Film Developing in the UK

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Rob Telford
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Film Developing in the UK - Film Developing in the UK

Where to get your film processed in the UK.

Quick and dirty collation of the collected wisdom of F&C and my own bookmarks.

I'll revise and expand upon this list based on feedback. May be tempted to separate the various formats and processes (E6, C41, etc.) out and list each supplier of processing if I have the time.

Other suggestions welcome.

Oh, and this sort of thing is gagging for a database... :)



High Street Chains Availability may vary by area

Asda
Boots
Costco
Jessops
Snappy Snaps
Tesco

Mail Order (in alphabetical order)

Primarily 135 (35mm) check each site for 120 availability

AG Photographic C41/E6/B&W 135/120/110/126 formats [Birmingham]

CC Imaging [Leeds, Yorkshire]

Club 35 [London W2]

The Darkroom UK [Cheltenham, Gloucestershire]

DLab 7 [Guernsey] Service no longer available

DS Colour Labs [Manchester]

Filmdev [Stockton on Tees]

Fuji - The PhotoHippo Group
[Burnley, Lancashire]

Genie Imaging [Wandsworth, London SW12] processing line now closed

Ilford Lab [Mobberley, Cheshire] b/w d&p only.

Lab 35 Imaging [Luton, Bedfordshire]

Lomography

MPS Imaging [Liverpool, Merseyside]

Palm Laboratory [Birmingham]

Peak Imaging [Sheffield]

Peter Gaffney Metro Colour Lab [Birmingham]

Photo Express [Hull, Yorkshire]

Snaps Photo Services [Bournemouth]

Spectrum [Plymouth, Devon]

UK Film Lab [Chesterfield, Derbyshire] now closed and moved to canada.

West End Cameras [London W1]

Carmencita Film Lab [Valencia, Spain]




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]

Process C22 [Margate, Kent] now definitely out of business sadly





Drop-In

Bayeux [London W1]

Metro Imaging [London EC1]

Silverprint in London SE1 have a darkroom with dev + hand printing services up to 40" x 60"



Read more about this resource...
 
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erm might be worth mentioning that Asda can dev and scan to a CD in about 50mins while you shop and can do it weekends as well.
 
Whilst I haven't personally used either, it's probably worth adding these two as a potential option:

Snaps Photo Services
West End Cameras

And just a quick comment, I used Fuji Burnley for C41 dev+scan and I was very happy with the results, the communication and the scans themselves (3000x2000). I have also used Genie for C41 dev only, and was also happy with the results. Just don't forget that prices on their (very awful, clunky) website don't include VAT so factor that cost in.
 
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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.
 
Metro aren't in Birmingham.
The only traditional lab here is Palm http://www.palmlabs.co.uk/

I should have been clearer in my naming.

Not the same Metro as in London, that was Metro Colour Lab in Goodman Street, Birmingham B1.

Added Metro Imaging in London. I'd misread their web site and thought they'd dropped film processing from their services.
 
Jessops (only 2 Ss) should be able to do 35mm dev and scan, and 120 C41 dev only in almost all stores. It's worth noting against them that sometimes you need to remind them that they can dev 120 C41 even if they can't scan it.

As far as I am aware, all Snappy Snaps are unable to dev 120 of any chemistry and will send the film to Peak Imaging.
 
PhotoExpress will only do C-41 in B&W
 
I went into Tesco the other day and asked the turn-around time for film...and he said 7 working days WTF I used to get it done with CD, on site in 45mins.......so Asda get my trade while having the film done as I always buy something.
 
Are Asda pretty good then? How much do they charge?

Like the other supermarket developing options, the service and quality depends on the individual branch, who is working there at the time, how fresh the chemicals are and the patience & workmanship of the operator of the machines. Which can range from excellent (and many people swear by supermarket processing) to absolutely tragic (very scratched negatives, terrible scans) etc.

Best thing to do is to send a test roll off for processing and decide from there - the number of supermarkets processing film is dwindling though, so you may also not have any locally that offer it.
 
Are Asda pretty good then? How much do they charge?

Well you have to find a good Asda, and when you do it's £2 for dev and £1 to scan to a CD and you also get a thumbnail sheet of your shots..all in a nice package.
 
Well you have to find a good Asda, and when you do it's £2 for dev and £1 to scan to a CD and you also get a thumbnail sheet of your shots..all in a nice package.
Wow that is cheap. Is that C41 only, or does it include E6?
 
Not sure about other branches, but the only company that develops film anymore in my local area is Costco - they do developing for £1.50 per film and CD writing too (can't remember the price of that though, its around £2 per film. If you talk nicely they'll burn em all to one disk to save money though).

On a good day they get it within 30 minutes but usually 1 hour, quality is never below excellent.
 
Not sure about other branches, but the only company that develops film anymore in my local area is Costco - they do developing for £1.50 per film and CD writing too (can't remember the price of that though, its around £2 per film. If you talk nicely they'll burn em all to one disk to save money though).

On a good day they get it within 30 minutes but usually 1 hour, quality is never below excellent.

Of course - this information would be far more helpful if we actually knew where the hell you were...
 
Peak Imaging [Sheffield] are the dogs nuts. I use them whenever i can't be bothered to develop them myself.
 
I used Palm Labs in Brum the other day for a slide film, nice friendly service :)
 
I see Lomography now do mail order processing too, 11 quid for processing, prints and scans.
 
Maciej Gowin said:
Is any dev lab in UK doing Kodachrome 64 - 35mm Color Slides film ?

No lab in the world processes Kodachrome. Dwayne's in America was the last, and they ran out of chemicals at the end of... 2010 I believe. The best bet you might have is some people have successfully developed it in black & white chemicals.
 
Contact Process C-22, they are able to develop it in black and white as a negative. O.k you don't get the beautiful colour slides, but at least you get the pictures.

However you might want to keep it in the freezer for a while, there are a couple of groups trying to resurrect a K-14M process line so you never know in a few years....
 
If your living around the Gloucester/Cheltenham area - http://www.the-darkroom.co.uk/

35mm, 120, 220, 5x4

E6, C41 and BW

As I'm local I drop in my film and it's normally ready the same day (about 2hours for E6 less for C41 depending on how busy they are and how many rolls your dropping off)

Really friendly people and they also sell chem's film etc
 
I have just had three more films back from http://www.photo-express.co.uk/, again excellent results and in conversation with the owner I am informed that they can cross process at the same price.

Only C41 colour and B&W 35mm.

For your information.
The scan resolution of 35mm films is approximately 2048 x 3072 which will give an opened file size of around 18mb per image. As above, we use Digital Ice scanning technology to remove dust particles on the surface of the negatives.

Undeveloped films to CD
If you have an undeveloped 35mm or APS film that you only want scanning to CD with no prints then the cost is just £4.50 per film plus p&p, which includes developing the negatives and scanning to CD as above. Negatives and CD will be returned to you, and an index print with thumbnail images is also supplied. Please note we do not develop 120, E6, or B&W films (except C41 B&W).

Also TP members have a .50p discount per film, but as the minimum order value is £5.00 you need to send at least two films to gain the discount, the .50p P&P is per order not per film.
 
Loxley Colour in Glasgow are good. They know a good bit more about film than the people in Jessops generally do
 
Down here in the Worthing area we have this place, http://www.the-printroom.co.uk/.

I dropped a 24 exposure roll of 400ASA colour film in there today, it will be ready tomorrow, develop and scan to CD plus 24 6x4 prints, £8.34.

Seems they have sites around the SE of England, the one I visited today is in Goring, just 2 miles from home.

John
 
35mm dev only in sleeves for £1.99 next day pick up, 2.99 for 1 hour service at ProAm in Bradford, and the people working do know what they are doing.
 
35mm dev only in sleeves for £1.99 next day pick up, 2.99 for 1 hour service at ProAm in Bradford, and the people working do know what they are doing.

Welcome aboard - interestingly direct first post to the forum... you wouldn't be connected in some way to them, would you?
 
I posted 3 rolls of 135 to Photo Express in Hull on Tuesday for scanning to cd, and got them back today: first class service in all respects. I've used them before and can't imagine why I'd use anyone else.
 
Harpers of Woking aren't to shabby, not to sure on price thought as I haven't dropped anything in for over a year...

I will report back ;-)

They charged me £3.49 for 3 days film development only service for 120 colour negative roll (a month or so ago).

Unfortunately they don't do E6 (transparencies) at all and for B/W film they send it off somewhere else and charge £7 for a 7 day development service for a single roll of 120 B/W film.
 
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