Film virgin

slicemydrive

slicemydrive

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ciaran
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Ok decided to dip my toe into film.
Got a 6x6 iKON nettar off the bay.

I was trying to work out costs for developing and scanning, DSCL seems to be £7 developing then £5/12/20 for various scan resolution.

Looking at filmdev costs, but can only find their scan costs of £8/10/12
Unless that includes developing, anyone know??
 
Filmdev are very good and quick as well. Medium scans are fine for most uses and they are sent by WeTransfer so you can download and edit as you would a digital shot.

Welcome to the world of fillum. :D
 
Have a look at AG Photolab too, they have a postage-paid label that you can print out and stick on a padded envelope to send your first film to them. Then when they send the negatives (and optional scan CD) back to you there'll be a postage paid padded envelope included, so you can send your next film to them more easily.

I've found that the costs work out fairly similarly with Filmdev, for a high-resolution scan (with postage costs taken into account), but you don't have to go to the post office (or their website) and pay for a small parcel to send your film to AG Photolab.

There's no email download option for your scanned photos with AG, you'll receive a CD with the scans on instead... but, the cardboard envelope AG send you (with the CD and your negatives in it) will fit through the average letterbox; the cardboard backed envelope Filmdev send you with your negatives in it won't. If you are out at work when the post is delivered this might mean making a trip to the local sorting office to collect the undelivered item. Sorry, but this needs saying, as I find that this can be a nuisance.
 
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if you are fond of slide film, as I am, AG is your choice as filmdev don't do e6. Unless you are going to split your batches and send todifferent labs which I don't find practical.

Also don't know about filmdev, but AG post your film back in cheap sleeves that are not compatible with binders. So you will need to buy your own sleeves for storage.
 
Mr Badger said:
...but, the cardboard envelope AG send you (with the CD and your negatives in it) will fit through the average letterbox; the cardboard backed envelope Filmdev send you with your negatives in it won't. If you are out at work when the post is delivered this might mean making a trip to the local sorting office to collect the undelivered item. Sorry, but this needs saying, as I find that this can be a nuisance.
Click to expand...

This surprises me; it's what used to happen with Filmdev, then I asked for a soft envelope. It used to be on the Word version of their order form that I use (my handwriting is terrible and slightly painful to write, so I make up my own versions of things). I've just checked, and when they changed their form and I rejigged mine, I must have dropped the comment, but they're still coming in soft envelopes that come through the letterbox. The last two films came with index prints as well.

In case it's of any interest, I also ask:
"No sharpening, please.
Please split into folders, one per film.
Please email for Paypal payment, thanks."
 
My negatives from Filmdev are still arriving in card-backed and larger than A4 envelopes, which is costing them (us) 'large envelope' postage and causing me, at best, to go to the door to take the envelope from the postman/woman and, at worst, drive to the local Royal Mail sorting depot to collect the undelivered envelope the next day or later if I happen to be out when the post is delivered!

To be honest, I can't see the logic in them doing this, surely they could send 35mm and 120 negatives safely back to me in a cardboard envelope that would fit through the average letterbox? AG Photolab seem to manage this OK.
 
Mr Badger said:
My negatives from Filmdev are still arriving in card-backed and larger than A4 envelopes, which is costing them (us) 'large envelope' postage and causing me, at best, to go to the door to take the envelope from the postman/woman and, at worst, drive to the local Royal Mail sorting depot to collect the undelivered envelope the next day or later if I happen to be out when the post is delivered!

To be honest, I can't see the logic in them doing this, surely they could send 35mm and 120 negatives safely back to me in a cardboard envelope that would fit through the average letterbox? AG Photolab seem to manage this OK.
Click to expand...

Then I suggest you request a soft envelope next time! I don't know why they use such large envelopes either...
 
I get the large cardboard envelopes from Filmdev, but they seem to fit through my letterbox fine! Maybe I just have a big letterbox lol.

Mr Badger said:
I've found that the costs work out fairly similarly with Filmdev, for a high-resolution scan (with postage costs taken into account), but you don't have to go to the post office (or their website) and pay for a small parcel to send your film to AG Photolab.
Click to expand...

I don't think I've ever paid for a parcel to send to Filmdev, as I always just send one or two rolls at a time and I've just put them in the post box with a large letter stamp. Interesting to know that AG aren't as expensive as I'd thought though, so I'll look at them again.
 
Thanks for the info on AG. I just checked their web site and found the pricing confusing. For process and scan C41:

Starts at £3.49 - I assumed was the basic return postage price. OK
Now add medium resolution scan and it rises to £9.49 - so I assume that has added £6 for the scan - fair enough.
Now to add a second film you have to add the first to the cart and then adjust the quantity to 2 but that adds another £9.49, not £6.
Then at checkout it seems to add further postage and perhaps VAT?

Do they put each film on separate CDs and post them individually?

I am sure I must be mis-interpreting this.

Lee
 
Sapphie said:
Thanks for the info on AG. I just checked their web site and found the pricing confusing. For process and scan C41:

Starts at £3.49 - I assumed was the basic return postage price. OK

Lee
Click to expand...

OK, silly me - that first £3.49 is the processing cost only. Then you add £6 for the scan. So each film is actually £9.49 against filmdev's £6. But then you add another £3.49 for the postage.

When I did my first batch of 4 rolls to filmdev the outward postage cost me about £4, so that more or less means postage between the two companies is the same.

So filmdev wins on price and download convenience.

I guess the question then is how do the quality of the scans compare?

Lee
 
Sapphie said:
Thanks for the info on AG. I just checked their web site and found the pricing confusing. For process and scan C41:

Starts at £3.49 - I assumed was the basic return postage price. OK
Now add medium resolution scan and it rises to £9.49 - so I assume that has added £6 for the scan - fair enough.
Now to add a second film you have to add the first to the cart and then adjust the quantity to 2 but that adds another £9.49, not £6.
Then at checkout it seems to add further postage and perhaps VAT?

Do they put each film on separate CDs and post them individually?

I am sure I must be mis-interpreting this.

Lee
Click to expand...

I think it's £3.49 for dev only, i.e. develop without scanning after. Then it's £9.49 for a dev + medium scan? And then postage on top.

edit- ahh you beat me to it
 
I'd give AG a go if I could download the images instead of getting them on CD. I don't have access to any PC with a CD drive anymore so download is the only way to go for me. Surely that would be cheaper for AG too as they don't have to pay for and post physical media? I've always used FilmDev so far and have never had an issue with the negatives coming through my letterbox, they just send them in an A4 cardboard envelope to me
 
RichardC27 said:
I'd give AG a go if I could download the images instead of getting them on CD. I don't have access to any PC with a CD drive anymore so download is the only way to go for me. Surely that would be cheaper for AG too as they don't have to pay for and post physical media? I've always used FilmDev so far and have never had an issue with the negatives coming through my letterbox, they just send them in an A4 cardboard envelope to me
Click to expand...

Maybe you could stick a USB stick in with your film when you post it to them, and ask them to put the files on that instead of on a CD? USB sticks are tiny so it shouldn't cost them any more to post it back
 
RichardC27 said:
I'd give AG a go if I could download the images instead of getting them on CD. I don't have access to any PC with a CD drive anymore so download is the only way to go for me. Surely that would be cheaper for AG too as they don't have to pay for and post physical media? I've always used FilmDev so far and have never had an issue with the negatives coming through my letterbox, they just send them in an A4 cardboard envelope to me
Click to expand...
Have you not got a dvd or blu ray player you could use to transfer them from the cd?
 
Carl Hall said:
Maybe you could stick a USB stick in with your film when you post it to them, and ask them to put the files on that instead of on a CD? USB sticks are tiny so it shouldn't cost them any more to post it back
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I could, but a download link is much more convenient. Nothing to get lost or damaged in the post or anything like that

Peter B said:
Have you not got a dvd or blu ray player you could use to transfer them from the cd?
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We have a DVD player somewhere, but again that's way less convenient than a quick email with a WeTransfer download link.
 
RichardC27 said:
I could, but a download link is much more convenient. Nothing to get lost or damaged in the post or anything like that



We have a DVD player somewhere, but again that's way less convenient than a quick email with a WeTransfer download link.
Click to expand...
Matt from Ag is a member here, so possibly you could ask for a transfer to a Dropbox account instead ? Just a thought, since I use Filmdev and I'm not trying to put you off them.
 
RichardC27 said:
I'd give AG a go if I could download the images instead of getting them on CD. I don't have access to any PC with a CD drive anymore so download is the only way to go for me. Surely that would be cheaper for AG too as they don't have to pay for and post physical media? I've always used FilmDev so far and have never had an issue with the negatives coming through my letterbox, they just send them in an A4 cardboard envelope to me
Click to expand...

Could you not buy a cheap external USB DVD drive? You can pick them up new for around a tenner. I know it’s an additional outlay and faff, but it’s not that big a hit on the wallet if you need to acces files on physical media.
 
I kinda had this dilemma when I started out again. An Epson V550 is £170 at the moment. If a "scan" costs a fiver(?) that's 30 odd rolls of film and it's paid for itself. My V550 has paid for itself (bought back in June) and it scans to a higher quality than the "default" scans offered online. Yes it's a flatbed, but as a relative beginner, there is far more limiting my photography than scan quality at the moment. I'm really happy with the dev service from AG. Quick, cost effective and like mentioned above, they do E6 too (even if it's a bit more delayed). The only downside is the desktop footprint of the scanner, and the time to scan everything (as well as the learning curve). And of course, if you're not going to shoot much film, it'll take much longer to pay for itself.

Not saying this is the right way. It's just another way.
 
Harlequin565 said:
I kinda had this dilemma when I started out again. An Epson V550 is £170 at the moment. If a "scan" costs a fiver(?) that's 30 odd rolls of film and it's paid for itself. My V550 has paid for itself (bought back in June) and it scans to a higher quality than the "default" scans offered online. Yes it's a flatbed, but as a relative beginner, there is far more limiting my photography than scan quality at the moment. I'm really happy with the dev service from AG. Quick, cost effective and like mentioned above, they do E6 too (even if it's a bit more delayed). The only downside is the desktop footprint of the scanner, and the time to scan everything (as well as the learning curve). And of course, if you're not going to shoot much film, it'll take much longer to pay for itself.

Not saying this is the right way. It's just another way.
Click to expand...

Have you got any samples you could post from the V550? I've worked out it would pay for itself in 37 films, based on the £3.49 developing service from AG and then scanning my own instead of using FilmDev. What image size and quality do you get from the scanner?

I've also got absolutely tons of motorsport negatives from back in the 90s and early 2000s that I could scan too, as has my dad so if the V550 gives decent quality scans it would be worth me getting one. All of the reviews seem favourable but it's always good to hear real opinions.
 
RichardC27 said:
Have you got any samples you could post from the V550?
Click to expand...

I scan at 3200 ppi which gives me a stupid 8500x6800 negative (6x7) weighing in at 170Mb per image. This allows me to print at 400ppi at 16x20 inches (A2 ish) which is far bigger & better quality than I'll ever need. The problem I have is that scanning isn't my weakness. Taking a sharp, well exposed image is. the benefit of this is that my hard drive isn't clogged with images - I think I scanned just 2 off the last roll (which also cuts down on scan time!)... In fact, so far, I've got one - yes one - image I'm actually quite pleased with. Although this one and this one show decent quality & sharpness even after Flickr has butchered them.

The plastic neg holder that comes with the scanner is... well... quite crap and some films bow terribly which makes focussing difficult. There are options for third party solutions, but it's not worth it to me at the stage I'm at. If I ever take a really decent, sharp image, I'll look at wet mounting for a proper scan, but the results with the V550 are easily good enough for me (I don't sell anything - it's all for personal work)

The images linked above are all 2000px Flickr resizes (so 1/4 size) and you can get in quite close even at that resolution. I don't mind mailing you a full size version of any of them if you want to PM me your email address. Just take all the above into account.

I guess if you've got lots of negs lying around from "the olden days" then it's a brill solution. I haven't counted my Great Auntie's 127 film, and all the crap I took on 35mm back when I had hair, but seeing those memories again was lovely - esp printed to A3.
 
RichardC27 said:
Have you got any samples you could post from the V550? I've worked out it would pay for itself in 37 films, based on the £3.49 developing service from AG and then scanning my own instead of using FilmDev. What image size and quality do you get from the scanner?

I've also got absolutely tons of motorsport negatives from back in the 90s and early 2000s that I could scan too, as has my dad so if the V550 gives decent quality scans it would be worth me getting one. All of the reviews seem favourable but it's always good to hear real opinions.
Click to expand...


All the photos in my "Shot on Film" album in Flickr were scanned on my V550.
 
Harlequin565 said:
I scan at 3200 ppi which gives me a stupid 8500x6800 negative (6x7) weighing in at 170Mb per image. This allows me to print at 400ppi at 16x20 inches (A2 ish) which is far bigger & better quality than I'll ever need. The problem I have is that scanning isn't my weakness. Taking a sharp, well exposed image is. the benefit of this is that my hard drive isn't clogged with images - I think I scanned just 2 off the last roll (which also cuts down on scan time!)... In fact, so far, I've got one - yes one - image I'm actually quite pleased with. Although this one and this one show decent quality & sharpness even after Flickr has butchered them.

The plastic neg holder that comes with the scanner is... well... quite crap and some films bow terribly which makes focussing difficult. There are options for third party solutions, but it's not worth it to me at the stage I'm at. If I ever take a really decent, sharp image, I'll look at wet mounting for a proper scan, but the results with the V550 are easily good enough for me (I don't sell anything - it's all for personal work)

The images linked above are all 2000px Flickr resizes (so 1/4 size) and you can get in quite close even at that resolution. I don't mind mailing you a full size version of any of them if you want to PM me your email address. Just take all the above into account.

I guess if you've got lots of negs lying around from "the olden days" then it's a brill solution. I haven't counted my Great Auntie's 127 film, and all the crap I took on 35mm back when I had hair, but seeing those memories again was lovely - esp printed to A3.
Click to expand...

I've had a look at your links on Flickr, they look absolutely spot on, really nice quality

FishyFish said:
All the photos in my "Shot on Film" album in Flickr were scanned on my V550.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that, I've had a look and they all look great too. Thanks for the help guys, a V550 is another thing to add to my photography shopping list
 
Snip.
RichardC27 said:
Thanks for the help guys, a V550 is another thing to add to my photography shopping list
Click to expand...
Take your time, film photography can be a cruel mistress with little leeway between 'spot on' and 'recycle bin'. I know, as I've worn quite a few bins out with my photos over the years! Probably best to see how you like film photography (and how it likes you) before you invest much more in it and add further elements to the 'success/failure' equation.. My suggestion would be to have a few films lab developed and scanned, once you're happy you are getting fairly consistent results (and you understand the reason behind any that haven't worked out quite so well) then think about a home film scanner. Otherwise I think you might end up getting confused as to which end of the film photography process has worked or failed (delete as applicable!).
 
RichardC27 said:
Thanks for that, I've had a look and they all look great too. Thanks for the help guys, a V550 is another thing to add to my photography shopping list
Click to expand...

There is no need to lay out money for a V550 (although you'd probably get your money back on resale) as old flat bed scanners still give you VG results esp for MF negs....Pentaxpete uses a scanner out of the ark and his results are VG. The Epson 3200 and 4990 give VG results. Any Epson scanners with the word "photo" will give good results (again esp for MF negs). The difference between the high end Epson scanners and cheaper scanners is: - with cheaper scanners you can do less negs in one go and less quality if doing large prints over 8 X 10. So if all you are going to do is post shots here (or the net) a £10 scanner can give good results. So how do I know? because I've compared cheap scanners bought for £3 (4180 and before that I think it was the 2480).......... to my Epson V750pro.
BTW I'm not saying go out and buy a 4180 or 2480 as there could be better ones going cheap.... these scanners I came across and thought I'd play with them.
Just AAMOI I had a very old scsi scanner (bought new at the time) that gave VG results scanning prints but as with many things old it went into the bin.
 
Mr Badger said:
Snip.
Take your time, film photography can be a cruel mistress with little leeway between 'spot on' and 'recycle bin'. I know, as I've worn quite a few bins out with my photos over the years! Probably best to see how you like film photography (and how it likes you) before you invest much more in it and add further elements to the 'success/failure' equation.. My suggestion would be to have a few films lab developed and scanned, once you're happy you are getting fairly consistent results (and you understand the reason behind any that haven't worked out quite so well) then think about a home film scanner. Otherwise I think you might end up getting confused as to which end of the film photography process has worked or failed (delete as applicable!).
Click to expand...

That's good advice, I wouldn't be buying for a while anyway, I just like the idea of doing my own scans and being a bit more involved in the process. I'll only be using film for holidays and trips out but I wouldn't think it will take me too long to get through 30-odd films. I've got 9 rolls in my fridge currently that I'll shoot over the next few weeks.

excalibur2 said:
There is no need to lay out money for a V550 (although you'd probably get your money back on resale) as old flat bed scanners still give you VG results esp for MF negs....Pentaxpete uses a scanner out of the ark and his results are VG. The Epson 3200 and 4990 give VG results. Any Epson scanners with the word "photo" will give good results (again esp for MF negs). The difference between the high end Epson scanners and cheaper scanners is: - with cheaper scanners you can do less negs in one go and less quality if doing large prints over 8 X 10. So if all you are going to do is post shots here (or the net) a £10 scanner can give good results. So how do I know? because I've compared cheap scanners bought for £3 (4180 and before that I think it was the 2480).......... to my Epson V750pro.
BTW I'm not saying go out and buy a 4180 or 2480 as there could be better ones going cheap.... these scanners I came across and thought I'd play with them.
Just AAMOI I had a very old scsi scanner (bought new at the time) that gave VG results scanning prints but as with many things old it went into the bin.
Click to expand...

That's good advice too, I did have a look on ebay for Epson scanners but they seemed the same price as new ones. I've seen the V370 too, which is considerably cheaper than the V550. The only difference I can see is that it can't do medium format film, which I won't be shooting anyway
 
Snip:
RichardC27 said:
The only difference I can see is that it can't do medium format film, which I won't be shooting anyway
Click to expand...

That's what they all say! Joking aside, I wouldn't rule MF out as it can be good fun. For instance, you can buy an old but still working and in need of a bit of a clean box camera that takes 120 roll film for about £5 to £10 and enjoy getting some nice looking results out of it, if you use it in good light. An old folding 120 camera can also be good fun and give surprisingly good results depending on the age and model, and 6x9 size negatives can look amazing. Then there are TLR cameras, ranging in price from a £20 used Lubitel II to several hundred or more for a Rolleiflex. Then there's medium format SLR, of both a 'large 35mm SLR' style and the box type with viewing screen design, once again, at a variety of prices. So I wouldn't rule out succumbing to medium format temptation and I'd seriously think about buying a scanner that has that option... oh, and 120 roll film seems to scan very nicely on a flatbed scanner too.

Here's a shot home scanned from a 6x9 neg from an Ensign Selfix 820 folding camera from the early 1950s that cost me about £60, click to view on Flickr at full size (and give it time to load!) to see the detail. Imagine what the detail would be like if I had a high-res lab scan done of that negative. :)

 
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