Film shops in the US

[sara]

Hello all,
Some of you might remember me, some not, I see some new people on here!

Ok so big news, I am moving to California(!!!!!!!!!!!!!!).

Having being in Asia and the UK for most of my life, it's just going to be a whole 180 on everything - people driving on the "wrong" side of the road, reading things in Fahrenheit (which I will never succumb to!!), reading the dates backwards...I feel like a child learning life again.
I am afraid but I am also excited!..

So first things first, I'll be around San Jose / San Francisco kinda area...where can one get some decent film and develop film?
Are there shops I could send film via mail to be processed? Are they cheaper?

Oh wait, there's Walmart and all that? But I don't know if they are any good?

 

[JeffS7444]

Funny that in most non-pandemic years I make it to downtown SF and East Bay but haven't really sought out photo stuff there in years, suppose I'm too busy looking for good things to eat (USA's got Mexican food!) and photograph. I don't make it down to San Jose very often. But up in East Bay, one place that I did make a special effort to visit was Looking Glass Photographic Arts
https://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/look...-arts-berkeley
Looking Glass is the sort of place that might have more offbeat stuff like 127 film in stock. Mike's Camera, probably not.

 

[markjwyatt]

Stay away from Walmart. First they do C-41 only (may work for you), but also, they scan negs like 3 Mp, then discard the negatives. Avoid this like the plague.

The Darkroom (San Clemente, CA) has good processing, and will send you mailers. I am sure there are others.

 

[Doug]

Welcome back, Sara! And I hope your location displacement works for you 🙂

 

[dourbalistar]

sara, exciting news! The Bay Area is a wonderful, albeit expensive, place to live. Unfortunately, many local brick and mortar photo stores have closed over the years, though there are a few good ones left. Glass Key Photo in San Francisco has a very good selection of different film stocks, and they partner with a lab in Oakland for film processing. There are also some very good California-based online retailers for film. I like Freestyle Photo in LA. They're not Bay Area local, but they have a full selection of photographic supplies with excellent customer service. Photo Warehouse is another good online source for film and chemistry.

For film processing, I second Mark's recommendation to avoid Walmart. The Darkroom is a good mail-in alternative, a lower cost, high-volume lab in Southern California that provides film processing and scanning. I've also had good experiences with Richard Photo Lab. Their prices are a bit more expensive, but they can offer more personalized developing and scanning services as they cater to professional wedding and commercial photographers. For local labs, I found this page on Lens Lurker that has a list of 20 film developing places in the Bay Area:
https://lenslurker.com/best-places-to-develop-film-in-san-francisco/

In any case, if you end up closer to San Jose, you'll be in my neck of the woods in the South Bay Area. Feel free to send me a PM if you have any other questions, photographic or otherwise!

 

[ediz7531]

I’ve been buying my film from Mike’s Camera in Menlo Park lately. They offer you 10% off when purchasing 10 rolls (of any type), so the price is comparable to places online. I shoot mostly B&W so I develop and scan my own film. A friend of mine has had processing done by Mike’s and wouldn’t recommend them for that service.

Whenever I’m north of SF I stop by Seawood Photo. It’s a lovely store with a huge selection of film cameras and good film inventory.

 

[hap]

Wasn't there a high end photo shop in downtown Palo Alto? Keeble and Shuchat....I guess they went out of business. Had enough doing business in California after 51 years. I would vouch for the Darkroom and Northcoast Photo in So CAL.

 

[dourbalistar]

Wasn't there a high end photo shop in downtown Palo Alto? Keeble and Shuchat....I guess they went out of business. Had enough doing business in California after 51 years. I would vouch for the Darkroom and Northcoast Photo in So CAL.

Yeah, Keeble & Shuchat closed in late 2016, but not before some burglars cut a hole in the wall and stole a bunch of camera equipment in a display case:
https://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/2016/09/26/burglars-hit-keeble--shuchat-by-breaking-through-wall
https://petapixel.com/2016/09/28/thieves-rob-camera-store-sawing-hole-wall-behind-nikon-case/