Sharing: Labs become rare in Jakarta, Indonesia.

[edward chen]

<p>I have been shooting slides for years and falling in love with colors and tones they produce. But my slide shooting have been at stale mode for last 4 years because of lack of supporting casts: Sellers and Labs.<br />The labs are in extinction rate and the only way to survive it is we have to start shooting slides again. But apparently digital photography is so overwhelming these days.<br>

<br />The supply is also difficult. Only very few stores sell slides and last time i checked they are out of stock. Even they have, they don't stock professional 35mm slide like velvia. Thinking about import them directly from B&H but feel too afraid if custom officials are stupid enough to scan the films.<br>

<br />The main obstacle is labs are not processiong slide anymore. It;s more like individual home lab whose processing quality is bad to mediocre. Last time I tried to process one of my slide and discovered the scracthes over some of slides.<br>

<br />Out of my desperation, I bought a cheaply fuji Superia C-41 standard negative film. Had a good feeling shooting with my old SLR camera again. By the time I brought it to the lab, the sales said that they didn't do C-41 again. Only digital now. What a heartbreak! C-41 the most standard film processing now becomes rare too. 3 labs around the place I live used to process C-41. Not anymore. Then I have to drive about 30 minutes to finally find a lab who still does C-41.<br>

<br />I want to know your story especially from other cities and other countries. Your thoughts?</p>

<p> </p>

[alvin_lim5]

<p>In Singapore, it is still fairly easy to find shops that develop films that use the C-41 process. However, there are some shops that process them only every alternate day as there is the demand for it has fallen.</p>

<p>Slide film is a bit more of a problem as there is only one place that does it. What the other shops do is that they collect the slide film and send to the place to process. As a result, it may take a few days to develop the slides.</p>

<p>I guess as more people are abandoning film, the number of shops that develop them will drop. I notice that the revenue from most photo shops are now from printing photographs from digital cameras.</p>

[rdm]

<p>I often purchas film on ebay and I alwas ask them to write in big letters on the box "Photographic Film: Hand Check only Please" . But i am having troubble myself now figuring out where to get my film processed. My local Walmart that i been going to for years stoped the one hour deveoping and only sends out for processing now.</p>