Professional processing

Im low on cash but have quite a few rolls of film from the past

year. I want to develop them, but dont have the money nor the time

to do so. I want to know fo a professional lab that developes B&W

film by hand, and is reliable. None of that cvs or ritz shit

allowed.

If you have more then a handful of rolls, the cheepest way to work it is to make freinds with someone with a darkroom.

 

The second way is to buy a changing bag, developing tank, assorted Misc stuff you need, and some developer and go at it. then get it printed at a professional print place of your choice. this can be done for a little over 50 bucks or so....

 

Do to the fact that its a lot cheeper and better quality to do it yourself, there is only a few labs who handle black and white. the one that gets the best rep that i can think off the top of my head is A&I. (www.aandi.com)

 

of course, its $6.50 or so for one roll, so after 10 rolls, it makes a LOT more sense to do it yourself, as you can normally do it much better then a lab.

"I want it perfect, right now, for free". Isn't that the customer from hell?

Any place you pay to process film is providing "professional" processing. I do amateur processing myself.

I'll add to this -- if you have enough that the price of getting it done at a lab is a problem, you can save a good bit by shopping around eBay for a tank and reel, changing bag, thermometer, etc., then buying one bottle each of HC-110 syrup, stop bath conentrate, and rapid fixer concentrate. I set up to develop with a 4x135, 2x135, and 1x135 tanks, 4 135 size reels and two 120 size reels, for $30, a $27 almost-new changing bag, $20 or so worth of measuring cups and pitchers for graduates, a couple syringes for $10, a $5 thermometer -- and lots of time spent reading here. I've long since saved what I spent over the cost of lab processing. I also bought a scanner and scan the negatives -- and have long since saved the price of the scanner, as well.

 

I've been developing for just a little over a year, and was down for three months after a major move.

 

As a minimum, a 135 tank and single 135 reel to fit it, changing bag, measuring goodies, thermometer, and chemistry should come in around $60 -- you'll pay more than that for the first half dozen rolls you have processed and printed by a lab, and if you can scan the negatives you'll find you don't need or want to print most of them. Do get the large changing bag, though -- the small ones are too small to work in, IMO.

Fast. Good. Cheap.

 

Choose any two.

Matt:

 

Depending on what equipment and chemistry they are using, it will cost a "pro" lab that does not use machine processing somewhere between $1.00 and $2.00 per roll to develop your film. So, if you take the number of rolls you have times $1.50 per roll, you will see how much you have to spend on buying a reel, tank, changing bag, & chemistry.

 

Once you have the equipment, the cost/roll is even less.

Zachariah Edwardson , wrote:

"Do to the fact that its a lot cheeper and better quality to do it yourself, there is only a few labs who handle black and white. the one that gets the best rep that i can think off the top of my head is A&I. (www.aandi.com)

 

of course, its $6.50 or so for one roll, so after 10 rolls, it makes a LOT more sense to do it yourself, as you can normally do it much better then a lab."

 

ROFLMAO! Thanks, I needed a good laugh today.

 

Alexis

 

www.alexisneel.com

Since you have so many rolls why not send out some to different places and see what results you like best. There is nothing wrong with sending out your black and white film to a lab but doing it yourself is fun as well. Aside from saving money you can try different combinations of chemistry and developing methods to achieve different results. Labs may not do this for you or will charge you extra.

just wondering Alexis, was the funny part A&I being a good lab, the whole point of it being a lot cheeper to do it yourself, or my comment that you can do it better then a lab? ;)

Listen, i process my own film and print them, i know how cheap it is to do it yourself. i just was wandering if teher were any labs out there that process b&w....ass holes.

Zachariah,

 

Basically everything I quoted...except for the A&I part. They are a good lab, especially the Xibit department, but are far from the only one getting a good rep. Besides Nardulli and Paris Photo in LA, there are maybe 20 other labs, me included, in the country that specialize in B&W and do top quality work. In fact A&I isn't really known for their B&W, except the Xibit department, which A&I bought/merged with the main printer, who's name escapes me at the moment.

 

 

Matt,

 

I know its hard to try and ask a question like you did here and get any other type of answer except "do it yourself" because for the most part, everyone here thinks they can do it as good as a lab. Just look at Zachariah's answer and you will get the gist of the prevelant attitude regarding that. However, to get top quality results, you usually will have to pay for it. Thats just the economics of it. Most labs these days use machines (Refrema dip and dunks are the standard), with myself and MV Lab in NYC being one of the few exceptions. And to do it by hand is more expensive than a machine, although places like A&I charge about the same as MV labs and myself do. Someone suggested sending out rolls to different labs to get a better feel for quality. Its not a bad idea if you plan on doing a lot of film in the future and want to settle in on a lab who will calibrate their processing with your shooting.

 

Good luck.

 

Alexis

 

www.alexisneel.com

<i>Matt, thanks for your gracious acknowledgement of some of the advice from folks who tried to be genuinely helpful. I look forward to more positive contributions from you in the future.</i><p>