film and the cost of developing

[Archiver]

Wow. I go to the same Fuji Frontier lab that has been doing my stuff since I got into film in 2006. I pay about AUD$20 for colour neg dev, scan to CD and prints, and I can drop it off in the morning or lunch and get it back by the end of the day. I once dropped in about 12 rolls one morning and had them all back by 5pm. They farm out their slide and B&W development, though.

I've never had my film developed by K-Mart, a chemist or anything other than a Frontier lab. Even when I had film developed on a holiday in Hong Kong I found the nearest Fuji Frontier lab and got back some great prints.

 

[useless generation]

The K-Mart near my house does 36exp with prints for like $7 in 1hr. If i only want the film developed cheaply then i go to diamonds for like $5 per roll of 120 or 35mm and they do a better job and are more careful. Usually i get it developed at the lab tho, dip and dunk c-41 at $10 per roll. I develop alll my B&W by myself. Its easy, cheap and i love it. Screw paying $30 for someone else to do it

 

[loneranger]

My local cvs in Los angeles will develop and scan film to cd, in one hour usually, at a cost of $4 for developing and $3 for the cd, usually I will develop a bunch of rolls at a time
and put them all on one cd, to save even more, could not a sk for anything better.

 

[tenter10]

Seems like we're lucky over here in Perth - we have 1 lab that will do C41 for $2.50 a roll 35mm or 120 ready to pickup same day if you drop it off in the morning! The pro-labs that do slide are about $12 a roll dev'd.

Not that it matters - I get a lot of pleasure doing c41 and b&w in my own darkroom at home 😀

Keith the new Portra 400 pushes very nicely - so much so I don't think I'd bother with Portra 800.

🙂 a bloke should send his film there. jacck

 

[tenter10]

lots of nice info here for getting photos developed in Brisbane. apparently there are labs that i never knew about, although the prices seem to be about the same as where i get my stuff done.

i get all of my film (35mm, 120, slide) developed and occasionally scanned and printed at Fotofast in the city on Adelaide St.

prices for color negative 35mm (1hr dev):
develop only: $10 (regardless of 24exp or 36exp)
scan to CD (low res): + $5
scan to CD (high res): + $10

prices for b&w negative 35mm (5day dev):
develop only: $15 (regardless of 24exp or 36exp)
scan to CD (low res): + $10
scan to CD (high res): + $20

prices for color negative 120 (2day dev):
develop only: $12
scan to CD (low res): + $10
scan to CD (high res): + $20

prices for b&w negative 120 (5day dev):
develop only: $15
scan to CD (low res): + $10
scan to CD (high res): + $20

i happen to have their service brochure. 😛 will be going there today to pick up my first 2 rolls from my new Hasselblad. so excited. 😀

🙂 I thank you I go into the city occasionally or I can get my son to do it.

 

[FalseDigital]

Here in Bangkok I pay (as of today's exchange rate):

Develop Only:
$3 a roll for b/w OR E-6 35mm or 120
$1.50 a roll for C41 35mm or 120

If I deliver in the morning I can pick them up at the end of the day. If later it's next day.

 

[noimmunity]

I send all my E6 (color positives) to Taiwan for processing.

B&W I make do with developing on my own.

Cost/results have pushed me away from color negatives.

Digital plays an increasingly important role, partly just because the digital workflow fits easily into my work schedule and is enjoyable in itself.

 

[Paolo Bonello]

A shift in how you record and print your photographs can make things cheaper but only after an intial outlay on scanning equipment.

Develop c41 (not cutting) @$6 per roll. (cut it yourself to minimize dust and scratches)
Pre-Scan quickly at lower res to proof photos.
Immediately Identify 2 or 3 keepers then scan those at high res and send to digital print folder.Once digital print folder is somewhat full of 20 or 30 decent prints get digital prints done at kmart or wherever you prefer in 6x4 just for a flick through album set. (They should cost around 15-30 cents a print). This way you're not laden with the cost and bulk of all your crappy photos being printed every time you develop a roll. Just print the 2-10% of good images. I figure that saving the cost of about 50 sets of prints will pay for the scanner. Mine is nearly paid for after 5 months. I do occasionally still get a full set of prints done with development but that is more for a specific reason like a family member wants a set or I have a backlog of scanning to do and can't wait.

The flick-through album set is just to keep things tangible if you need that. Remember its no more than 10% of what you would have normally printed. This equates to what people did in the good ol' days when you picked the good ones for the album and left all the dud shots in a shoe box. Some people don't even need a flick through album but I'm of the opinion that a print is my ultimate goal of taking photos.

From there you might occasionally identify one every couple of hundred images that you might want to enlarge bigger than 6x4 and then you can choose to do that digitally if your scanner produces good quality or get it enlarged professionally.



It's the same thing for Black and white except developing costs more. That is why a lot of B&W shooters eventually end up developing at home. This can be very cheap.

Also in B&W you can set up to do a contact sheet instead of scanning to proof your images.

 

[nobbylon]

I'm happy I started developing my own again. I don't have a darkroom but can load my film onto the reel in my garage at night.
Tri-X cost me 3.35 pounds a roll and to develop it costs me less than 50 pence a roll.