Cheap B/W film development in London

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First a Hello,

I just recently stumbled over this Forum and find it extremely useful as I try to get deeper into film photography with my Bessa R.

Though I know the terms London and cheap are quite contraditory, I wonder if there is a photolab in the city which takes less than 10 quid for developing one roll of 35mm b&w.. I'm going to be a student from september on so i need to watch over my finances a lot now. Any hint is appreciated.

Despite that, I'm happy to join here, have been looking for a while for a place like that.

Best

Maik
 
If you only want negs, you can do it yourself without a darkroom, just a changing bag, a tank, and some chemicals. It's really easy and good fun, and a lot less than a tenner a roll.

Ian
 
being cheap is a specialty of mine.... Develop it yourself.. it's SOOO much cheaper than dropping it off. It's 100x more fun to boot.
 
Thanks for your comments -

seems that DIY-processing is not such a big deal and an inexpensive alternative. I'll definitely have a closer look at that.
 
Much as I hate myself for doing this - a word of warning about Ilford! Much as I like supporting them, I have used them for the past few years or so and find their estimate of 1 week turnaround wildly optimistic. It generally takes a few weeks. And they currently have a film of mine that's been with them since the end of April! Apparently, one of their development apparatus us broken and they cannot get it fixed. So their capacity is lowered and it all takes a lot longer. On the plus side: it's very good quality.

I have been using http://www.peak-imaging.com/ for a lot of colour and black and white. I find their colour processing very good (beating the Boots , Jessops and Snappysnaps I've tried!) and their b&w is acceptable. It's developed properly, then scanned and digitally printed, so not "real" b&w, which shows. But it's fast and cheap, and you can always have the real stunners redone elsewhere.

Lastly, you can order film for cheap via http://www.7dayshop.com - they're based on one of the Channel Island so you don't pay VAT. They do film, batteries, bags, lens pouches and allsorts. This includes prepaid development envelopes for Ilford, currently £8.49 for a roll of 36.

Doctor Zero
 
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