Mailing 35mm Film for development

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Richard
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Hi all, I'm new to this side of the forum having received my new (old) Olympus OM10 last night. I've shot a roll of film through it just to test that it all works so now I need to send it off for development and scanning. What's the best way of posting my films? I've read that a 35mm film in the plastic canister breaches the 2.5cm depth limit for a Royal Mail large letter and becomes a small parcel, with the corresponding increase in postage charges.

I'm going to be using filmdev.co.uk purely because I can download my scans instead of receiving them on CD.
 
You might get away with it if you post them just in an envelope and if it gets caught FilmDev will charge you the fee they get charged. Quite a few folk on here risk it and have got away with it in the past.
 
I only ever post as a parcel when it's an important film, and then it's Special Delivery. I usually post film as a large letter and (touch wood) haven't had any issues yet. Usually though, it's 120 film which is only a couple mm over the limit. If I post 35mm film then I ditch the canister to make it smaller, and just wrap it in a sandwich bag or something similar to make sure it arrives dry.

Obviously there's the risk that it might get caught, which could cause some delay or additional cost, so you have to weigh up whether it's worth the risk to you!

If in doubt, a "small parcel" would be the right way to post it I think.
 
Hi all, I'm new to this side of the forum having received my new (old) Olympus OM10 last night. I've shot a roll of film through it just to test that it all works so now I need to send it off for development and scanning. What's the best way of posting my films? I've read that a 35mm film in the plastic canister breaches the 2.5cm depth limit for a Royal Mail large letter and becomes a small parcel, with the corresponding increase in postage charges.

I'm going to be using filmdev.co.uk purely because I can download my scans instead of receiving them on CD.

Hi Richard, unless it's very urgent, then for one or two films I take the film out of the plastic pot and wrap it in alfoil, then put it in a plastic envelope, add a first class large letter stamp, and drop it in a post box. Nine times out of ten it gets through by next day. Occasionally it gets spotted, this causes a delay of several days. As Nick mentioned, Filmdev will pay the excess and charge it back to you.

If there are 3 or more, or if it's important, I'll post it small parcel. I've never worried about Special Delivery, just first class.
 
I usually develop my own colour neg film, but on the odd occasion I use a lab, I use The Darkroom UK Limited, who provide a postage paid label which I then attach to a small jiffy bag. The first time you use their service you can download the label from the website, then they send you a sticky label back with your negatives.
 
I usually develop my own colour neg film, but on the odd occasion I use a lab, I use The Darkroom UK Limited, who provide a postage paid label which I then attach to a small jiffy bag. The first time you use their service you can download the label from the website, then they send you a sticky label back with your negatives.

I think AG Photolab do the same with a Freepost label, and Peak (used to?) send a small cardboard Freepost box. Both have significant postal charges to add to the processing charges, however.
 
I think AG Photolab do the same with a Freepost label, and Peak (used to?) send a small cardboard Freepost box. Both have significant postal charges to add to the processing charges, however.
Both still do have freepost labels/boxes and return postage is:- AG - £3.49 for a lightweight order, Peak - £3.95 or £2 for a single process only film.
 
Thanks for the help everyone, it seems posting it as a large letter will be fine most of the time.
 
I used to use two different post offices - now I only use the one which pushes the envelope through the measuring slot to make it go as a letter ! Trial & error!
 
I put it through the franking machine at work and it went through as a large letter no problems. I put two films in a jiffy bag minus their canisters so I'll use that approach from now on. Posted on Monday and had the scans from filmdev.co.uk on Wednesday afternoon.
 
I put it through the franking machine at work and it went through as a large letter no problems. I put two films in a jiffy bag minus their canisters so I'll use that approach from now on. Posted on Monday and had the scans from filmdev.co.uk on Wednesday afternoon.
That's the slow lane... about half the time I get the scans the next day! Just my luck that won't be this time... I did ask for Frontier scans, for no very good reason (except someone here said the Frontier was better for black and white scans, and I've got a roll of XP2 in there...
 
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