I changed over to digital before I had a chance to try a professional film developer lab. I have a few rolls of film that I need to get developed and was wondering if a pro lab (like Mpix) was worth using over the local one hour developer (Walmart, CVS, Wolf, etc.). Thanks in advance.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Question for film users
- Thread starter beavo451
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
If you want pro results ....... take it to a pro lab. 
Most one hour labs are ok but not great.
FJ
Most one hour labs are ok but not great.
FJ
Let the Walmart mini-lab machine process the film and make "proof prints". then have any enlargments you want made at the profesional lab. ANYONE can develope negatives, no skill required buy not so with printing.
The printer I use for film is A&I in Hollywood. ( http://www.aandi.com/ ) There you can bring in a sketch or a prood that is marked up with a sharpie pen and some notes and the printer will follow your instructions about how to crop, what to doge or burn and how to color corect. He make the prints by hand in a real doarkroom with an enlarger so he was complete control over the process. What a difference hand made prints make vs. machine prints. They used to charge $20 for a 8x10. More then Walmart charges but how many enlargments do you make?
negatives are all you should care about keeping long term, if you want more out of your color photos, like poster size prints, or even 8x10 enlargements.
its better to get the film processed on the cheap end, and spend the money where it counts.
granted, maybe, a pro lab would give you better negs, but that can all be fixed in a darkroom, digital or a real Darkroom.
a good 1hr place would give you all your prints 4x6 (5x7 for a little more) plus a photoCD.
i use the photoCD to do quick things or for web portfolio, using the physical prints as reference.
but i scan the negative for Photoshop.
if i was to do enlargements, id create them digitally and have a pro lab use pro photo printers (like REAL photo printers on photographic paper) to create the physical print from a digital file.
I have a tangentially related question that you guys might have an answer for, so I'll post it here instead of making a new thread. I took a black and white film photography class over the summer of 2005 at my college. I ended up with an extra roll or two of ISO400 Tri-X which I used to shoot some pictures of my friends on an outing we took tubing down a local creek. I did this after the class was over, so I never got to develop them. The prof probably would've let me come in and develop them but my senior year was so busy that I just never found time.
So, is there any place where I could get these rolls developed? At least development and return of the negs maybe with a contact sheet would be all I'd need, then I could find a film scanner and just keep them digitally for printing enlargements. (Although I guess I could get proper enlargements from the negatives at a pro place if I really wanted them to look good).
Basically, suggestions?
So, is there any place where I could get these rolls developed? At least development and return of the negs maybe with a contact sheet would be all I'd need, then I could find a film scanner and just keep them digitally for printing enlargements. (Although I guess I could get proper enlargements from the negatives at a pro place if I really wanted them to look good).
Basically, suggestions?
You're right, that's what I'm doing now. Scanning film. I've go SO much to do I may never get it done.
And the prints really are better from scanned negs. I just scanned a 6x6 neg taken with a Roli TLR and printed it 8x10 size using a $100 ink jet printer. The result was sharper then the 8x10 made optically by the professional lab. (enlarger lenses are not perfect)
I've not had prints made from negs in years. But they can be very good. I can place a loupe on some of my 8x10 pints and see more detail then is otherwise visable. I can't get this level of quality with a DSLR Medium format film still wins and a a comparable price
That said, I've sold all my medium format stuff. When I go back to film it will be 4x5.
See the link to I&A that I posted above. It's the best lab is Los Angeles but there are also many others I'm sure.
If you think the images are good ask them to develop and scan the negs and return the digital files on CD If 6MB per image is ok then it's about $10 per roll. double the price for higher res scans
Unless you need a developer to do a "push" or "pull" you would probably be safe bringing your rolls to any local lab who knows what they're doing and has a Fuji Frontier or simlilar machine.
The only problems I have had with local labs are once in a while the negs were dirty and so the prints had white specs on them. On occasion I'd ask them to reprint them.
If your're going to be scanning the negs and don't care about the lab prints then you're even better off.
Congrats on your impending freedom after those rolls are taken care of!
The only problems I have had with local labs are once in a while the negs were dirty and so the prints had white specs on them. On occasion I'd ask them to reprint them.
If your're going to be scanning the negs and don't care about the lab prints then you're even better off.
Congrats on your impending freedom after those rolls are taken care of!
If you are fairly serious and plan to still occasionally shoot film, just have walmart develop the film, say you don't want prints, buy a nice used enlarger (this shouldn't cost too much) and some good photo paper, and make your own prints. It's a good investment...
they(ritz/wolf) have the same lab equipment as walmart and are jut the same in my opinion and they alway cut my negatives wrong (in the middle of the frame). take the effrt find a local pro lab and take some test rolls in to judge their work.
There isn't a pro lab near me and I've never had Wolf/Walmart/Sam's cut my negatives wrong so I think I'll give Wolf a shot. Thanks for the thoughts. No I just need to find a MF camera with a 120 back. I've got one roll of 120 film that needs to be shot.