected the bugs, and simplified the formulae in the process. A new version of the nifty dev/scan price estimator has been uploaded today here:

docs.google.com

Nifty UK dev/scan price estimator

Summary UK Film processing and scanning price estimator (Beware, prices may be out of date),For Talk Photography users! Enter the number of film rolls in appropriate boxes below: Numbers,C41 colour neg,E6 slide,Black and white,Totals 35mm (135) FILM,2,0,0,2 120 film,0,0,0,0 2,Total films Supplie...
docs.google.com docs.google.com

The page should be protected except for the 6 cells where users can put in their film numbers. I'm never sure if I've done this properly. Can someone please check and confirm that (a) you can change the numbers of films, and (b) you can't change anything else? Thanks
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Brilliant thanks Chris, I’ve got a load of films ready to send off so I’ll check it out later
 
ChrisR said:
I hope I've corrected the bugs, and simplified the formulae in the process. A new version of the nifty dev/scan price estimator has been uploaded today here:

docs.google.com

Nifty UK dev/scan price estimator

Summary UK Film processing and scanning price estimator (Beware, prices may be out of date),For Talk Photography users! Enter the number of film rolls in appropriate boxes below: Numbers,C41 colour neg,E6 slide,Black and white,Totals 35mm (135) FILM,2,0,0,2 120 film,0,0,0,0 2,Total films Supplie...
docs.google.com docs.google.com

The page should be protected except for the 6 cells where users can put in their film numbers. I'm never sure if I've done this properly. Can someone please check and confirm that (a) you can change the numbers of films, and (b) you can't change anything else? Thanks
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Can't change anything, even the highlighted boxes, on your online master copy. Can only add comments. Can however save a copy to my Google Drive, or download as an xls or ods file and edit anything so the protection does not carry over to downloads or use on Google. So will work for most folks on a computer, on an Android phone or tablet it tries to tell you to use the Google Sheets App and there everything is also locked.

At least like this the original is secure.

(y)
 
Thanks David. I never (or only very rarely) edit the sheet on Docs, I just upload a new copy from the spreadsheet on my Mac.

@RaglanSurf glad to be of service, but I suspect most of us know the answers anyway!
 
OK I msread David's comments; it was in fact impossible to input the numbers of rolls. I think I have now fixed that (remembered that I'm not signed in to Google on Firefox, so that's now my test rig). Do let me know if you find any more problems, please!
 
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Thanks for taking the time to produce this.

I have not had a film developed for more years than I care to remember. I recently bought a 1960s half frame camera for sentimental reasons and will soon need a film to be processed. Do most people go for processing and medium scans?
 
Brentor said:
Thanks for taking the time to produce this.

I have not had a film developed for more years than I care to remember. I recently bought a 1960s half frame camera for sentimental reasons and will soon need a film to be processed. Do most people go for processing and medium scans?
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I think that generally this is the case, I always get medium scans from filmdev and they are fine for most purposes. If I need to print anything larger than A4, a very rare occurrence, I rescan the negative myself.
 
ChrisR said:
As a MX lover, have you actually looked through that viewfinder recently? It's one of the largest, brightest and best in the whole business AFAIK! ;)

... although focusing depends to a certain extent on which screen is loaded. Mine does not have the split prism in the centre, just an extra smooth area of ground glass. I really like it, but I do often track in and out a few times to get the focus spot on. I've a split prism in my Pentax ME, and in some circumstances it's easier.

I did have a PZ-1, pretty much fully teched up, but sold it after half a dozen rolls as it was too close to a digital camera experience, so I guess you can see where I'm coming from!
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Pentax P50 and Z-1p here, mostly used P50 recently to use up some old EliteChrome (5 pack bought with processing vouchers for 20EUR in 2010-1, single roll of E100 was 21EUR at the weekend). Focussing with an F50/1.7 was a dream, compare that with a Nikkor 50/1.4G that's gone back to Nikon for AF issues..

I still use Peak - never let me down...... Used to use Colab (are they still around?) and TranspaColor (same?) prior to this.
 
Kent Kernow said:
First batch of films posted today to Filmdev, first time in many many years that I have posted films off for developing, hopefully the results will be good.
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Update:- I have the scans but as yet no negatives back but that could be due to the bank holiday on Monday. I would like to say that the scans I received are excellent, no issues with Filmdev at all and I will happily use them again.
 
Kent Kernow said:
Update:- I have the scans but as yet no negatives back but that could be due to the bank holiday on Monday. I would like to say that the scans I received are excellent, no issues with Filmdev at all and I will happily use them again.
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They normally keep the negs back for a week or so in case of any issue with the scans, so I expect you'll get them soon.
 
Peter B said:
They normally keep the negs back for a week or so in case of any issue with the scans, so I expect you'll get them soon.
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Negatives arrived this morning all nicely slipped into Kenro negative files, and the 35mm was cut into strips of 6 rather than the old mini lab practice of cutting the film into strips of 4 which is so much better.

Very happy with my first experience of Filmdev.
 
As noted elsewhere, Peak Imaging have ceased trading. Could someone with the Power adjust the front page, of this thread please?
 
Brentor said:
That’s a shame, did they give a reason.
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See:
RumpFace said:
They've had to close unfortunately. I left there 4 years ago and keep in touch with a few from there but i can confirm they're no more. Very sad for everyone there.
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RumpFace said:
I wouldn't like to speculate [on reason for closure], but all things move towards their own end. It'll be strange going to get my occasional films done by someone i don't personally know.
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Looks like Palm Labs in Birmingham has gone now as well sadly. Shame as they'd been in business for nearly 40 years and I was planning on sending them some E6 shortly as they still offered mounting (I'm old-fashioned and like projecting slides). They had been very helpful a couple of times in the past with offering a hand developing service for Kodak Technical Pan and other scientific/technical films in a specialist low contrast developer. The service wasn't listed in their prices once I went to send it to them after previously seeing about it on their website, but they did it for me anyway when I enquired and were very happy to do so.
 
What a very useful thread this is, and the spreadsheet is superb. Thank you to all involved.
 
1855 said:
What a very useful thread this is, and the spreadsheet is superb. Thank you to all involved.
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I have a more up to date version on my Mac, but it's a faff to upload now my MS Office licence has expired (it's on Apple Numbers), so I delayed, and now I'll have to check the prices again!

Please, always, always, always check the prices before making any decisions...
 
ChrisR said:
I have a more up to date version on my Mac, but it's a faff to upload now my MS Office licence has expired (it's on Apple Numbers), so I delayed, and now I'll have to check the prices again!

Please, always, always, always check the prices before making any decisions...
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If you want to send it to me, I can convert if you'd like me to.
 
RaglanSurf said:
If you want to send it to me, I can convert if you'd like me to.
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I can export to Excel format, but IIRC it's changed a lot of things from the original Excel sheet, eg some rages become lists of cells. But G$$gle spreadsheet also seems to have changed in the protection area, which took me ages to sort out last time. I try to protect all 3 sheets except for the area where you fill in the numbers of films, and the previous way of protecting the front sheet except that set of cells stopped working. I really should get round to it!

PS I've left Peak on there with a line through it and all Xs just as a reminder!
 
Musicman said:
ChrisR has put together a nifty price estimator for 35mm & 120 Dev + Scan on Google Docs
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I've just uploaded an update to this. Please note, prices are extremely volatile at the moment, so the caveat lector is even more of a caveat than usual... please check after the spreadsheet has given you some ideas about where you might want to go. Also says absolutely nothing about quality, turnround times, etc...
 
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