The Ultimate Photographer's guide to Bangkok, Thailand: Film and Digital (2016)

Chromacomaphoto

Chromacomaphoto

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Had a lot of people (who came to me via RFF) asking me for this so I finally thought I would sit down and seriously write a few words on the subject, it ended up being a bit long but I am happy with it. I won't attempt to post the whole thing here due to its size but if RFF members want to read it, it went up on my blog today here:

http://www.chromacomaphoto.com/blog/

If you still have any questions on the subject after reading, you can contact me here or through the address on my website directly and I would be happy to offer any further advice to RFF people.

Thank you
 
Well written article and bang on advice. Some of the repair and vintage camera outlets you highlight are unknown to me and I'll certainly visit them. Btw, talking about film availability, the biggest film distributor on eBay is films-festival based in Bangkok.

Great work and very much appreciated for the time and effort you took.
 
ReeRay said:
Well written article and bang on advice. Some of the repair and vintage camera outlets you highlight are unknown to me and I'll certainly visit them. Btw, talking about film availability, the biggest film distributor on eBay is films-festival based in Bangkok.

Great work and very much appreciated for the time and effort you took.
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The pleasure's all mine kind sir. Thanks for your feedback and kind words, nice to see other ex-pats in Thailand were pleased with the article. You're certainly right about film-festival also. 'husbandandwifeshop' is worth a google also Reeray. Never ordered personally but know people who have, easy one for residents here, especially as I see that you are not In Bangkok. This assumes you shoot film of course.
 
This is a great guide - thanks so much for putting it together.
I'll be going to Bangkok again this April and I'll be sure to read through it once again just before departure.

If you could also in the future add some small pictures with the storefronts I think that would really help people finding the locations but even without it's a fantastic guide so thanks again!

Cheers,
Ben
 
Indeed a long useful article, thanks for sharing! :)

Chromacomaphoto said:
Had a lot of people (who came to me via RFF) asking me for this so I finally thought I would sit down and seriously write a few words on the subject, it ended up being a bit long but I am happy with it. I won't attempt to post the whole thing here due to its size but if RFF members want to read it, it went up on my blog today here:

http://www.chromacomaphoto.com/blog/

If you still have any questions on the subject after reading, you can contact me here or through the address on my website directly and I would be happy to offer any further advice to RFF people.

Thank you
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wow, this really is detailed :) thank you very much!
one thing I want to ask you, and if it is so this might be worth mentioning: in 'regular' printing services both in Vietnam and Indonesia, can't remember if it happened the two or three times that I had photos printed in Thailand but I's suppose that it might happens there too: the shop simply would crop my photos a bit. This has been very upsetting until I remembered to ask them every time to leave a white border instead.
 
ReeRay said:
I do indeed shoot film in both 35mm and 120. Like yourself almost exclusively XP-2.
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Nice to hear, actually I shoot Tri X mainly and only really shoot XP2 if I'm having a really busy time with other things in life. The reasoning behind that is not just that I am okay with how it looks and its friendly exposure latitude but it allows me to shoot B+W and have a little time off from doing my own developing. I do that maybe a couple of times a year and let a lab do the dev, scans and the whole lot while I just enjoy shooting.

But the rest of the year, it's Tri X and Ilfotec HC every weekend!
 
bence8810 said:
This is a great guide - thanks so much for putting it together.
I'll be going to Bangkok again this April and I'll be sure to read through it once again just before departure.

If you could also in the future add some small pictures with the storefronts I think that would really help people finding the locations but even without it's a fantastic guide so thanks again!

Cheers,
Ben
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Thanks Ben, glad that you enjoyed it. Your comments are appreciated, honestly I would have liked some shopfront images as well actually but I at least wanted to get the detailed info out there first. I can be quite single minded once I start something and I just couldn't break off from thinking and typing until it was all finally done!
 
kuuan said:
wow, this really is detailed :) thank you very much!
one thing I want to ask you, and if it is so this might be worth mentioning: in 'regular' printing services both in Vietnam and Indonesia, can't remember if it happened the two or three times that I had photos printed in Thailand but I's suppose that it might happens there too: the shop simply would crop my photos a bit. This has been very upsetting until I remembered to ask them every time to leave a white border instead.
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You're more than welcome, hope it helps. I see you are in SE Asia too.

I really wanted to get as much detailed information into it as possible. I didn't just want to lightly gloss over things.

In Thailand the photo labs sometimes think that they have a right to start using photoshop on your images. Most customers don't know anything about photos so the labs 'work images over' for them all the time as normal. They aren't actually being deliberately awkward with you, they genuinely think that you wouldn't mind. They don't often crop mine as you have suggested but there can be times when they might look at a black and white image where perhaps you have let the blacks go really black and then decide that it 'doesn't look right' to them and so they start playing with the contrast and other sliders.

As I mentioned in the article, the words 'No' and 'Photoshop' are understood by any Thai person you will ever meet working in a photolab. Whether they decide to listen to you or not can go either way of course but it should be doable.

I have a slight situation whenever I get square format prints done via hybrid process from my Rolleiflex. The prints look amazing and 8x10's cost just seven baht with a 24 hour turnaround on decent paper. Yet they simply refuse to trim the paper down to a square shape. So I get the square picture in the middle of a rectangle and have to trim the top and bottom off myself when I get home. There's always a funny quirk to the various labs you find. Serves me right for not wet printing myself.
 
Chromacomaphoto said:
You're more than welcome, hope it helps. I see you are in SE Asia too.

I really wanted to get as much detailed information into it as possible. I didn't just want to lightly gloss over things.

In Thailand the photo labs sometimes think that they have a right to start using photoshop on your images. Most customers don't know anything about photos so the labs 'work images over' for them all the time as normal. They aren't actually being deliberately awkward with you, they genuinely think that you wouldn't mind. They don't often crop mine as you have suggested but there can be times when they might look at a black and white image where perhaps you have let the blacks go really black and then decide that it 'doesn't look right' to them and so they start playing with the contrast and other sliders.

As I mentioned in the article, the words 'No' and 'Photoshop' are understood by any Thai person you will ever meet working in a photolab. Whether they decide to listen to you or not can go either way of course but it should be doable.

I have a slight situation whenever I get square format prints done via hybrid process from my Rolleiflex. The prints look amazing and 8x10's cost just seven baht with a 24 hour turnaround on decent paper. Yet they simply refuse to trim the paper down to a square shape. So I get the square picture in the middle of a rectangle and have to trim the top and bottom off myself when I get home. There's always a funny quirk to the various labs you find. Serves me right for not wet printing myself.
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right, the photoshop 'issue' is the same here in Vietnam and yes, I am 'around'. actually come to Bangkok quite often, if you don't mind I shall contact you before I go there next time to ask you for a meet up :)
You had covered the 'photo shopping' already in your article, the cropping I was referring to is not one an eager and diligent worker may decide to be the better crop but one that seems to be done to make sure that there is no white border left over. the common paper sizes used here usually are a bit off the size cameras produce (?!!) so if they perfectly fit them on two sides the other two either would have a bit of a white border or a crop and by default, I guess to be on the safe side, they just crop a bit more..
 
That's a very helpful guide.


I have been to Thailand (also Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam) several times but unfortunately the last time I visited was some time around 2008.

It is a wonderful country both in its beauty and its welcoming people. I first went in 2001 so I would love to return to see how things are different 15 years later. (My first trip was my big intro to photography - I took an SLR and a ton of film and photographed everything like a Nat Geo photographer gone mad!).

I really can't recommend Thailand highly enough for a holiday. If anyone is like me and not too big a fan of large cities I would recommend Chiang Mai and its surrounding areas as a lovely place to visit.
 
Thanks for this detailed guide! Should be a sticky on the travel sub forum haha!

I visited bangkok last year and was able to check out the cameras at MBK. Prices were on the high end as far as i can remember though
 
kuuan said:
right, the photoshop 'issue' is the same here in Vietnam and yes, I am 'around'. actually come to Bangkok quite often, if you don't mind I shall contact you before I go there next time to ask you for a meet up :)
You had covered the 'photo shopping' already in your article, the cropping I was referring to is not one an eager and diligent worker may decide to be the better crop but one that seems to be done to make sure that there is no white border left over. the common paper sizes used here usually are a bit off the size cameras produce (?!!) so if they perfectly fit them on two sides the other two either would have a bit of a white border or a crop and by default, I guess to be on the safe side, they just crop a bit more..
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Hey Kuuan, although often very busy and with a tight schedule in terms of having time for photowalks and shoots, I always try and least meet up with people for a coffee and chat in the city if I can. Feel free to drop me a line when you're next passing through. I am out of Bangkok with work sometimes, hopefully it might line up.

I see what you mean about the paper and cropping now. I don't tend to have that issue at my current lab. They can be very laid back about deadlines though so I try and choose places that I have to pass in my daily life anyway to avoid the disappointment of an unfruitful special trip to a lab only to find the job still not done. You have to be laid back here if you want to survive and be healthy.
 
RichardPhoto said:
That's a very helpful guide.


I have been to Thailand (also Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam) several times but unfortunately the last time I visited was some time around 2008.

It is a wonderful country both in its beauty and its welcoming people. I first went in 2001 so I would love to return to see how things are different 15 years later. (My first trip was my big intro to photography - I took an SLR and a ton of film and photographed everything like a Nat Geo photographer gone mad!).

I really can't recommend Thailand highly enough for a holiday. If anyone is like me and not too big a fan of large cities I would recommend Chiang Mai and its surrounding areas as a lovely place to visit.
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Thanks for the nice feedback Richard. I can tell you it has changed a lot in the past 20 years or so but I've been here all along so you would no doubt notice it more than me I feel!
 
bucs said:
Thanks for this detailed guide! Should be a sticky on the travel sub forum haha!

I visited bangkok last year and was able to check out the cameras at MBK. Prices were on the high end as far as i can remember though
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Hey Bucs,

Maybe it might reach sticky status one day if enough people felt the need. Just glad to get the word out and help people in the meantime.

MBK can be good fun although much of a muchness after a while.There are lots of different prices for things here, sometimes there are 'grey' and official versions of the same camera sold new at different price points. MBK certainly has a good selection though and it can be good for haggling, depending on the outlet.
 
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