UK Film Lab moving to Canada

I will wait to see what they say about this courier.

My other concern is customs, which doesn't come into play for packages sent to Spain, but does for Canada. In theory, exposed film doesn't have any commercial value, but that doesn't mean that Canadian customs officers will necessarily see things that way when they spy a big bag of film coming through.

There's a page on their website (which I can't seem to find now, oddly), which says about the value of exposed film being pence per roll. They say that this means you shouldn't pay anything on top, but who knows what will actually happen. It's complicated enough some times just going across one country, let alone different continents when it passes through dozens of different people and different rules!
 
H'mm if they ditched all their customers in the UK for a better life in Canada why support them....they weren't forced to go.
 
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Yikes, this sort of thinking frightens me, if I'm honest, Brian.

much of Brian's thinking can be a little frightening, it's best to treat it as idle musings and move swiftly on. :D
 
Yeah, didn't they realise that they're not allowed their own life? Some people are just selfish [emoji15]

Why do people move to Canada? Their family are there or for a better life or to make more money or to get a job. They might have put one or two guys out of work in the UK because of the move, yet expect\assume all their customers in the UK to be happy and send all their films to Canada...crazy IMO as the customer doesn't come first (in the Uk) but is subserviant to their business.
 
I probably should have said I was being sarcastic with my post but people are allowed to live wherever they like. They're not forcing anyone to send their film to Canada, just offering the service for their existing customer base in the U.K. and trying to help out with postal costs too. Surely that is good customer service as they haven't just stopped accepting uk orders.
 
I probably should have said I was being sarcastic with my post but people are allowed to live wherever they like. They're not forcing anyone to send their film to Canada, just offering the service for their existing customer base in the U.K. and trying to help out with postal costs too. Surely that is good customer service as they haven't just stopped accepting uk orders.

Well OK, but it is in our interest to keep labs going in the UK without sending films abroad..... surely. Also labs in the UK need supplies, electricity, deliveries etc etc and when a lab disappears that goes as well.
 
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Why do people move to Canada? Their family are there or for a better life or to make more money or to get a job. They might have put one or two guys out of work in the UK because of the move, yet expect\assume all their customers in the UK to be happy and send all their films to Canada...crazy IMO as the customer doesn't come first (in the Uk) but is subserviant to their business.

Well OK, but it is in our interest to keep labs going in the UK without sending films abroad..... surely. Also labs in the UK need supplies, electricity, deliveries etc etc and when a lab disappears that goes as well.

As I and a few others have said before, fair play to them for moving away to somewhere they both love and wanted to live, and are now continuing their passion for film and developing in their new home. I like them as people and as long as it is feasible, I will continue to send my film to them because their service is excellent and I really liked the results that I got from them. The costs will probably work out cheaper than Carmencita for me, even with the slightly higher postage, it just means I can't send single rolls for the price of a first class stamp as I used to when they were UK based.

Also, I know a few people who used RPL or Indie Film Lab, both of whom are U.S. based and their prices are way, way more expensive.

Oh and, if I could move to Canada, I would be there in a heartbeat. :)
 
What are they planning to do with any UK customers E6 they get? Have they shipped over a 20 foot long Refrema or are they going to send it back here?
You do know who used to do their E6 don't you.
 
As I and a few others have said before, fair play to them for moving away to somewhere they both love and wanted to live, and are now continuing their passion for film and developing in their new home. I like them as people and as long as it is feasible, I will continue to send my film to them because their service is excellent and I really liked the results that I got from them. The costs will probably work out cheaper than Carmencita for me, even with the slightly higher postage, it just means I can't send single rolls for the price of a first class stamp as I used to when they were UK based.

Also, I know a few people who used RPL or Indie Film Lab, both of whom are U.S. based and their prices are way, way more expensive.

Oh and, if I could move to Canada, I would be there in a heartbeat. :)

Well I don't get it in that you are indirectly saying that there is no lab in the UK that can equal their results, service, prices or friendlyness...what an indictment of UK labs :(
As for moving to Canada..it might be a lovely place etc but I couldn't stand their winters and in some places it's snowing already...Asha is in a nice place, Portugal or Spain is nice for the weather...well anywhere it's not too cold.
 
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I get what some people are saying - if you have a preferred lab then you may be reluctant to stop using them. One lab is not the same as another. I use AG Potolab, they're cheap and their service may be slower than others (it's still not exactly slow!) but they always answer my questions quickly. I even bought the wrong dev service once (reversal instead of E6), and they flagged it up with me and didn't charge me extra. Good service!
 
What are they planning to do with any UK customers E6 they get? Have they shipped over a 20 foot long Refrema or are they going to send it back here?
You do know who used to do their E6 don't you.

They no longer advertise E6 developing. Not a problem for me at the moment, although I would like to shoot some random, mooching about stuff on it a little more. :)

Well I don't get it in that you are indirectly saying that there is no lab in the UK that can equal their results, service, prices or friendlyness...what an indictment of UK labs :(
As for moving to Canada..it might be a lovely place etc but I couldn't stand their winters and in some places it's snowing already...Asha is in a nice place, Portugal or Spain is nice for the weather...well anywhere it's not too cold.

I haven't found anyone who can do all of those things together yet unfortunately, no. I believe neither have people like @skysh4rk which is why he now send to Carmencita and I believe will continue to use CFL now they are open again.

A photographer I follow on IG from the U.S. is currently in Banff and it's snowing and beautiful! If those Canadians would have me, I'd be there. Especially now hockey season is about to start!

Quick a rough maths says that with today's exchange rate, to send these 5x120 and 1x35mm to carmencita, it would be approx £72 including delivery. The same to CFL will be £67 including delivery. :)
 
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Quick a rough maths says that with today's exchange rate, to send these 5x120 and 1x35mm to carmencita, it would be approx £72 including delivery. The same to CFL will be £67 including delivery. :)

According to the nifty price checker, and assuming those are C41 "medium resolution" scans you're after, 3 common labs in the UK would charge you around £100 for that, and only 3 are cheaper (though one would be £33 inc postage)... So, not too bad, if you can tolerate the turnaround (that was always the bugbear for me with UKFL).
 
According to the nifty price checker, and assuming those are C41 "medium resolution" scans you're after, 3 common labs in the UK would charge you around £100 for that, and only 3 are cheaper (though one would be £33 inc postage)... So, not too bad, if you can tolerate the turnaround (that was always the bugbear for me with UKFL).

HuH...I'm living in the 1960's or on a different planet ;) How much does each winning shot cost (if you can get one) inc the cost of film or if you enjoy the process of using a camera at 1/250 sec how much does it cost per sec it's dearer than Andy downing a pint ;)
 
According to the nifty price checker, and assuming those are C41 "medium resolution" scans you're after, 3 common labs in the UK would charge you around £100 for that, and only 3 are cheaper (though one would be £33 inc postage)... So, not too bad, if you can tolerate the turnaround (that was always the bugbear for me with UKFL).

Good to know, thanks Chris. :) Cheaper is good, but is everything else equal? Would be interested to know who the others are. As you said, that was for a medium sized scan.

HuH...I'm living in the 1960's or on a different planet ;) How much does each winning shot cost (if you can get one) inc the cost of film or if you enjoy the process of using a camera at 1/250 sec how much does it cost per sec it's dearer than Andy downing a pint ;)

Probably on a different planet. For two recent engagement/pre-wedding shoots, I delivered around 25-30 images for each one (one was slightly more than the other). I was happy with that.
 
Good to know, thanks Chris. :) Cheaper is good, but is everything else equal? Would be interested to know who the others are. As you said, that was for a medium sized scan

Have you seen Chris' price estimator on the first post very useful.

I think what you'd miss is the PP that cfl do upfront, if you've got a load of shots from a wedding on digital there probably isn't much point adding to the work load, you could probably write it off against opertunity costs.
 
Good to know, thanks Chris. :) Cheaper is good, but is everything else equal? Would be interested to know who the others are. As you said, that was for a medium sized scan.

First post of the Film Developing in the UK thread (see the resources sticky) has the link to the estimator, but I've also added it here. No guarantees it's correct, particularly with postage (for example, it gave a slightly lower estimate than you for the Carmencita costs, and I suspect you've checked and are right). I ask folk who find errors to let me know, and have had a couple of suggestions. I find a few price alterations now and then. I think my private version is slightly more up to date, so I'll probably upload that some time soon. If you and @skysh4rk are happy with your CFL experience, maybe I'll add them back in (they were there as UKFL previously).
 
Have you tried Ilford? They do lab corrected scans. £12 a pop.

For black and white, I usually develop and print those rolls myself in the darkroom. I really only require development and scanning services for colour negative film.
 
For black and white, I usually develop and print those rolls myself in the darkroom. I really only require development and scanning services for colour negative film.

They do colour C41 on 120 & 35mm negs too.
 
They do colour C41 on 120 & 35mm negs too.

I actually have used Ilford Lab once before and wasn't even aware that they processed colour. Heck, their website is all in black and white tones, which doesn't do much to promote their colour capabilities...

Have you used them for colour?
 
I actually have used Ilford Lab once before and wasn't even aware that they processed colour. Heck, their website is all in black and white tones, which doesn't do much to promote their colour capabilities...

Have you used them for colour?

Yes. They did my 120 roll that was colour and some 35mm.
 
I for one will be trying a couple of rolls with them. I've been impressed by what they've done for others and was gutted when they moved to Canada just as I started my film adventure!
 
CFL's site now has details of their shipping process with DHL. You might want to sit down. $29 to ship 1-5 rolls to them, which works out at £17.78. Granted it only takes 2-3 days, but that's a lot of money I think. I'd rather wait the 5-7 days and pay £9.70, or £5.10 if you don't want delivery confirmation. (there is a £3.85 option too, but it takes 42 days :LOL: ), even if they did apply taxes at the other end, it would work out a lot less.

@gazmorton2000 have you heard if your fillum has arrived there yet? :)
 
CFL's site now has details of their shipping process with DHL. You might want to sit down. $29 to ship 1-5 rolls to them, which works out at £17.78. Granted it only takes 2-3 days, but that's a lot of money I think. I'd rather wait the 5-7 days and pay £9.70, or £5.10 if you don't want delivery confirmation. (there is a £3.85 option too, but it takes 42 days :LOL: ), even if they did apply taxes at the other end, it would work out a lot less.

@gazmorton2000 have you heard if your fillum has arrived there yet? :)


I saw that this morning. Too expensive for me that option I'm afraid. I paid the £5.10 option but had no mail yet to see if it's arrived. [emoji21]
 
CFL's site now has details of their shipping process with DHL. You might want to sit down. $29 to ship 1-5 rolls to them, which works out at £17.78. Granted it only takes 2-3 days, but that's a lot of money I think. I'd rather wait the 5-7 days and pay £9.70, or £5.10 if you don't want delivery confirmation. (there is a £3.85 option too, but it takes 42 days :LOL: ), even if they did apply taxes at the other end, it would work out a lot less.

@gazmorton2000 have you heard if your fillum has arrived there yet? :)

I saw that this morning. Too expensive for me that option I'm afraid. I paid the £5.10 option but had no mail yet to see if it's arrived. [emoji21]

Have you guys not seen the biggest news that they posted for their former customers in the UK? There will be a UK-based address option for us for small batches:

Clients who worked with us as UK Film Lab, prior to our move to Canada, may also use our ‘film forwarding’ service for orders of 10 rolls or less. We have trusted team members still based at our old UK HQ. They will receive your film, package it securely and send it on to us as part of a weekly shipment (every Thursday) via our DHL express service at no extra cost to you. This is likely to be a more cost-effective option for smaller orders.
 
Have you guys not seen the biggest news that they posted for their former customers in the UK? There will be a UK-based address option for us for small batches:

I had not seen this. That could be really good.
 
One would think...

In practice, unfortunately, I haven't found anyone else to be quite as good or consistent.

In practice, there are no useful presets or settings that can be saved and called up. As skysh4rk mentioned, every single frame is scanned and edited by eye, from scratch. No doubt if Fuji and Noritsu had continued to make film scanners things would have progressed, but as it is, manual corrections during scanning are par for the course! This is why it's so important that the person scanning your film has good colour acuity, an understanding of how the customer wants their film to look, and it's also a huge help if the person scanning is also someone who shoots film.
 
Have you guys not seen the biggest news that they posted for their former customers in the UK? There will be a UK-based address option for us for small batches:

That's right! Although we have partnered with DHL, the base price of course has to be at a certain level and so we're naturally aware that for many it's not a cost effective method if sending smaller orders. We have put our DHL pricing for smaller orders on our website simply because it's then up to the individual customer whether they choose to use that method. For those who want a more cost effective solution we have now started our Film Forwarding Service; a DHL shipment leaves our old UK address every Thursday afternoon and is with us here in Canada 2-3 working days later, so UK & European customers are more than welcome to send 1-10 rolls at a time to the UK address and we take care of the rest. In fact, the very first Film Forwarding shipment is already on its way to us here in Canada - the first big batch left the UK earlier today, so we were really pleased to see how well it has been received. We have also had quite a good number of customers use the DHL direct service, which has been working extremely well. As far as customs goes, we handle all of that so there is no concern for the customer - the customer simply needs to book their desired collection date and time and stick the waybill that we send them onto their package. When we book the shipment with DHL, we complete all the necessary customs information and this is effectively handled by DHL in Canada. The only issues with customs are when packages aren't declared correctly, which is why we handle all that side of things to avoid issues.
 
What are they planning to do with any UK customers E6 they get? Have they shipped over a 20 foot long Refrema or are they going to send it back here?
You do know who used to do their E6 don't you.
We never made any secret of the fact that our E6 developing (not scanning) wasn't done by us- we even announced the fact openly when we launched our E6 service. As it happens, we were always happy with the E6 dev service we got from Peak, so it's been disappointing to see your unprofessional remarks throughout the thread. And to answer your question, we're not offering E6 at the moment; we're extremely busy with C41 and B&W, but if/when we feel there is enough demand for it then we'll look at options here, whether that be doing it ourselves or a similar solution to what we did in the UK. E6 was never a significant part of what we did as UKFL, but we offered it as a solution for a few photographers who shoot it occasionally and wanted our eye for colour and our attention to detail.
 
In practice, there are no useful presets or settings that can be saved and called up. As skysh4rk mentioned, every single frame is scanned and edited by eye, from scratch. No doubt if Fuji and Noritsu had continued to make film scanners........

They do!....we have a new Noritsu S-1800 being delivered tomorrow, which has just been made for us in Japan. It will be tethered to a 37 series printer. This is the latest incarnation of this scanner from Noritsu, and will be operated with the latest version of Noritsu EZController software, all running through new hardware.

This is going to significantly increase our capacity. At the moment we have to run evening and weekend shifts in order to scan and print everything, but it's still tight. Having more capacity will make a huge difference.
 
There's only one way to see which Trade Account wins here........

FIGHT!

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They do!....we have a new Noritsu S-1800 being delivered tomorrow, which has just been made for us in Japan. It will be tethered to a 37 series printer. This is the latest incarnation of this scanner from Noritsu, and will be operated with the latest version of Noritsu EZController software, all running through new hardware.

This is going to significantly increase our capacity. At the moment we have to run evening and weekend shifts in order to scan and print everything, but it's still tight. Having more capacity will make a huge difference.

I'm sceptical as to how useful they will be. I don't believe any computer can replace the human eye when it comes to understanding the vast range of subtlety in the colouring of a photo, no matter how complex the programming. For some things I am sure it will be an advantage and will no doubt increase your capacity.
 
This isn't really about presets as such. Sure, the article talks about the elements that can be controlled in a Noritsu (which I'm aware of as we also run an HS1800), but they're not presets that can be blindly applied from one frame to the next, or left to the scanner to apply as it sees fit. It basically comes down to there being more under your control when scanning on a Noritsu compared to a Frontier. That in itself makes it sound like the Noritsu is better, but it is most definitely not. The Noritsu delivers some scenes better than a Frontier, but equally the Frontier also delivers some scenes better than a Noritsu!
 
Have you guys not seen the biggest news that they posted for their former customers in the UK? There will be a UK-based address option for us for small batches:

I'm trying to add CFL into the nifty price estimator, and sent a query to them via their web form about the cost of outbound postage (@Christian Ward ). At the moment it looks like C$23 for up to at least 10 films (didn't check how many more could go for that price) for the DHL option, which is (not surprisingly) pretty steep compared to UK-based alternatives. Process and scan prices are very competitive though, specially as their "small" scans are similar to most folks "medium" scans. When UKFL was included I showed them as not having a small scan; probably confusing when you went to the web site, but the best comparison I could see.
 
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