whos best for MF developing and scanning?

stumac

stumac

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stuart
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Yes
I know there is a supplier list on here but it doesnt say who good or no so good etc

when I say best I mean quality and value for money

I will mainly be after dev of colour negs and would like them scanned to around 14x12(inch) at least

peak imaging seem to pop up more than others but where do yous guys use?

thanks in advance
 
I personally use peak to develop my 5x4 frames, but I've got my own scanner, so I can't comment on their scanning services. I've always been impressed with peak and will continue to use them until they give me a reason not to.
 
OK for my colour negatives that I may want to take prints from then I use Peak, I have tried a couple of others since I gave up developing my colour films myself but for me Peak is the best of those I have tried. As for scans, sorry, I can not comment as I scan my own.
 
Peak are used and recommended by a lot of people on here for good reason, they provide consistent results and a quality service. i can't comment on their scanning as I scan my own.
 
I only shoot black and white film, but I've used UK Film Lab for both normal B & W and some XP2 (C41 process), both processing and scanning.

It helps that they are a couple of miles from me, so no worrying about films going missing in the post, but I've been very happy with the quality, price, and customer service.

I had some important (to me) stuff for a charity project, and they went the extra mile on dust and scratch removal on some 120 XP2 scans at no extra charge.

Andy
 
If you want good scans, cost becomes a major issue. Have a look at Peak's prices for process and scan; for a 12*12" sized print, they suggest you need CD Archive 120 Platinum, at £30.85 per film! There is a handy processing cost estimator on here that I put together that covers no scan, low res and medium res scans, and gives an idea of comparative costs. That Peak Archive Platinum scan would be high res, ie not covered (I note when checking that I need to update the cost estimator, as Genie have ceased their film processing business, just when I was planning to start using them again). Peak is one of the more expensive labs, it appears (though I absolutely back up what folk say about their quality). AG Photolab is one of the cheapest; their quality has always been pretty good for me, but their processing times have been unpredictable (averaged over a week for me), and customer service has been poor sometimes (phones not answered). There are suggestions things have improved, though. Club 35 is also cheap for 120 C41; I only used them once or twice and got fast turnround and a reasonable quality, IIRC.

It turns out that UK Film Lab is one of the cheapest for medium res 120 scans. Their quality is excellent. Turnround time is a bit slower than Peak; you'll be waiting 7-10 days with UKFL according to their advertising, that's from when you pay, which is after they receive the film. My single go with them was scan only (an already processed and cut E6 film) and took 15 days. Peak has been averaging 4 days for me (that's from dropping into the postbox to landing back on my door mat), but that has been process only.

Although this looks like a veiled recommendation to get your own scanner (and it would be, for black and white), I find it hard to do decent quality scans for colour negative film. I would probably use UKFL myself (specially if time were not a pressing issue).
 
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Peak it is by the looks of it, thanks very much everyone for your input.
 
I think UK Film Lab is hands-down the best for colour film. What sets them apart seems to be great customer service and the quality of the scanning. By quality, I mean the skill of the operator to produce the best image from the scan, rather than any technical considerations. They are clearly well trained, experienced and have an eye for a great image.
 
FujiLove said:
I think UK Film Lab is hands-down the best for colour film. What sets them apart seems to be great customer service and the quality of the scanning. By quality, I mean the skill of the operator to produce the best image from the scan, rather than any technical considerations. They are clearly well trained, experienced and have an eye for a great image.
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:agree:
 
FujiLove said:
... the skill of the operator to produce the best image from the scan, rather than any technical considerations. They are clearly well trained, experienced and have an eye for a great image.
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This statement raises an issue for me & i'd like to know what you mean. For my purpose I'd want a scan that was technically accomplished (ie good colour balance & not having lost any information that was on the negatives eg by blowing highlights). I wouldn't want to have anything more than that basic competence provided, since that would be in the realm of editing (processing), which I regard as part of my remit, not that of the lab.
 
droj said:
This statement raises an issue for me & i'd like to know what you mean. For my purpose I'd want a scan that was technically accomplished (ie good colour balance & not having lost any information that was on the negatives eg by blowing highlights). I wouldn't want to have anything more than that basic competence provided, since that would be in the realm of editing (processing), which I regard as part of my remit, not that of the lab.
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I guess its the same as it ever was, there are/were photographers who have printers they trust and they worked with to get the best print and there are those who prefer to do it all them selves. For example a lot of (current) top photographers have Eddie Ephraums do their printing but it is equally valid is to do it all your self.
 
We're not discussing printing, Steven, we're discussing scanning ...

Refer to the thread title.
 
droj said:
We're not discussing printing, Steven, we're discussing scanning ...

Refer to the thread title.
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Yup but they're analogous these days.

If you want a negative (wet) printed you can either hand it to a good printer you trust and get them to do it or you can do it yourself.

If you want a finished scan you can print at home or display for the web then you can go to somewhere like UKFL who are your trusted partner who finish the jpg to a printing standard. If you want to do the final steps your self then you either need to scan it your self or find a lab which scans to a tiff with out throwing away any information at the end of the histogram.
 
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droj said:
This statement raises an issue for me & i'd like to know what you mean. For my purpose I'd want a scan that was technically accomplished (ie good colour balance & not having lost any information that was on the negatives eg by blowing highlights). I wouldn't want to have anything more than that basic competence provided, since that would be in the realm of editing (processing), which I regard as part of my remit, not that of the lab.
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I think what you're saying is you want to be given some kind of raw or basic output from the scanner that hasn't been 'interpreted' by a human? There may be some film processors who would do that, but I don't think UKFL will. I assume they don't do it because, generally, what a scanner outputs isn't ready to print and will almost always need to be colour balanced and corrected in some way, so most people would be really disappointed with the scan. It's exactly the same if you scan film yourself: i.e. a huge PITA. A scan, like a wet print, will always be an interpretation of the image because there is no absolutely 'correct' colour balance, brightness or contrast - everything is open to interpretation. What UKFL seem to be really good at doing is taking the raw data from the Frontier and creating a beautiful final image from it. As there is both a human involved and a particular brand of scanner and software, they do tend to create scans which look a certain way. It's hard to describe exactly what it is, but you start to spot the particular colour balance and contrast after a while. Personally, I think it looks great, but you may not. Also, there is sometimes a small amount of clipping at one or both ends of the histogram. If you absolutely do not want that, then I'm fairly certain you will need to scan your own film (or wet print them, if you're up for that!)

I was going to suggest having a look at the photos 'skysh4rk' posts on here (https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/members/skysh4rk.54614/), but it looks like they have all been made private in flickr. :(

Carl: are your colour shots scanned by UKFL?
 
After looking at UK Film Lab and their prices they will be getting my 1st order. At almost 2 1/2 times cheaper that Peak its a no brainer for me and the fact they seem to be proven.

thanks again everyone, now time to get out a take an image worth processing.
 
stumac said:
After looking at UK Film Lab and their prices they will be getting my 1st order. At almost 2 1/2 times cheaper that Peak its a no brainer for me and the fact they seem to be proven.

thanks again everyone, now time to get out a take an image worth processing.
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H'mm I think I'm in a time warp of the old days when I dev the colour film myself and did a 8X10 colour print for 50p..and I'd only do a colour print for winners as I'd first do small prints in B\W to see what they were like.

Using these labs and each RB67 shot cost about £1.40 and that doesn't inc postage...it's a MF killer for ordinary photographers :(
 
What UK Film Lab will also do is work with you and listen to your feedback on your scans, as well as provide you with feedback with regards to your shooting (under/overexposed etc) with a view to setting up your own custom profile with them. For example, do you prefer your scans a little warmer/cooler, more/less contrasty, etc. Then, once you have arrived at a point you are happy with, your scans will be processed in the same way. I am super happy with the scans I get back now and have to do no editing at all as they are to my personal taste/preference and continue to use them.

My alternative was to use Richard Photo Lab but the extra shipping to the US puts me off unfortunately. I think UKFL are the UK equivalent from what i can find and actually take care over each of your images.
 
I notice on the UK Film Labs order sheets it gives you the option of A- dispose of negs or B- they will archive them until they are an inch thick and then quote for postage.

Maybe Im missing the obvious but why cant they simply post them back to you each time you use them? Surely that should be a given I would have thought.
 
stumac said:
I notice on the UK Film Labs order sheets it gives you the option of A- dispose of negs or B- they will archive them until they are an inch thick and then quote for postage.

Maybe Im missing the obvious but why cant they simply post them back to you each time you use them? Surely that should be a given I would have thought.
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Price. Rather than pay postage every time, they save them and post in one go. I've received one lot of mine back a few weeks ago.
 
stumac said:
I notice on the UK Film Labs order sheets it gives you the option of A- dispose of negs or B- they will archive them until they are an inch thick and then quote for postage.

Maybe Im missing the obvious but why cant they simply post them back to you each time you use them? Surely that should be a given I would have thought.
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They can if you want them at a charge, I have asked that.
 
Fair enough , if your posting a disc how much more is it going to cost to slide in a few negs.

Im not knocking them and they seem a really good company and Ive enjoyed looking at their facebook page but just thought it was strange that you have an option of binning them, Id rather use them as book marks as bin them
 
I only got one film done at UKFL (E6 already processed and cut into strips, that they scanned). When they contacted me to send it back the price was well over £4, so high it gave me amnesia until after the deadline. But since I've got my own scans and two other companies, I guess I'm OK!
 
jjdoyle said:
Have a look at a small, friendly firm here: www.filmdev.co.uk – good scans and economic too.
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Not heard of this one before, but their prices seem very good unless I'm reading the prices on their order form wrong. Seems to be £3-5 for dev & scan for 120 with free delivery too.

The address on their website seems to be for a residential road, and looking on Street View it does look to be a house. Not sure what to think but I might send a test roll to test the water soon.

Are you connected with them in any way Johnathan?
 
Carl Hall said:
Not heard of this one before, but their prices seem very good
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Hi Carl, yes, that's correct re the prices. Starts low at £3/roll for 35mm (24 or 36) including a scan which works fine for proofing and/or web use. Other higher res scans are available at various prices. It's all on their PDF order form. I think they are a small band of photographers running it as a business from home, or a home office etc. I used them with a batch of Poundland Agfa Vista I had in the summer and I was very pleased with the service.

I have no connection with them apart from having used them once earlier this year. I'll be using them again for a few rolls this week. I can't remember where I found them now. Google very probably. A the time I was looking for a black and white lab but these guys only really handle C41.

When I spoke to them on the phone, they did say they have discounts for bulk orders. But, it didn't apply to my batch as I only sent them a few rolls. You'd have to ask them what their discount started at I guess.

This is one of my shots that they developed in the batch I sent them, taken while I was hanging round last winter in Covent Garden, London, doing some street pictures with my son. Taken in very poor light on an extremely wet evening at a slow shutter speed (probably 1/15 or 1/30 and wide open on a Nikon FM with a Nikkor 35mm, so probably f2 or maybe f2.8 – I'm returning to film from digital and I keep forgetting I have to write my own metadata in a notebook now!). Not a great composition but it shows the scan quite well. It's scanned at their lowest res – 1800x1200px. I liked the fact the girl smiled when she realised I was photographing her group as they were putting on their rain capes.

R2-01297-021A.JPG
 
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jjdoyle said:
Hi Carl, yes, that's correct re the prices. Starts low at £3/roll for 35mm (24 or 36) including a scan which works fine for proofing and/or web use. Other higher res scans are available at various prices. It's all on their PDF order form. I think they are a small band of photographers running it as a business from home, or a home office etc. I used them with a batch of Poundland Agfa Vista I had in the summer and I was very pleased with the service.

I have no connection with them apart from having used them once earlier this year. I'll be using them again for a few rolls this week. I can't remember where I found them now. Google very probably. A the time I was looking for a black and white lab but these guys only really handle C41.

When I spoke to them on the phone, they did say they have discounts for bulk orders. But, it didn't apply to my batch as I only sent them a few rolls. You'd have to ask them what their discount started at I guess.

This is one of my shots that they developed in the batch I sent them, taken while I was hanging round last winter in Covent Garden, London, doing some street pictures with my son. Taken in very poor light on an extremely wet evening at a slow shutter speed (probably 1/15 or 1/30 and wide open on a Nikon FM with a Nikkor 35mm, so probably f2 or maybe f2.8 – I'm returning to film from digital and I keep forgetting I have to write my own metadata in a notebook now!). Not a great composition but it shows the scan quite well. It's scanned at their lowest res – 1800x1200px. I liked the fact the girl smiled when she realised I was photographing her group as they were putting on their rain capes.

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Thanks Jonathan (I'll spell it right this time :D )

I think I might have to give them a go soon then. I've got a test roll of Agfa Vista 200 in a new to me Olympus Mju Zoom (car boot bargain) so I might send it off to them when it's finished. Any idea how long it took from posting your film to them to getting your images back?
 
jjdoyle said:
Have a look at a small, friendly firm here: www.filmdev.co.uk – good scans and economic too.
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Although you said it in a later post, I didn't pick up these folk are C41 only. Their middle scan rate costs the same as the base scan for Photo Express, who are reliably quick; PE do 2000 ppi vs 2400 ppi for Filmdev. I'd probably keep using PE for 135, but they do look a great choice for 120 C41. Other places charge ridiculous amounts for scans, and C41 can be tricky to scan at home, I find.
 
Hi Carl, sorry for the delay in replying – I've been working a lot and not on the forum. FilmDev took a full working day from the earliest day they would have rec'd the films to get back to me last time I used them. But, it may be that the films arrived on the Tues not the Mon with them. They called me and discussed the processing and what I was looking for in the scans. They are extremely helpful on the phone. I sent a digital file for a similar image and they matched that for me. They are photographers themselves (weddings, etc I think). They do everything they can to help. I'm very pleased with them so far. Best, JD
 
Hi Chris, sorry to you too for the delayed reply. Yes, of course, I will add something in the film developing thread. See my answer to Carl above for the speed. It's a good service. And, best part perhaps, you can talk through what you need with them in advance. They're fast too – I have used them twice, first time was a next day service and the second time I posted on a Fri and had a link to my images during the following Tues. Best, JD
 
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