Where do you develop/scan your negatives?

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raduray

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Just starting out with a rangefinder and am wondering how the community handles the exposed film? Develop and scan at home or ship it to a lab? If at home, how do you scan?

The nearest photo lab from where I live is 40 miles away in Boston and shipping costs can add up if I send it there. I'm considering developing B+W at home and scanning with my Z8.
 
Developing B&W film is not difficult and doesn't cost that much to get started. Your Z8 with an appropriate macro lens and film holder can do a fine job for scanning. I had one bad experience with getting B&W film developed while traveling many years ago (enormous grain with ASA 32 Kodak Panatomic X) and nobody has touched my B&W film since. That said, there are good labs out there if you don't want to do it yourself and I'm sure other members here can chime in with their favorites.
 
Develop at home for B&W (very seldom shoot color negative, but when I do, I tend to let a local photography store develop it, but not scan it). Scan it at home on a loud and slow Pacific Image XAs scanner. Decent scans but hardly my favorite part of the process.
 
We have school holidays right now in Australia. In my efforts to keep him entertained, I showed my son how to scan 6x7 slides with the Leica CL. He had lots of fun with it. I now have a CSO (chief scanning officer) in the family. Lucky me.
 
I have a good local lab and I have standardized on Ilford XP2+ for B&W & Kodak Pro Image for film stocks (both C41).

I have them both processed and scanned by that lab. On the very rare occasion I have something I deem worthy of wall space, I'll then have them make an appropriately sized print.
 
B&W Develop and scan at home using a Minolta IV scanner for 35mm, Epson V700 for 120 & 4x5. Color wait until I get 4-6 Rolls than send out, 35mm process and scanning, 120 process only for scanning at home.
 
I develop my b&w film in the guest bathroom and scan the negatives on my office desk with an easy35 using a Fuji X-T20 camera and 40/4 EL NIKKOR enlarging lens. For color, I always shot slides until the convenience and lower cost of digital eventually made it a more attractive proposition for taking color pictures. (I use the same Fuji camera for taking color pictures and scanning b&w negatives.)
 
Develop at home. Scan at home.

With the dismal state of lab processing/scanning in general here in Australia, it's by far the best option for me .

That and cost. Ilford ID11 is about the only film developer that has stayed price-stable. Nowadays I buy basic chess and mix my own. Fixer I have a plentiful supply of. Also four bottles of Kodak Sepia Toner which I'll surely never use.

I bought a Plustek 7600i for my '35 and an Epson V600 for MF more than a decade ago when they were discounted. By far the best investments I've made, tho' the learning curve with the Epson was steep.

So far I reckon I've done 40,000 scans in total. Have about 10,000-15,000 more to do and that's it for me in this avatar. No problems whatsoever with either scanner, the Plustek developed a horizontal band across the top which stayed for about a year and then mysteriously vanished. Nothing so far wrong with the Epson. (Touch wood 2x.) Both now need to be dismantled and cleaned but I've found YouTube videos on how to do this, good for me.

Processing was always iffy for me until I lucked into a Job Duolab in the early '00s. It's basic but it works fine and I've standardised all my film developing with its temperature control. I no longer print so the hassles of trays, chemistry, soaks in sodium carbonate and long washing with FB paper are no more my worries.

Over a lifetime most things change. A few, very few things stay the same. Film processing for one.
 
Develop black and white film in my darkroom and then scan, if needed, with an older iMac hooked to a Nikon negative scanner. The scanner is the most recent one I've used; it followed a Minolta which had followed a Polaroid negative scanner. I rarely scan now as I prefer to make prints in the darkroom. I would like to get a flatbed scanner for prints but that's another topic entirely.
 
I develop film at home, using various developers. Only use black and white film, color is all digital now using my iPhone.
Decades ago bought an Omega B-22XL. With the XL version I can raise higher than a regular enlarger. I have a color head I bought long time ago but I can adjust when using varicontrast black and white paper.

I don’t scan.
 
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