professional lab or drugstore

[jussi-paavo]

Here in Helsinki, Finland, we have a couple of reputable 1-hour shops that has long business hours. They do special processing (push) of B/W for next day.
Pice for processing-only is 7,50 EUR (11 US$) for B/W and 6,50 EUR (9,60 US$) for C-41.

 

[peterc]

B&W gets processed at home.
C41 goes to the drugstore.
Slides go to a pro lab.

 

[rogue_designer]

Personal work
- 35/120 BW done at home (well sort of... mostly it sits in a pile waiting)
- 35mm C41 done at drug store (unless i did something funky - e.g. push, cross process, etc.)
- 35mm E6 pro lab
- 120 C41/E6 pro lab
- 4x5 bw, c41, E6 pro lab

Pro work
- all done at the lab, regardless of format, film or process.

 

[shadowfox]

I vote one hour. The only thing that a prob lab gave me is a roll very well developed Fortepan 200 and a roll of so-so T-max 100. And they charge me more than I could swallow. So enough of that.

My goal is to start developing silver B+W myself.
No choice for slides but to drop it to Wally's.

But for C-41 B+W and colors, I'd stick to my good buddies at my local Sam's minilab. They are cheap, consistent, and just roll their eyes when I showed up with half-frame rolls or super long leaders from my barnack 🙂

 

[rogerchristian]

I own a camera store in Iowa City, Ia. We offer nearly every photographic service except Kodachrome and movie film, including full color services from film and digital, as well as E6, and a true b/w lab.

However, having said that, the quality of prints from film or digital, from many 'good' one-hour labs including some Wal*marts, is fine. Most are on Fuji processors and paper, same as we are.

Overall, if you have a reasonably good printer, things can be excellent, shop around, find somebody in your area, and get chummy with the lab people. Generally, they will do a good job. NOT as good as we do, but I am biased!

 

[David Goldfarb]

B&W I do myself. E-6 usually goes to a pro lab, but occasionally I'll run it myself. C-41 I've done in the past, but these days I use it pretty rarely, so I always send it to a pro lab.

Do I have my film developed at a drugstore? Do I have my prescriptions filled at the photo lab? No. The other day I noticed a business in the Bronx called "Rx Pizza and Grill," but they had closed down. Maybe they should have developed film too.

 

[Ronald_H]

Not so clear cut here:

Rated C-41 and E-6: Drugstore. Never had a single problem there in 10 years.

Pushed C-41 (never pushed E-6): Pro lab.

Rated B/W: Drugstore.

Pushed B/W: That I do myself now.

I used to go to the only pro lab nearby, but they have been slipping below an acceptable level. They retired their E-6 machine due to low volume and their B/W work gave me poorly developed (over or under) and very spotty negs with drying marks. Of course I complained but they do not seem to be able to do it better.

So I bought a changing bag, a Paterson tank with reels and the usual bottles etc. and Diafine as developer. The rest, as they say, is history...

 

[iridium7777]

i always use the 1 hour places.

walgreens develops + scans for around 5-6$. target was the cheapest at develop and scan at 1.99$, but their resolutions are much worse than walgreens and they scratched a lot of my film, so i'll go to walgreens although i fully understand that it's a hit and miss with them too.

for slides i use the fuji mailers, i don't know why anyone would use anything else. the turnaround is about 3-5 days for those.

 

[Andrew Sowerby]

I use a drugstore for my C-41 stuff, but I had to try out a bunch of them before finding one run by someone who actually cares about what he's doing. A pro lab might be a bit better for basic scan'n'print, but the price difference is too high. I go to a pro lab for printing bigger than 4x6 though.

 

[Senecabud]

Only my color film goes out, as I develop all my 135 and 120 B&W film myself. The color neg films are dropped off at the drug store's 1-hour lab for "Develop only - do not cut" processing. The 135 is back within hours and the 120 takes about 2-1/2 weeks--a long wait, but can't beat the low cost. So far, so good.

 

[lemalk]

It's prohibitively expensive to use a pro lab here in San Diego - the one down the street charged me approx $50 to develop, scan and one set of prints of Tri-x and color slides.

Now, I shoot only C-41 color & B&W. First preference - Costco offers high-res scans and an index of the pics on the CD label. It's convenient & much cheaper.

Next option is Target which is really pretty good. Then Walgreen's and lastly CVS (which gives pathetically low res scans).

 

[kipkeston]

Costco for me. They know me there as the only guy who asks for "process only." They roll it back up it stick it in the canister to give back to me.

 

[OldNick]

I use only C-41 films, and get excellent 1-hour processing to CD from Wal-Mart.

Jim N.

 

[lorriman]

I don't have much money and have got in to this film business as a way to get cheap oof for the few pics that need it (mostly portraits). I use out of date fuji reala 100 and superia 400.

So I develop as cheaply as possible without prints (e2.75, 1 hour service at the local french hypermarket, Auchan), then I hold the negs up to the sky and take a snap with my 6MP digi cam (Fuji F30). Having 'printed' (see below) I select the few that I wish to keep and take a closer snap of individual pics and I seem to get about 1MP of info, which for my purposes is almost always enough (a 6x4 and web/email). If my family really want a bigger pic then they can always get an enlargment. Neg curl can sometimes be a problem, but I usually crop and add vignetting, so not so often.

I'm thinking of sending off my films to the US for development,as there is at least 1 place that does it for $3, and the postage isn't so steep if I send enough films. Depending on postage and langages other countries might be good too.

[I 'print' the negs by using the freeware Irfanview with the also free Smartcurves photoshop plugin. It's not instant, but quick enough and I do enjoy it.]

 

[wlewisiii]

B&W I do myself.
35mm C-41 goes to the Walgreens two blocks from here. There is a woman there who knows the Fuji machine very well and consistantly does a good job on my dunk & scan orders.
MF & LF C41 & E6 goes to a pro lab.

William

 

[Livesteamer]

Winston Salem N.C. lost it's pro lab at the end of last year. The camera store in the mall has had problems with every roll I've given them. I'm scared of the drug stores. Any suggestions on a good mail order pro lab? Thanks. Joe.

 

[Doug]

With film, the film itself is all you have to start with, so it makes sense to have it treated with the utmost care. I use a local pro lab and shoot "only" C41 color & B/W in 35 & 120/220; the rare traditional B/W I do myself. Of course, when and if the photos aren't all that important, then anyplace will do... but then that's what digital is for, right? 🙄😀

 

[narsuitus]

I use a local professional lab to develop my important color negative film (weddings and portraits) because I do not want anything to get lost in the mail.

I develop my own 35mm and 120 E6 film.

I develop my own 35mm, 120, 4x5, and 8x10 black & white film.

I scan my film to produce digitized images.

I use a remote professional lab to make prints from my digital images.

The last time I used a drug store was when I first decided to start developing my own color slide film.

 

[Eric T]

I voted for the drugstore because that is where all my 35mm film goes. But for 120/220, i have to go to the local pro lab. I should take all of it to the pro lab just to help keep them in business. Unfortunately, laziness and convenience encourage me to go to the nearby drugstore.
Eric

 

[kshapero]

I use only C-41 films, and get excellent 1-hour processing to CD from Wal-Mart.

Jim N.

My Walmart just closed down Film Processing. But Costco is the best of all in my opinion. They give ne 3.6 meg scans on a CD.