Film Developing in the UK

I've just had some dirty negs back from AG, not the first time so I think it's time to try someone else.

Is Peak still one of the preferred labs and has anyone used Digitalab?
https://www.digitalab.co.uk/

Thanks

Everyone messes up at some point, it's just the nature of film developing. The measure of a good company is how they deal with mistakes - Filmdev for example where really good when they had problems with scanning for a while.
If you've been happy with AG up until now I'd go back to them and see what they say. Hopefully they should sort you out, if not then time to move on.
 
I think it's time to move on to be honest as it's happened a number of times, I'll check out Filmdev... thanks both.
 
I've just had some dirty negs back from AG, not the first time so I think it's time to try someone else.

Is Peak still one of the preferred labs and has anyone used Digitalab?
https://www.digitalab.co.uk/

Thanks

That's a shame. Peak are excellent, reasonably priced and quick. They use XTOL (edit, as does Filmdev); AG (used to, dunno now) use NegaStar, of either of those is an issue. Edit: Filmdev are probably cheaper for dev+scan, Peak cheaper for dev-only. Remember Peak have a Freepost facility.
 
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I have used Digitalab a few times (before I moved to doing most of my own processing), partly because they are local to me. On the whole they were fine, but I did one receive some dirty negs, which they reprocessed to fix the problem.

I have also used The Darkroom UK Ltd (https://www.the-darkroom.co.uk/ ) and had no problems. They have a very quick turnaround (usually just 1 day in the lab) and provide a prepaid label for sending the film in to them.
 
Had to use AG recently because I had some slide to develop. The service for me was fine, however the cost of returning your negs/positives is too prohibitive for me to make it a regular thing. Fortunately I don't shoot a lot of slide (rarely - although it is beautiful to look at), so I will continue to use Canadian Film Lab.

For those who don't know, they keep your negatives until they reach one inch which or a year and then charge you a single postage cost to ship them back to you, as do Carmencita film lab.
 
I think it pretty much depends on whether or not you want prints or scans. I haven't used digitalab, but a quick check on their website has them at £12.55 to dev and low res scan a 35mm film, whereas I use Filmdev and have just sent off a 35mm film to be developed and low res scan for £4.00. Medium res scan & dev would be £6, but I can scan the negs myself and am only really using the £4 service to see what I've got. http://filmdev.co.uk/
 
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I think it pretty much depends on whether or not you want prints or scans. I haven't used digitalab, but a quick check on their website has them at £12.55 to dev and low res scan a 35mm film, whereas I use Filmdev and have just sent off a 35mm film to be developed and low res scan for £4.00. Medium res scan & dev would be £6, but I can scan the negs myself and am only really using the £4 service to see what I've got. http://filmdev.co.uk/

This is exactly what I do, I treat the small scans as a 'contact sheet' and do my own higher-res scans of the better shots when I get the negs back. £4 plus say £2 for posting to them. Bargain and I've not found cheaper yet for my colour stuff.
 
As I have said previously, home scanning for me is nowhere near what I can get form a lab. Other people seem to manage really great results with the V700 including a friend of mine, however I can't seem to do it. Then there is the additional dust spotting as well as colour correction for consistent results. For me, all of those factors combined result in me using a dedicated lab who can get me consistent results that require minor tweaks when I get the files back. I can worry about taking the photos and not how my lack of skills affect how I display them.

Until I start dark room printing that is, then that's another thing entirely. Might stick the V700 in the classifieds soon as it's just sat here, unloved.
 
After issues with several rolls I would rather give someone else a go rather than go back and fourth with AG, it's not worth my time to keep going back to a company with complaints hence looking for alternatives :)
 
After issues with several rolls I would rather give someone else a go rather than go back and fourth with AG, it's not worth my time to keep going back to a company with complaints hence looking for alternatives :)

Another vote for FilmDev here. Posted a batch of film to them yesterday afternoon, 1st Class and I've received the PayPal invoice today. Just waiting for the download link to pop up in my emails now. The longest I've ever waited for scans is about four working days I think. I've had one problem with a scan, a single warped frame on a roll of film and they offered to fix that no problem. The large scans are well worth the extra £2, the difference in detail in the file is quite something.
 
After issues with several rolls I would rather give someone else a go rather than go back and fourth with AG, it's not worth my time to keep going back to a company with complaints hence looking for alternatives :)

I also had issues with AG and moved to Peak, never had an issue since and the quality and service has always been top notch. Not used FilmDev personally.
 
I like Filmdev. They might not be the best quality, but they're good for 99% of what I do. They're cheap as chips and have a fast turnaround too. I did have an issue once where they sent me a download link, and I got someone else's photos lol, but they sorted it quickly. I love using Canadian Film Lab, and with their film forwarding service the price isn't too bad. The thing that stops me using them more though, is their 2 week turnaround. Now I tend to use CFL for important things like holiday photos etc, and Filmdev for day to day stuff.

I've also used The Darkroom UK for 120 E6 stuff and they used to be incredibly quick, but that was only dev only. Now I use Peak for my E6 4x5's dev only and they're fantastic.
 
Has anyone asked FilmDev to push process B&W? How did it turn out and was there a charge? The order form gives 'push film' as an example in the additional notes section, so I assume they do it, and I believe they use XTOL, which ought to work well for a couple of stops.
 
I asked them once and they said no extra charge, but you'd better check.
 
Not much use to anybody but me or others on holiday up here, but was in Jessops in Inverness today for a lenscloth. I told the assistant I would have lost a bet as they were selling Fuji disposables, since I knew they had nothing to do with film now. On the contrary I was told, we process 35mm C41 on the premises on either 1 hour service @ £8 for 6x4 prints, or next day @ £6.50 o_O Dev and scan to CD would also be possible for around £8, so that starts to be attractive for a single film when the £3 postage to Filmdev is taken into account. I guess I'll need to put my money where my mouth is now, but it could save last minute postage trauma for FPOTY. :)
 
h'mm scans from filmdev are all over the place for OOD Kodak gold 100 iso.....well my entry for landscapes is on there and it took a bit of work using Photoshop to get a decent result, but still not happy and I'll scan again on my V750...so annoying when you don't get WYSIWYG. :(
btw I realise filmdev are cheap and i accept their scans are really proofs for the price but Tesco and Asda were much better and saved me doing home dev and scanning (y)
 
h'mm scans from filmdev are all over the place for OOD Kodak gold 100 iso.....well my entry for landscapes is on there and it took a bit of work using Photoshop to get a decent result, but still not happy and I'll scan again on my V750...so annoying when you don't get WYSIWYG. :(
btw I realise filmdev are cheap and i accept their scans are really proofs for the price but Tesco and Asda were much better and saved me doing home dev and scanning (y)

If you're not happy with the result, ring them up and ask them about it. If they've still got your film and/or the files, they may be able to re-scan or re-process the images. I've found them very open to recognising a problem and doing their best to sort it out!

Although I do get annoyed with the re-processed images that have their time and date set to zero, which screws up the sequencing. This is something in their workflow that they don't seem able to fix. Maybe I'll have another go at them next time it happens!
 
Well Chris I'm sure they would for a complaint but for low scan and they price they charge I can't see how they can get the best results all the time, and I might have given them a problem with the 2006 Kodak gold :eek:.
But in mentioning Tesco and Asda I might be a bit unfair as I gave them a lot of Superia 200 and some Reala and fresh Vista and these stand out going through old shots.
 
You may remember the nifty price estimator I built, linked from the first post in this thread. Last year I decided to include 4x5 as well as 135 and 120. However, the formulae got too complicated and I could never get them to work. To make matters worse, I hadn't taken a safe copy before starting to edit the spreadsheet... and the editing process was so protracted that the old copy fell off the back end of my Time Machine backup! This meant that the data underlying the nifty price estimator was way out of date and I couldn't update the spreadsheet to correct it.

I recently worked out that I could download the spreadsheet from Google Docs and re-edit that in Excel, so that's what I'm now doing. I'm not going to include 4x5 this time; there are only a few suppliers and I'm sure we can easily discuss them separately.

The current set of labs is:

AG Photolab, CC Imaging, Club 35, DS Colour Labs, Filmdev, Ilford Labs, Peak Imaging, Photo Express, Photo Hippo, The Dark Room, Carmencita and Canadian Film Lab

Is there any lab that F&C folk would like to add, or any lab that could be removed? Thanks
 
So, at the BBQ @thedarkshed last Saturday, folk were talking about a new lab I hadn't heard of. It's SilverPan Film Lab, and I think I'll try and include them when I re-do the nifty price estimator. A preliminary explore suggests they are interesting in providing more options, including XTOL, HC-110, Microphen, D96, Perceptol and Rodinal for black and white development (some at extra cost).

At this stage I've only tried to price up a single roll of black and white in XTOL with no prints and standard scans, which comes to £9.50 if I've got it right. Large scans adds another £4. At this stage I don't have a clue what standard and large mean here, but I've asked. Downloads are available.
 
Funnily enough, I looked at SilverPan's prices today, as I have two rolls in need of processing and they're here in Bristol. The prices were twice as expensive as FilmDev's though (£22 for a process + scan of 1 b/w roll, 1 C41), so I decided against it! For my needs, FilmDev is still the best!
 
At this stage I've only tried to price up a single roll of black and white in XTOL with no prints and standard scans, which comes to £9.50 if I've got it right. Large scans adds another £4. At this stage I don't have a clue what standard and large mean here, but I've asked.

They replied very promptly:

"Standard size scans from 135 are approx. 3200 x 2315 pixels (roughly 10x8” at 300dpi)
Large size scans are 4750 x 3475 pixels (roughly 11x14” 300dpi)"

So like Canadian Film Lab and a few others, their "standard" size is as good as or better than many labs "medium" scans.
 
They replied very promptly:

"Standard size scans from 135 are approx. 3200 x 2315 pixels (roughly 10x8” at 300dpi)
Large size scans are 4750 x 3475 pixels (roughly 11x14” 300dpi)"

So like Canadian Film Lab and a few others, their "standard" size is as good as or better than many labs "medium" scans.

Had a look at their website and it's worth noting that their scans are done on a Flextight rather than a Noritsu or Frontier.
Be interested to hear of peoples experiences with them, especially with the 'raw' not inverted scans off the Flextight
 
New to film photography and ran a test roll through my new camera, and need somewhere cheap to develop it just to make sure the camera works. Has anybody used Bristol Cameras? Seems to be the very cheapest place I've found, £3.99 for developing and scanning but I've read mixed reviews.
The only local places I have (Liverpool) are Boots and Max Spielmann and they don't display prices on their website but I'm sure they'd be a ripoff
 
Sorry to say but I don't think there is anywhere cheap anymore, except doing it yourself :confused:
 
Well £4 from Bristol Cameras would be cheap enough, just wondering if anyone has had any experiences with them

True, tbh I didn't know they developed but it would be good if there was another, cheaper option, so long as they are reliable. (y) I have bought a couple of things from them in the past and there were no problems.
 
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New to film photography and ran a test roll through my new camera, and need somewhere cheap to develop it just to make sure the camera works. Has anybody used Bristol Cameras? Seems to be the very cheapest place I've found, £3.99 for developing and scanning but I've read mixed reviews.
The only local places I have (Liverpool) are Boots and Max Spielmann and they don't display prices on their website but I'm sure they'd be a ripoff

I can see the logic in being wary of potentially throwing good money after bad if your 'new' camera should have a fault (or perhaps a bit of pilot error)... but then again, how are you going to know if it's a fault with the camera (or technique), or a fault with the developing/scanning process if poor results occur?

Working on the principle that 'first loss is best', wouldn't it be a wiser choice to send your film to a well established and trusted lab, such as AG Photolab in Birmingham, or Filmdev in the Northeast and go for a medium resolution scan? It might cost a few quid more, but at least you should have a good degree of confidence in the service they provide (as many of the F&C regulars have frequently used these labs in recent years). That way, if there's an issue, it should hopefully narrow things down to the camera, the photographer or the film itself, and posting some examples in the F&C section should narrow it down to one or the other.

Anyway, best of luck and I hope everything goes smoothly for you whatever you decide. (y)
 
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New to film photography and ran a test roll through my new camera, and need somewhere cheap to develop it just to make sure the camera works. Has anybody used Bristol Cameras? Seems to be the very cheapest place I've found, £3.99 for developing and scanning but I've read mixed reviews.
The only local places I have (Liverpool) are Boots and Max Spielmann and they don't display prices on their website but I'm sure they'd be a ripoff
Working on the principle that 'first loss is best', wouldn't it be a wiser choice to send your film to a well established and trusted lab, such as AG Photolab in Birmingham, or Filmdev in the Northeast and go for a medium resolution scan? It might cost a few quid more, but at least you should have a good degree of confidence in the service they provide (as many of the F&C regulars have frequently used these labs in recent years). That way, if there's an issue, it should hopefully narrow things down to the camera, the photographer or the film itself, and posting some examples in the F&C section should narrow it down to one or the other.

OP personally I think that what Mr Badger suggests is sound advice but the choice is yours obviously.
Be aware though that if you want cheap then expect to possibly ( probably) receive crap results.

It has been said a number of times on here, quite recently too, that if you want summat for nowt, you're gunna get nowt!
 
Thanks for the advice! Think I'll try out Filmdev since they seem to get lots of praise! Are there any major differences between the scanners you can choose? And it it worth getting .tiff files?
 
Thanks for the advice! Think I'll try out Filmdev since they seem to get lots of praise! Are there any major differences between the scanners you can choose? And it it worth getting .tiff files?
If it's just a test film with nothing much special on it then the standard medium res scan on the Noritsu should be fine to give you some results to compare. If you think you have some 'keepers' then you might want to go for a high res scan. I think most of us don't bother with TIFF files, certainly for our 'everyday' type photos. Up to you really. I can also recommend AG Photolab, who send you a DVD with the scans on rather than an internet download. Once again, personal preference.
 
I have never had TIFF files from film scans and always been very happy. I have, when I first started out gone for cheaper options from the likes of high street labs but found the absolute best service from the higher end, popular labs like UK Film Lab (now Canadian Film Lab) and Carmencita.

As said earlier, using a better lab eliminates a variable as to where any problems lie, as does using good film (unless you want a particular look of cheaper/expired/pre exposed film of course).
 
I have never had TIFF files from film scans and always been very happy. I have, when I first started out gone for cheaper options from the likes of high street labs but found the absolute best service from the higher end, popular labs like UK Film Lab (now Canadian Film Lab) and Carmencita.

As said earlier, using a better lab eliminates a variable as to where any problems lie, as does using good film (unless you want a particular look of cheaper/expired/pre exposed film of course).

Your choice of course but I've never found the need to send out of the UK for good dev/scan. Palm Labs for instance are great for me, wouldn't send my film that mattered anywhere else really.
 
Your choice of course but I've never found the need to send out of the UK for good dev/scan. Palm Labs for instance are great for me, wouldn't send my film that mattered anywhere else really.

The reason for sending outside the UK was because I had a good relationship with UK Film Lab and wanted to stick with them. I used Carmencita in the interim whilst they were moving. Having met Christian and Erica, they know me and know how I like my scans so it was important to stick with them for me.
 
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