1 hour film developing in London?

[Landberg]

Hi!
I'm of to London in a few weeks. I'm going to shoot a lot of film and i was wondering if there are some places that can develop the film in 1 hour? I was thinking of leaving my rolls a couple of hours before leaving to the airport.

 

[silkyfeet]

snappy snaps do one hour process also.

 

[Landberg]

Thanks! Does all snappy snaps do this or just some of them?

 

[jho]

Aperture in central London has a 24hr turnaround service for C-41, I know you were asking for 1hr but w/ aperture you can be assured of top notch results instead of a shoddy drugstore mini lab.

http://www.apertureuk.com/Film_Processing_London.html

 

[MikeWebb]

I don't think I would entrust important film to either Jessops or Snappy Snaps. I may be being unkind but you'd be at the mercy of whoever operates the machine that day. Who knows how much they will know/care?

 

[brainwood]

There is Metro Imaging in Clerkenwell. They offer a pro service, not cheap but it is same dayhttp://www.metroimaging.co.uk/prices/film-processing

Or at the other of the scale there are Snappy Snaps in Wardour St near Calumet and a Boots in Piccadilly Circus
http://www.boots.com/en/Store-Locator/Boots-London-Piccadilly-Circus That do offer a 1hour service

 

[Landberg]

There is Metro Imaging in Clerkenwell. They offer a pro service, not cheap but it is same dayhttp://www.metroimaging.co.uk/prices/film-processing

Or at the other of the scale there are Snappy Snaps in Wardour St near Calumet and a Boots in Piccadilly Circus
http://www.boots.com/en/Store-Locator/Boots-London-Piccadilly-Circus That do offer a 1hour service

Metro looks interesting.

 

[silkyfeet]

its only some which do black and white 1 hour turn around. c41 is common. im very new to film. aperture are great i love that place.

 

[bobbyrab]

Aperture is a nice shop, but I have to say I was a little disappointed in their printing service which is a dry print Fuji minilab, which I thought looked quite digital around highlights and flat. Also the scans which are supplied on a disk were too light and contrasty, better if they're dark and lower contrast. On the plus side the costs were reasonable.
Wardour St Snappy snaps I would also avoid, their prints are fine, but they scanned the film as small files and then interpolated them to a large size, I couldn't get them to understand the difference and had the film re-scanned at my local Snappy Snaps who do a good job and the difference was night and day. So Metro might be expensive, but probably worth getting it right. Another good lab is Tapestry, but not sure if they work in an hour.

 

[silkyfeet]

bobbyrab thanks for the info. im only on my second roll of film ever shot and all my info is from my friend who solely shots film. im based in dulwich and there is a snappy snaps in peckham rye. i noticed what you just stated that the files was very small. i didnt understand as i expected the films to be much more than a 1mb. i placed in light room and was confused by the size. i was actually going to finish off my roll tomorrow in central and give in to snappy snaps in wardour street. where in central london would you reccommend?

 

[bobbyrab]

Wardour St is well used by a lot of photographers, and I'd trust them with dev and printing, it was just trying to get them to understand their machine was not actually doing a larger scan (I was paying for larger files than normal) but was taking the normal size scan and it's software was adding pixels, the results start to look blurred beyond about 50% view in photoshop. Anyway as a point of principle I took it up with their head office and they agreed there was an issue when I sent through both scans, but two days later they were taken over, so no joy there.
For many years I've sent my films to Alison who runs the Snappy Snaps in Beckenham High St, she posts or dropboxes the files to me, but tbh she uses a Noritsu machine, and it's good enough for the print sizes I use, but if it was critical work you need to pay reasonable money to somewhere like Metro or Tapestry to get a good quality scan.

 

[bobbyrab]

I should also add I shoot my B&W on Kodak Cn, which is c41 process and is easier for mini labs to process than B&W film. Try Pekham and see how it goes, all Snappy Snaps work with different machines and processes, sometimes the key is to find someone you can trust rather than the lab itself.

 

[Landberg]

I only want to develop the film. No prints. Is wardour st good for that?

 

[brainwood]

If you're around the west end there is also Bayeux in Newman st a few minutes walk from Wardour St . They offer a 2-3 hr service but again they are a pro lab so not cheap, one of the few left in Soho there used be loads of them

http://www.bayeux.co.uk/film_processing?phpMyAdmin=FjnEhXgrBryudxhlIqpUHZ0QCLb

If you are wanting to process just before you leave you could always get them to post them to your home address. That way you could use any lab that could offer that service.

I have used AG Photo Lab with good results, they even offer postage paid envelopes to send the film to them .

http://www.ag-photolab.co.uk/

 

[bobbyrab]

I only want to develop the film. No prints. Is wardour st good for that?[/

I've only ever used them for C41, but I had no problems with the dev there and would trust them for that.
I have to hold my hand up here and admit to brain befuddlement, when recommending Tapestry, I'm actually thinking if of Bayuex as mentioned by Chris, Tapestry are a post production company in the same area and I've confused them, I'm just about to turn 53, but I can see where this is all heading.

 

[ian_watts]

when recommending Tapestry, I'm actually thinking if of Bayuex

😀 One of those mix-ups that seems almost perfect.

 

[bobbyrab]

😀 One of those mix-ups that seems almost perfect.

Yes, it occurred to me they may actually be linked.

 

[AJS Lamb]

Where about in London are you staying? The Snappy Snaps branch in Camden is excellent.
Actually, most branches of Snappy Snaps are good especially if you just want the film processed. They'll be a heck of a lot cheaper than Metro or Tapestry.

 

[Tom Parkes]

Just be aware that a few of the pro labs used to contract out their C41 work to Snappy Snaps, so perhaps a call beforehand to establish where the processing is actually done might be in order if you're at all concerned.

 

[Landberg]

Thank you all for the tips! I welcome more!😉 What you guys call expensive/pro is cheaper than the bad places in sweden! 😉