UK Film Lab moving to Canada

Right, I have a roll of 120 Portra 400 and 120 400H to get developed. Looking at Carmencita's website it looks like it works the same as UKFL; download and fill out a form, send it with your film to the lab, and then wait for a payment link to arrive by email.

I've got the film all ready to send, I just need to go to the post office after work and send it. A large letter is £2.45 but a parcel is only £3.55 so I'll do that. Think the overall cost should be about £19.95 for everything, so it works out about the same as UKFL, or very slightly less. Mind you if the pound keeps diving then I could end up having to get a loan to pay for it by the time it gets there!!
 
Carl Hall said:
Right, I have a roll of 120 Portra 400 and 120 400H to get developed. Looking at Carmencita's website it looks like it works the same as UKFL; download and fill out a form, send it with your film to the lab, and then wait for a payment link to arrive by email.

I've got the film all ready to send, I just need to go to the post office after work and send it. A large letter is £2.45 but a parcel is only £3.55 so I'll do that. Think the overall cost should be about £19.95 for everything, so it works out about the same as UKFL, or very slightly less. Mind you if the pound keeps diving then I could end up having to get a loan to pay for it by the time it gets there!!
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They work out cheaper than UK Film Lab? Did you remember to add VAT to Carmencita's prices, as the prices on their site don't include tax?
 
skysh4rk said:
They work out cheaper than UK Film Lab? Did you remember to add VAT to Carmencita's prices, as the prices on their site don't include tax?
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Ahh crap.

Ok, make that £23.40 or so inc postage. UKFL would be £20.95 so it's a little over 10% more. Still gotta be cheaper (and faster) than sending to Canada though!
 
Carl Hall said:
Ahh crap.

Ok, make that £23.40 or so inc postage. UKFL would be £20.95 so it's a little over 10% more. Still gotta be cheaper (and faster) than sending to Canada though!
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Yeah, I'm going to send film to Carmencita myself, but it does work out to a little bit more than UK Film Lab, unfortunately. If they're anywhere near as good as UK Film Lab, it'll be worth the costs though.
 
What happens when we finally leave the EU then? Carmencita's website says that the VAT doesn't apply to countries outside of the EU, in which case the cost should be a bit lower than UKFL.
 
They'd (potentially) have to pay import duty/vat for the received film we'd have to pay duty/vat for the processed film.
 
Carl Hall said:
What happens when we finally leave the EU then? Carmencita's website says that the VAT doesn't apply to countries outside of the EU, in which case the cost should be a bit lower than UKFL.
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I can't see how we could ever afford to actually leave the single market, even if we technically leave the EU, so I think VAT will continue to apply (à la Norway).

In fact, I hope that we must continue to pay VAT.
 
steveo_mcg said:
They'd (potentially) have to pay import duty/vat for the received film we'd have to pay duty/vat for the processed film.
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Exposed film has no commercial value, so there shouldn't be anything to pay. That said, it's very possible that the film would still get held in customs and you'd have to explain as much before they'd release it.
 
skysh4rk said:
Exposed film has no commercial value, so there shouldn't be anything to pay. That said, it's very possible that the film would still get held in customs and you'd have to explain as much before they'd release it.
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Worse than that, you'd have to pay and then write to explain as much to Custom and Excise every few weeks. I can't imagine Carmencita would even entertain "us" if we leave the single market, having to make special arrangements for a small group of customers which could end up being a lot of work.
 
steveo_mcg said:
Worse than that, you'd have to pay and then write to explain as much to Custom and Excise every few weeks. I can't imagine Carmencita would even entertain "us" if we leave the single market, having to make special arrangements for a small group of customers which could end up being a lot of work.
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I'm pretty sure that they already deal with many international (i.e., non-EU) customers. In fact, I think they have a large Russian client base, so this mustn't really be too big a concern, I guess.
 
skysh4rk said:
I'm pretty sure that they already deal with many international (i.e., non-EU) customers. In fact, I think they have a large Russian client base, so this mustn't really be too big a concern, I guess.
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fair enough.

/stands corrected
(Like the man in the orthopaedic shoes.)
 
Why not give Filmdev a try? They do 35mm and 120, C41 and now black and white (I've yet to add that to the nifty dev price calculator). Small, medium and large scans. They also talk about customised profiles, though I have not tried this. Return postage included, averaging 4 days turnaround for me so far, but the day they scan the film (and you pay, via a phone call) you get a WeTransfer email so you can download a highly compressed JPEG set to check. I get film sleeved in 6s and 8-bit TIFFs as well as JPEGs (they don't do 16-bit TIFFs, limitations of the gear I suspect).
 
Posted my first films to Carmencita today from last nights pre-wedding shoot. 3 x pro400h and 1 x Tmax 400.

Will see in 3-5 days postage plus 5 days Dev & Scan. [emoji4]
 
Good stuff Gareth :D

I posted mine today too, would have been yesterday but I got tied up at work and left late, and the bloomin post office closed 4 minutes before I got there!
 
Carl Hall said:
Good stuff Gareth :D

I posted mine today too, would have been yesterday but I got tied up at work and left late, and the bloomin post office closed 4 minutes before I got there!
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The wait is killing me already. I've emailed them with previous work and scan preferences so hopefully they won't be too different to what I am used to. Receiving the bill will be interesting too. From UKFL it would have been £45.
 
gazmorton2000 said:
The wait is killing me already. I've emailed them with previous work and scan preferences so hopefully they won't be too different to what I am used to. Receiving the bill will be interesting too. From UKFL it would have been £45.
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Haha it hasn't even been 24 hours yet! I didn't email any preferences to Carmencita because I didn't have any preferences set with UKFL. I was always happy enough with their standard scans (or perhaps my eyes aren't good enough to notice what needs a tweak!)
 
well - I have to say, If I was a member on here, who worked for any of the main UK processing labs, I'd be starting to wonder just what the deal is with "UK Film Lab" and why people are considering sending their films overseas for a dev and scan service, either into the EU or to Canada... Because, I'd be wanting to find out that "secret" and do it better still over here - as it's obviously a "premium service" that could bring in a good profit margin - especially considering the additional cost of overseas shipping added to the other companies charges.

Its not as if every one of the film labs in GB are simply offering a cheap and cheerful "race to the bottom" service like Asda/Max Speilman is it... there's plenty of "pro labs" over here - what AREN'T they offering ??
 
TheBigYin said:
well - I have to say, If I was a member on here, who worked for any of the main UK processing labs, I'd be starting to wonder just what the deal is with "UK Film Lab" and why people are considering sending their films overseas for a dev and scan service, either into the EU or to Canada... Because, I'd be wanting to find out that "secret" and do it better still over here - as it's obviously a "premium service" that could bring in a good profit margin - especially considering the additional cost of overseas shipping added to the other companies charges.

Its not as if every one of the film labs in GB are simply offering a cheap and cheerful "race to the bottom" service like Asda/Max Speilman is it... there's plenty of "pro labs" over here - what AREN'T they offering ??
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I don't really get it either, I've used a variety of dev services here with varying levels of satisfaction, most of which have been discussed at length on this very forum and to be fair I've never used a process and scan service in the UK other than quick Asda/Tesco for camera test rolls but I'm struggling to see Carmencita as the only other viable option. Any of you guys care to elucidate?
 
I’ve used UKFL a lot over the last 6 months as they make everything simple. They store negatives for 12 months to save return postage with each roll and they provide download links for images instead of CDs. They provide feedback to customers to help them improve and they tailor their scans depending on a customer’s pre-set requirements. Lastly their small scan sizes are often bigger than some labs large scans.

For example UKFL's small scans (35mm) are 2433 x 3637 px for £10 with no return costs, to get this size with Peak it's their "gold" service which is £20.90 + £1.75 return. For Darkroom UK they don't have pixel sizes but their small dev + scan service is £10. In all honesty I don't necessarily need large scans, but even an 1800 x 1200 scan from Peak is £7.90 + £1.75. When you do the maths I don't think UKFL are that expensive. Carmencita is about 10% more expensive for a comparable service (total all in cost, including overseas postage), so it is still good value.

If other labs were to start storing my negatives and giving me a download link, it would make me tempted to switch to them, as the extra few quid per time adds up. If they were clearer about their scan sizes in terms of pixel dimensions (not optimum print size, or file size when opened) then that’s even better.

Photoghost are another lab who I thought were great for similar reasons to UKFL, but I don’t shoot enough per month to make their subscription worthwhile.
 
It's not a service I'm interested in, I like to evaluate my roll of film once it's back and then fire up the big scanner to put some time into the images. Paying someone to scan and process images that I'm not sure about is a waste of time and money IMO.
 
I'm with Rob, even with my little v500 I'd still rather just quickly scan the roll evaluate the keepers and then go back and rescan anything decent. With my hit rate its muuuuuch cheaper even when you consider my time.
 
robhooley167 said:
It's not a service I'm interested in, I like to evaluate my roll of film once it's back and then fire up the big scanner to put some time into the images. Paying someone to scan and process images that I'm not sure about is a waste of time and money IMO.
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steveo_mcg said:
I'm with Rob, even with my little v500 I'd still rather just quickly scan the roll evaluate the keepers and then go back and rescan anything decent. With my hit rate its muuuuuch cheaper even when you consider my time.
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That's pretty much my take on things as well if I'm honest - but obviously for some of the membership here the whole "turnkey service" is a big plus point - and, to be honest, if we can help a UK company to take advantage of that market rather than sending our money overseas, then it makes sense to do so surely...
 
Although I do my scanning at home I can see the appeal of UKFL's service, particularly the decent scan sizes, the neg storage and the dedicated feedback and as TBY says it seems there's a gap in the market. Let's hope Peak, CC Imaging, AG Photographic, The Darkroom UK et al see that gap and do something about it.
 
If I pay £6-7 to get the film developed and returned without being scanned, I have to spend 30-60 mins in front of my Mac scanning the film and getting mediocre scans. Or I can pay £3-4 more, get much better scans, and not spend 30-60 minutes scanning it.

Like I said earlier, if a UK company gave a similar service to UKFL then I'd use them. If they don't then I'll find a lab elsewhere that does.
 
RaglanSurf said:
Although I do my scanning at home I can see the appeal of UKFL's service, particularly the decent scan sizes, the neg storage and the dedicated feedback and as TBY says it seems there's a gap in the market. Let's hope Peak, CC Imaging, AG Photographic, The Darkroom UK et al see that gap and do something about it.
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I hope they do as it would like to carry on using a UK lab. It seems like a fantastic opportunity for any one of those labs to make a few changes and sweep up all of UKFLs customers that are left
 
Pretty much as Carl says really. When starting out, I found the feedback very valuable. Knowing which frames I had over/underexposed or whatever and giving me tips on the best way to rectify. Knowing that someone is going through my images frame by frame and editing them with consistency was also a big plus for me as well as a time saver, and with a much higher quality scan than I can get at home with my V550.

As for postage to overseas, the price is actually not much different. A small parcel (when it's slightly bigger than large letter) to UKFL was £2.80. To Carmencita, £4.05.

Just checked out Peak after reading Carl's post to compare prices for the service I would use for 120 colour negative film. Return postage from Peak would be £3.50 as I very rarely just have a single roll. So cost is for 2 x rolls at a time.

Peak - CD Archive 120 Gold - £31.90 + £3.80 return postage = £35.70
UKFL - Similar sized scans (M) - £20 + Postage at £2.80 = £22.80 Negatives are stored for up to 12 months or until they reach 1" thick and then posted back for a one off fee of £4.50

Quite a big saving really.
 
robhooley167 said:
It's not a service I'm interested in, I like to evaluate my roll of film once it's back and then fire up the big scanner to put some time into the images. Paying someone to scan and process images that I'm not sure about is a waste of time and money IMO.
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steveo_mcg said:
I'm with Rob, even with my little v500 I'd still rather just quickly scan the roll evaluate the keepers and then go back and rescan anything decent. With my hit rate its muuuuuch cheaper even when you consider my time.
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I print most of what I shoot, otherwise I wouldn't push the shutter in the first place, so I want my stuff ready to go, especially as I don't have a colour-calibrated monitor. I just printed 440 film photographs this week in sizes ranging from 4x4 to 12x12 (most were 8x8 though) and the quality and consistency of UKFL's scans made for great prints with little hassle on my end, justifying the expense.

I basically would never get anything printed if I waited for the negatives to come back before selecting the 'keepers', as I simply don't have the time and the results wouldn't be as good or consistent.

For anything really important, I do theoretically have access to a Hasselblad Flextight X5, but I've never bothered to properly use it, preferring to print special one-off photographs in the darkroom myself instead.

Obviously there's no one way to do it; it's just about finding the workflow that suits you.
 
Carl Hall said:
I hope they do as it would like to carry on using a UK lab. It seems like a fantastic opportunity for any one of those labs to make a few changes and sweep up all of UKFLs customers that are left
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is it worth one of the well known togs emailing the uk labs and asking if it is a service they would provide?
 
skysh4rk said:
I print most of what I shoot, otherwise I wouldn't push the shutter in the first place, so I want my stuff ready to go, especially as I don't have a colour-calibrated monitor. I just printed 440 film photographs this week in sizes ranging from 4x4 to 12x12 (most were 8x8 though) and the quality and consistency of UKFL's scans made for great prints with little hassle on my end, justifying the expense.

I basically would never get anything printed if I waited for the negatives to come back before selecting the 'keepers', as I simply don't have the time and the results wouldn't be as good or consistent.

For anything really important, I do theoretically have access to a Hasselblad Flextight X5, but I've never bothered to properly use it, preferring to print special one-off photographs in the darkroom myself instead.

Obviously there's no one way to do it; it's just about finding the workflow that suits you.
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TBH though your volume puts you a fairly extreme bracket. I'd probably pay for the extra service if I got through as many rolls. Fact is while I'm similar, in that I'm fairly picky prior to clicking the shutter I'm only getting through a couple of boxes a year even less through the RB67. And even being picky there are shots that look good through the wlf but just don't work. Not to mention missing focus on the LF gear often as not.
 
steveo_mcg said:
TBH though your volume puts you a fairly extreme bracket. I'd probably pay for the extra service if I got through as many rolls. Fact is while I'm similar, in that I'm fairly picky prior to clicking the shutter I'm only getting through a couple of boxes a year even less through the RB67. And even being picky there are shots that look good through the wlf but just don't work. Not to mention missing focus on the LF gear often as not.
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Yeah, I'm certainly not suggesting that what I do is the right way or the only way. I'm just highlighting that there are different needs among film shooters. For most of my colour negative photography, I want a consistent, reliable service that offers great colour, reasonable pricing, and photos that are ready to print.
 
skysh4rk said:
Yeah, I'm certainly not suggesting that what I do is the right way or the only way. I'm just highlighting that there are different needs among film shooters. For most of my colour negative photography, I want a consistent, reliable service that offers great colour, reasonable pricing, and photos that are ready to print.
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True.

And I doubt there is really enough users to support more than one or two very bespoke services like ukfl.
 
TheBigYin said:
well - I have to say, If I was a member on here, who worked for any of the main UK processing labs, I'd be starting to wonder just what the deal is with "UK Film Lab" and why people are considering sending their films overseas for a dev and scan service, either into the EU or to Canada... Because, I'd be wanting to find out that "secret" and do it better still over here - as it's obviously a "premium service" that could bring in a good profit margin - especially considering the additional cost of overseas shipping added to the other companies charges...
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gazmorton2000 said:
Just checked out Peak after reading Carl's post to compare prices for the service I would use for 120 colour negative film. Return postage from Peak would be £3.50 as I very rarely just have a single roll. So cost is for 2 x rolls at a time.

Peak - CD Archive 120 Gold - £31.90 + £3.80 return postage = £35.70
UKFL - Similar sized scans (M) - £20 + Postage at £2.80 = £22.80 Negatives are stored for up to 12 months or until they reach 1" thick and then posted back for a one off fee of £4.50

Quite a big saving really.
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The great colour thing, only you can judge. But for comparing prices, do have a look at the nifty price estimator. Photo Hippo does 2 rolls of C41 at £17 including return postage, and Filmdev charge £10 for two ditto, both what I call "medium scans". I haven't used Photo Hippo yet, but Filmdev is averaging 4 days from post to doormat (less than it would probably take to get your films to Valencia for Carmencita), with compressed downloads available in one day less. I reckon if you asked them you could get full quality downloads. I've droned on about other advantages they have, elsewhere. Just to mention here what I mentioned in the UK Film Processing thread, I've requested a TP discount, which they are considering, and they have meanwhile given me a small discount on my current order, but that's not why I'm mentioning them here. I do think it's worth supporting UK Labs. I'd use Peak all the time, but their prices for scanning are pretty steep...

.
 
What's ukfl's turnaround time on E6 and black and white?
Anyone know why they don't offer process only and process and mount? You could send a test film from a new /old camera and if it's blank would you pay for the process if they don't return the film?
I've seen some of their scans and I think they look a bit high key and wishy-washy. Is that the in thing?
 
I'd guess that they don't offer process only because their niche is process/scan and develop according to your own preference and also offer feedback on your negatives to help you in the future. The style they produce is popular and the examples posted on here from Carl/RJ/Gaz have all been excellent. I've used Peak for process/scan and whilst the scans were OK, there's no interaction with the end result or feedback etc so I think this is where other UK labs could offer a better service.

Not everyone has the time or the hardware to get well scanned/processed results from their film so I see where UKFL are coming from.

Edit: Looking at the price comparisons above, they're also considerably cheaper for a professionally scanned/edited result which is something I'm surprised about.
 
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stevelmx5 said:
Out of interest, if you develop a roll at Peak that turns out to be blank would you still charge the customer?
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Yes. Otherwise we'd be doing free film processing.
Process only of course and you get the film back sleeved. That way you can see if it's been through the right process at least and generally you can work out why it is blank.
Most times is 120 wound wrong way round and 35mm not loaded properly.
 
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I thought that would be the case :0). I understand that seeing your duff film can help identify where you've gone wrong but I'd expect UKFL or any other lab to offer at least some advice to the photographer in the event of a blank/damaged roll.

I'm not having a go at any lab vs UKFL as I've never used UKFL but just trying to put my thoughts across about the service they offer. Arguably, the scans from most labs are no different from getting scans from Asda (35mm) other than potentially higher resolution and better maintained machinery. The service offered by UKFL and other similar labs is a more personal experience which arguably gets better with the more films they develop for you.

There's no reason other than time and resource that other uk labs couldn't do the same so log as they have equally creative people actually performing the edits afterwards.
 
RumpFace said:
What's ukfl's turnaround time on E6 and black and white?
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As far as I know, their turnaround time for all their films is 7-10 working days, which I've always found to be the biggest flaw in their service (but I'm quite impatient). You could do their express service which is 4 days though (1.4 x cost), and their scans still work out reasonably priced compared to other labs for similar size scans.

RumpFace said:
Anyone know why they don't offer process only and process and mount? You could send a test film from a new /old camera and if it's blank would you pay for the process if they don't return the film?
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I think the reason that they don't do dev only is because their business revolves around the idea of sending film to them and getting back a finished product. I've not had a blank roll developed by them so I can't say what happens then, although I expect they'd provide feedback to the possible cause. They did this for me when I had a slight light leak in one of my RB67 backs.

RumpFace said:
I've seen some of their scans and I think they look a bit high key and wishy-washy. Is that the in thing?
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Yes I think the slightly overexposed and high key look is quite trendy at the moment, especially with portraits and weddings. I personally like them but like any "in" thing, it's down to personal taste and I can understand people not liking it.

I'm not trying to say that UKFL is better or worse than any other lab, as what everyone wants from a lab is different. I'm just explaining why I used them and answering your questions.

I'm likely to have a couple rolls of film to develop next week as I'm going to a classic car show on Sunday. I think Peak and Filmdev are the two labs I'm going to try next, as I've not had scans from either before.
 
RumpFace said:
What's ukfl's turnaround time on E6 and black and white?
Anyone know why they don't offer process only and process and mount? You could send a test film from a new /old camera and if it's blank would you pay for the process if they don't return the film?
I've seen some of their scans and I think they look a bit high key and wishy-washy. Is that the in thing?
Click to expand...

UKFL have now notified that they will accept no more work until they re-open as Canadian Film Lab. The emails were good, but yesterday when I looked at their web site (still UK Film Lab according to the URL) pages were headed Canadian Film Lab, but it was hard to find any other information, even the closing date.

I've noticed that rather high key, a bit wishy-washy look from their scans too. Possibly it's something that wedding photographers like, but I haven't been drawn to it, myself. However, you can (could) get a profile agreed with them that would give you scans the way you like.
 
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