Places to develop film?

tiffany_richard · January 2, 2017

Hi, what are some recommended places for developing film? I'm trying to find a place that can develop my film and also return the negetives. Thanks! I'm a newbie to photography.

John Farrell · January 2, 2017

Sheet film? Roll film? 35mm? Colour or monochrome? Developing monochrome 35mm and 120 rollfilm is something that can be done at home, quite economically. You don't need a darkroom, just somewhere dark to load your developing tank. I use a changing bag when I load 35mm film into my tank - the rest of the process happens in my laundry. Some enterprising people process c41 colour at home.

For colour film, I use a local professional camera shop. You need to check in the place where you live, to see if any of these survive.

bethe_fisher · January 2, 2017

What continent? In the USA, there are several places you can mail film to. My favorites are Blue Moon Camera and Machine in Portland, OR and Praus Productions in Rochester, NY. Both will give you the negs back (even uncut if you specify that). I do my own B&W (from 35mm to 4x5).

tiffany_richard · January 2, 2017

Thank you for the recommendations!

JDMvW · January 3, 2017

At the end of local processing (all shut down now), I went to Dwayne's (<a href="https://www.dwaynesphoto.com/newsite2006/overview.html">link</a>) in Parsons, KS (birth place of ZaSu Pitts). They are usually very fast, and the negatives some back in whatever form you request. The returned negatives are also exceptionally clean of dust, etc. -- that's something that is hard to find.

"Daylight" tanks for doing ordinary B&W films are inexpensive, and it is much more economical to do your own on these.

A few chemicals (or brew your own) and a bag of dark is all you really need.

steven_clark · January 3, 2017

There's also North Coast Photo near

San Diego. I know they do a pretty

brisk business in mail order

development. Black and white is easy

to self develop but color standards

were geared toward machine development

and require controlled higher

temperatures so the dwindling dip and

dunk processors are still the way to

go for color negs and slide film.

Tony Parsons · January 3, 2017

@JDM you mentioned 'a bag of dark'. I had one of these a long time ago, but one of my kids opened it and all the dark escaped. Can you tell me where I can get some more to replace it, please ?

Tony

John Farrell · January 3, 2017

Tony - Mordor is the place. Ask for the "Dark Lord".

m42dave · January 3, 2017

I have used Dwayne's Photo for a number of years now and they offer a good service for the price. They have always done excellent work with slide film, and decent color and B&W prints (or just processing, if you want). On the one or two times I had issues with print quality, they were good to correct them. They're a good place to start if you're new to photography and don't need any custom work done.

JDMvW · January 4, 2017

My daughter had a sticker that said

DARK ROOM

Please don't let the dark out.

I'm not sure where she got replacement dark, though.

glen_h · January 10, 2017

Many chains, such as Walmart, now send film out, and don't return the negatives.

In many larger cities, there are still labs left for C41 (color negatives), and in some for E6 (color slides). With C41 labs, you can also use Ilford XP2, which is a black and white film that uses C41 processing.

With mail order, you have to add the mailing price both ways. Unless you bundle rolls, it is a significant fraction of the cost. The local labs are often used by pros, so will usually give pro quality results.

ian_fischer · January 11, 2017

I have places in Florida that will film. Please inquire with them what they offer.

North East FL:

FotoTechnika Group http://fototechnika.com/

3119 Beach Boulevard • Jacksonville, FL 32207 • 904-356-2503 ask for Sandra

Brick & Mortar Hours: 10:00 AM - 5:30 PM • Monday - Friday

Sandra is very knowlegeable and helpful when it comes to all things film and photo. she's given me many pointers and good ideas. I love that lady! (platonically of course).

I've had Kodak Advantix film scanned here. Advanced Photo System (APS) is the generic term. it's a real pain because you need a special machine to take the film out of the canister to scan it. ask them if they can handle other brands of Advanced Photo System (APS) film other than Kodak.

I know the do this one: Kodak Advantix

ask them if they can do these:

FujiFilm Nexia

Agfa Futura

Konica Centuria

Central Florida:

Colonial Photo and Hobby 634 N Mills Ave, Orlando, FL 32803

they develop film and have a great selection of photographic and archival supplies in store.

Staff is friendly and helpful.

They scan with Noritsu i think. ask them. they'll know for sure. they also have a film puller if your film got sucked back into the canister.

Harmon Photo:

1323 N Orange Ave, Orlando, FL 32804

m-f 9-6

Told me that you need canned air not a brush to get the dust off of your negatives. because brushes will create scratches, no matter how softly you brush and how soft the brush. eye opening.

South West FL:

Zebra Color 2036 Central Ave, St. Petersburg, FL 33712

The only place east of the Mississippi river that processes Slide film. They'd prefer that you mail in your slide film if you don't live in the area because it can take them over a week to get it processed. They like to do big batches and won't do just one roll at a time. I'd prefer a drop it and wait and they get it done right then and there but they already have their own policies in place. They seem to be good people.

<RANT>

My major bone to pick is this: I don't trust anyone but myself to get the film to and from the processing place. Images on film are irreplaceable. if they get lost or damaged that's it you can't get those back. Letting anyone handle this besides me is beyond the pale. I won't consider it. I won't even trust family to do it, because I'm that freaked out about it getting lost or damaged. SO, needless to say I would never EVER trust a bunch of strangers to care for this the way I would, meaning the USPS, UPS, FEDEX, DHL etc. NO! no way. Over my dead body! I may sound a bit paranoid but I'd rather be safe than sorry. So until such time as I can spend the necesary time in St. Petersburg to wait for the film or drive there to drop it off drive back home and drive to pick it up, It will be sitting with my other film. hopefully it wont fade out before i get that chance.

</RANT>

if you are still with me there's also a place that a gentleman who works for the national archive reccomended to me in Alabama.

Indie Film lab

1717 Norman Bridge Rd, Montgomery, AL 36104

I'm sure there are others but those are the one's I've interacted with.

mwmcbroom · February 1, 2017

<RANT> My major bone to pick is this: I don't trust anyone but myself to get the film to and from the processing place. Images on film are irreplaceable. if they get lost or damaged that's it you can't get those back. Letting anyone handle this besides me is beyond the pale. I won't consider it. I won't even trust family to do it, because I'm that freaked out about it getting lost or damaged. SO, needless to say I would never EVER trust a bunch of strangers to care for this the way I would, meaning the USPS, UPS, FEDEX, DHL etc. NO! no way. Over my dead body! I may sound a bit paranoid but I'd rather be safe than sorry. So until such time as I can spend the necesary time in St. Petersburg to wait for the film or drive there to drop it off drive back home and drive to pick it up, It will be sitting with my other film. hopefully it wont fade out before i get that chance. </RANT>

</blockquote>

I'm not quite as paranoid as you -- close though -- but I do prefer promptness, as well as a good value. I am fortunate, I suppose, in that there is at least one pro lab left in my city that promptly develops both E-6 and C-41, but it comes at a price -- $10-12 per roll, which adds up quickly when I have a pile of rolls to be developed. And I find myself on a rather tight budget these days, so what are my choices? Only one, really: develop the film myself. Which is what I've been doing for the past couple of years. I'm saving a LOT, plus if I'm so inclined, I can be looking at my developed images the same day I took them. Now, I prefer E-6, but I have a lot of C-41 in the freezer, so I've been doing C-41 too. Converting the negatives digitally, using Photoshop, can sometimes be a bit tricky, but once I've done it, it's easy to get prints made locally.

Karim Ghantous · February 1, 2017

For Americans, here are three more:

https://thedarkroom.com/ (they handle almost every film format)

https://www.littlefilmlab.com/ (they do 35mm ECN-2)

http://www.richardphotolab.com/ (they're more upmarket and offer premium services)

You might care to listen to the Film Photography Project podcast. It's entertaining and chock full of useful information:

http://filmphotographyproject.com/podcast

Sign In

Places to develop film?

Recommended Posts

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

Create an account

Sign in