Ok, so 18mths ago I had a overwhelming urge to shoot film…
Long story short with endless nights on eBay resulting in a very slim wallet I bought a few film cameras and a dozen or so rolls of film (iso 100,200 & 400) all film has been left in fridge since they arrived
The problem was the cost of dev and prints !! 🫣😳!!
Not checked since but the cost was hovering around £25 to buy/dev/print each 36exp roll !!
My question is…. Are there any members here from the UK that can recommend a more palatable dev & print service?? Mail order would be perfect too!!
Anyone!!
Please, no replies about home processing… it’s just not going to happen. Those days have gone - I have no desire to revisit either.
I use AG photolab. They charge £14 to develop and scan a 36 exposure B/W film (standard jpeg scan). They have free mailing labels to send the films in but you will pay a few £ postage for return of the negs, so best to send a few films at once to minimise postage costs.
I don’t bother with prints. They just clutter up the house and I find the viewing experience on an iPad is better. The ipad photos app is more than good enough to make some small editing adjustments, eg crop, exposure and contrast adjustments.
For film I buy Kentmere B/W films, which are £6 per roll. Last time I was able to buy a 10-pack for £50, but I don’t see this option available any more.
It is still not a cheap exercise unfortunately. Developing your own films is not that difficult, but the time and effort to scan them is not insignificant. I will maybe go down this path when retired, but for now my free time is worth more to me, and I don’t want to spend it doing something I don’t particularly enjoy.
I will give you my experience with the labs I have tried.
I currently use Carmencita in Spain. Since Brexit, that only works if you have a bunch of rolls to bulk send as the shipping cost is high, there's a customs handling fee etc etc. Additoinally as I have a family member living in Barcelona I can save a bit of money by getting them to collect my film for free. I only use them as they do the full 35/120/large format film (the quality is very good, no complaints there).
I used to use Canadian Film Lab (which used to be UK film lab before they rellocated). Those guys are great, the scans are just fantastic. I only switched to Carmencita as I needed a one stop shop that could do 4x5. If I stuck with 35/120 I'd be using them, no questions asked. They are very competitively priced and they also have a UK relay service (ie you send film to UK address and it finds its way to Canada). They are also based in Hope, BC. Which is where they filmed Rambo. So that's worth at least 10 points.
I have also used Analogue Wonderland, they're pretty good too, though if I was nitpicking I prefer the other two above.
I tried Bayeux as well in London for film. That was just silly money for auto scans. Unless you have a big pro job for them I'd stay well clear. Amazing printing though, I did a 3ft tall print for a 6x7 shot a while back, now that was an experience.
I buy film from Analogue Wonderland. The prices are all the same more or less all over the place. In the last year I pretty much stopped shooting film except 4x5. So I do not really know if there are cheaper outlets for 35mm.
Not much help op but just as a random UK tidbit - I bought some film from Jessops recently. It was the same price as on Amazon, but I wanted to support jessops, I like the one nearby that I use for dev and scanning. It's not cheap (£16 for higher res + dev, their standard scans are too poor imo) - but I'm not going through rolls like mad.
Anyway, Jessops email me the next day to tell me there's been a huge "honest, clear error" and want me to pay the difference.
Their prices went up by around 20% (so did amazon's), and Jessops hadn't dispatched my items yet.
Yogifi wrote:
Not much help op but just as a random UK tidbit - I bought some film from Jessops recently. It was the same price as on Amazon, but I wanted to support jessops, I like the one nearby that I use for dev and scanning. It's not cheap (£16 for higher res + dev, their standard scans are too poor imo) - but I'm not going through rolls like mad.
Anyway, Jessops email me the next day to tell me there's been a huge "honest, clear error" and want me to pay the difference.
Their prices went up by around 20% (so did amazon's), and Jessops hadn't dispatched my items yet....Show more →
Prices are just insane!!
I bought around a dozen rolls 18mths ago
About half are out of date, the others in date.
But I too have seen the massive price jump!!
And to think it seems like only yesterday that high street dev & print was £2.99 1 day turnaround!!
🤣
If you just have the film processed and scan it yourself and view on a screen it is only £4.17 per 36 exposure roll of colour film processing only. + tax I assume
for an additional £3.33 you get "standard" scans (approximately 2700 pixels on the longest axis) plenty of resolution for 4x6 to 5x7 prints that you can print at home
If you just have the film processed and scan it yourself and view on a screen it is only £4.17 per 36 exposure roll of colour film processing only. + tax I assume
for an additional £3.33 you get "standard" scans (approximately 2700 pixels on the longest axis) plenty of resolution for 4x6 to 5x7 prints that you can print at home
Thank you 👍🏻
I’ve just had a look at the link you provided.. looks great. I need to find some reviews
I have used Bayeux every time I am in London and I think their development is the best I’ve experienced in the UK (I’m a walk-in customer only since I am not there long enough to do anything by post).
I know you don’t want to develop your own film but the real savings comes with scanning since you can do that yourself and doing camera scans involves equipment you probably already have. Andrew Clifforth sells a nice holder and he’s in the UK already. Something to consider going forward. I actually shoot more film now that I handle scanning myself.
Just a heads up for UK folk, amazon portra 400 (35mm) 5-pack for £65, limit 3 per customer. Quite a bit cheaper than the price jessops said was an obvious error.
About $87.50 for curious US folks. Price is like 30% off regular price here recently.
It's going to take over a month to get here so I'm assuming it's going to be fresh stock.
On a related note, I went a bit nuts with the film orders recently - so if anyone figures out a way for:
- cheap
- low effort
- high quality scans and dev
I'm now also very interested. I'll never get back those freezer compartments otherwise.
