Film Developing in the UK

Don't know, I sent two 35mm and a 120, maybe enough with some other orders to put a batch. Maybe they just liked the nice note I sent :-D
 
Who doesn't like harribo, but a unicorn that's how you get your film dealt with!
 
If they saw my drawing skills I think I'd definitely end up at the bottom of the pile!
 
Thanks... hope that's fixed now (and I've asked Rob Musicman to update to show it's 120 as well as 35mm now).
 
ChrisR said:
Thanks... hope that's fixed now (and I've asked Rob Musicman to update to show it's 120 as well as 35mm now).
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I've got my editing privileges back with the new forum (let's see how long that lasts), OP now updated with that properly.
 
The Darkroom are my first choice for my colour dev work but after the trip to Westonbirt I was just filling in my order form and imagine my horror when I realised that they don't dev 5x4 C41 colour film :eek:

So a quick hunt and I found Palm Labs in Birmingham, a quick phone call to check that they do still process the film and some questions about turn round time and postage costs I sent off my films, 4 sheets of Ektar and 1 roll of Velvia 100. That's 5 films in their eyes so gets a 10% discount (y) They process c41 5x4 film on Tuesdays and Fridays so I got my film in the post Monday afternoon. I got a phone call from Palm onTuesday afternoon to let me know that the films had been dev'd and to take payment and the films dropped through my letterbox on Wednesday morning. Quality service and helpful as well. I asked them to cut the Velvia so that they would fit in Kenro sleeves which they did rather than their normal sleeves which are 4 frames per strip.

Very impressed and highly recommended so far :D
 
Found a reasonable one hour place near me. Heron Cross photos. http://www.heroncrossphotos.co.uk/35mm and aps/photo cd.htm One 35mm 36 roll, dev only £3 on one hour (y)

Negs not cut though which was a slight surprise but they weren't the usual scratched to buggery and water marked efforts that many one hour places produce. Certainly better than Max and cheaper. Last lot from them were dreadful.

Palm labs look good. Dip and dunk (y)
 
Palm Labs look interesting; also one of the few labs that don't charge differently for E6/C41 compared to B&W (which is usually treated as some sort of mythical process by many labs!).
 
Although they don't put on their price list anymore, Palm Labs also do a specialised developing service for document type films (e.g Tech Pan) to get normal contrast, as most of the dedicated developers (e.g technidol) these days are out of production and theres a lot of conflicting information on what to use instead as few of the remaining low contrast developers list times for these.

Their Flextight scans also look quite economical, so I might try them one day if I want any large scans.
 
medwaygreen said:
We as members of TP receive a 50p discount per film from photo express, however as the min order value is £4.50 plus 50p postage you need two films per order to take advantage on develop and scan only.

There service and work is superb, Posted another three films on Tuesday returned developed and scanned Thursday morning.
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Just to note that Photo Express now have a PO Box address, which they say should help deal with occasional delivery problems (they are apparently at the end of a long round, but will be able to pick up the PO Box mail on the way into work. They try to despatch the same day they receive orders, but say their business is building up.

The address is Photo Express, PO BOX 559, HULL, HU9 9JX.

(And of course, the base film price is £5 per film dev and scan, less 50p per film for TP members still, plus £1 return postage. But I can't see any quick way of getting film to them for less than £2.60 first class.)
 
Am i being really thick somewhere?... i have a roll of B&W ilford delta that rob gave me that needs developing and scanned to disc, had a look at ag thingy but what res do i go for? high res quotes me £24??
 
Cg_Girl said:
Am i being really thick somewhere?... i have a roll of B&W ilford delta that rob gave me that needs developing and scanned to disc, had a look at ag thingy but what res do i go for? high res quotes me £24??
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You probably don' need high res scans unless you are sure of your shots and expect to go for a large print. The low res scans are usually 1200 dpi at the negative; given a 35mm film has negatives that are 1" by 1.5", that means 1200 pixels on the short side. If printed at 300 dpi on the print, you'll get a 4" by 6" print, which I find a little small. On the other hand, if you're only putting it up on your laptop screen and/or the web, then 1200 dpi will be fine. I usually prefer the medium, which is around 1800-2000 dpi at the negative (it varies). OTOH I hate paying for medium res scans, so for black and white I get process only and scan it myself. Then I can choose the resolution per frame: 1200 dpi for the crud ones (just so I can see them), maybe 2400 dpi for ones I think are good. For a big print I'd scan at 3600 dpi (nominal in each case).
 
Oh no never sure of my shots, not sure i ever will be, at the moment they are just for internet i guess so the basic low res will be fine... I'm assuming that if by chance i had a super sh1t hot shot i could go back and re do if i wanted a print at a later date?
 
Cg_Girl said:
Am i being really thick somewhere?... i have a roll of B&W ilford delta that rob gave me that needs developing and scanned to disc, had a look at ag thingy but what res do i go for? high res quotes me £24??
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As the others say, you don't need large. But - have you checked the spreadsheet with all the prices in? AG Photolabs would do the process/large scan for £11.99 (plus return postage) and the medium for £7.99 (pp)

Edit: d'oh, you said you checked AG. Did you perhaps look at a quote for dev/scan/print?
 
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abdoujaparov said:
As the others say, you don't need large. But - have you checked the spreadsheet with all the prices in? AG Photolabs would do the process/large scan for £11.99 (plus return postage) and the medium for £7.99 (pp)

Edit: d'oh, you said you checked AG. Did you perhaps look at a quote for dev/scan/print?
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Actually i think i may have clicked dev/scan/print @ high res... i shall go back and look again.. thank you
 
ChrisR said:
I'm sure I've seen at least one of the companies listed in the front post of this thread offering a download service, at extra cost! I've just noted that UK Film Labs does not return a CD, but instead uses a download approach. Supposed to be good quality, rather longer turnround. http://ukfilmlab.com/faq/
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Yeah, UK Film Lab send you an email with a download link which includes all of your scans as well as a word document providing feedback regarding your exposures (e.g., underexposed, overexposed, etc.). Their scans are top notch (I usually get the small ones, which are big enough to print 8"x8" for my 6x6 120 film photos, but their large scans are really something). They also offer a discount to students.
 
I would vouch for the quality of UKfilmlab scanning. The only thing I am not keen on is how long it takes (i found the wait excruciating), and that they hold on to your negatives until there is a wedge to send back.
 
I've used Genie Imaging the other week and I had a test roll developed and scanned (2000x3000 pixels) which were emailed to me and the negs and cd posted afterwards.

Very happy with the service, took about 4 days. Sending them some E6 soon. Same price as C41.

Cheers
 
Sectionate said:
I would vouch for the quality of UKfilmlab scanning. The only thing I am not keen on is how long it takes (i found the wait excruciating), and that they hold on to your negatives until there is a wedge to send back.
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There's not much you can do about the wait, which I think is worth it for the quality, but you can request for them to send back the negatives if you really wanted them. I think it does make sense though to wait until you have a significant number of negatives to keep down the postage costs.
 
The wait definitely was worth it, considering they managed to scan some very abused Porta 400 exposures. I only had them send the negatives back this time, as I knew I wouldn't be shooting any film until christmas.
 
Sectionate said:
The wait definitely was worth it, considering they managed to scan some very abused Porta 400 exposures. I only had them send the negatives back this time, as I knew I wouldn't be shooting any film until christmas.
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Ah, right, so you've already had them send back your negatives? They still have all of mine (about 50-60 rolls worth).

As long as their scans continue to be of good quality, I don't really mind waiting to get them back. I suppose I'd mind more if I were sending them my black and white film and I wanted to optically print from the negatives.
 
so i got a few films to dev
35mm... black and white x1, e6 x1, c41 x5
120mm 2 velvia e6, 3 c41

oddly boots seem pretty good price wise, 4.99 for 24exp, 5.99 for 36exp, (including 6x4) and im fairly sure i got 9x6 prints for like £7.50 (inc dev) on a 36 roll. scans 2 quid extra (low res tho)
not sure what todo about the others :x, snappy snaps in norwich want £17quid for black and white, dev scan and 7x5 prints :O
 
Peak or The Darkroom.
 
The link in the first page of this thread to Peter Gaffney Film Labs (who have now merged with AG, I think) now leads to a page that my virus stuff says is an Attack Page, trying to load nasties onto my computer. Can we disable that link please? (@Musicman or @TheBigYin?)
 
ChrisR said:
The link in the first page of this thread to Peter Gaffney Film Labs (who have now merged with AG, I think) now leads to a page that my virus stuff says is an Attack Page, trying to load nasties onto my computer. Can we disable that link please? (@Musicman or @TheBigYin?)
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link broken
 
Peak, fastest turnaround ever! Posted 30 5x4's and 4 rolls of 35mm off on monday morning, got them back yesterday afternoon!
 
Blimey, that is quick...I usually post on a monday and they get back wed/thurs.
 
forgot about that post! just to set the record straight the card through the door wasn't the film coming back but a book i ordered and totally forgot about! the film came back the next day :)
 
I've got 3 films back from Genie today, 8 days after posting. There were 2 C41 35mm films, and one C41 120 roll. They sent the "entering production" email the day after I posted them, and the scans were done and the "films posted" email sent the day before I received them.

I was pretty disappointed at the turnround time. I had also sent an email requesting info about their prices and their "e-send" option, before ordering the films, and didn't hear back. I took a punt and paid £1 extra per film for e-send, as I wanted the films as quickly as possible to see if I needed to take further shots for this month's POTY. Nothing arrived, at least before the post arrived this morning with the processed films (signed for). I rang them, and they offered a credit note, and reluctantly agreed to refund £3 to my card when I explained that it was unlikely I'd be using them again. I had also left a phone message last Saturday that wasn't returned. This may all be a one-off; I know one TP member local to them who reports very good results.

The films look fine, the sleeves are nice. The 35mm films have been scanned at 2000 dpi (as Photo Express does) which is much more useful than most shops whose low res scans are 1200 dpi. The 120 645 film seems to have been scanned at about 900 dpi, giving a 5.4 mpixel scan, which also seems fine.

There were some errors in the Genie line in the handy price estimator, which I hope I have now corrected.
 
It's often quite difficult to work out what processing companies mean by low or medium resolution scans. Quite often they quote files sizes in mbytes, for the file opened in Photoshop rather than as saved on disk. Is it reasonable to assume that means 3 bytes per pixel, hence a 4mb image is 1.3 mpixel, while an 18mb image is 6 mpixel? The latter would be equivalent to 2000 dpi for a 1x1.5" 35mm frame...

I've generally got it sussed for 35mm film, I think, but I'm finding size information for 120 much more difficult to understand. Perhaps this isn't surprising when the actual frame sizes vary so much, from 60x45mm to 60x90mm...
 
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