B&W Film developing

  • Thread starter Thread starter Rob.Richards
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Rob.Richards

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I have been looking at shooting b&w film (i think its beautiful and the way photography should be!) but having looked around it seems extortionate to develop (properly!). Now I know you will suggest setting up my own developing which I would love to do but a new car has to come first...

So, I am looking for a resonably priced, reliable place to develop print and provide a CD of black and white images. where do I go?

I looked at Ilford and kodak B&W processing at colour labs but there seems to be lots of reports on colour tints. Help (again!)

Rob
 
Rob are you talking of b/w chemistry or the C41 B/W films?

You can try Club 35; they are reasonably priced and good quality....
 
To be honest I dont know the difference - still learning! I think C41 are films that can be processed in a colour lab is that right? Will have a look at club 35...
 
Just had a look at club 35 for what I want seems to come to about £15 which is far better than elsewhere. I have ordered their pre paid envelope, now I just need to find a film and take some pics!
 
c41 is colour chemistry so a mini lab will do

tbh home dev is fairly easy and a box of chems with a tank measuring cylinders and black bag can be had reasonably. Which is what I'd do in your position (and do do with the uni's darkroom)
 
£15 for 1 roll? I think I get 1 roll developed and printed for 8 quids. Am I missing something?

C41 is regular colour chemistry; but the lab has to set the printer a bit differently; otherwise it comes with a green cast. If set properly, you get a regular B/W print. the cost is the same as colour prints - Club 35 charges 5.15£ for a roll.

Also, you dont need a pre paid envelope for Club 35; i download their form; put the films in a jiffy bag and send it via free post. Then I collect it when its done
 
ujjwaldey8165 said:
£15 for 1 roll? I think I get 1 roll developed and printed for 8 quids. Am I missing something?

C41 is regular colour chemistry; but the lab has to set the printer a bit differently; otherwise it comes with a green cast. If set properly, you get a regular B/W print. the cost is the same as colour prints - Club 35 charges 5.15£ for a roll.

Also, you dont need a pre paid envelope for Club 35; i download their form; put the films in a jiffy bag and send it via free post. Then I collect it when its done
Click to expand...

maybe it was a few :D (I double took aswell)
 
The £15 was for 24 prints with white border, a super res CD and postage...

Anyways I have just ordered a roll of Kodak TMAX 400 as my first B&W film so for 36 with a low res CD still looking at £12... Better make every shot count is all I can think!

Maybe I should have gone for the BW400CN... Ah there is always next month!

This is so much more interesting than digital, you really have to think about every aspect from ordering to print, I never worked like it. With digital you just snap save and always mean to print!
 
Rob.Richards said:
The £15 was for 24 prints with white border, a super res CD and postage...
Click to expand...


Ah, the full monty, then.

Just curious, why do you want scanned pics when you are getting the real deal - the printed ones?

( BTW: you can call up Club 35 and ask for Justin, he is a very friendly chap; and in case you haven't seen it, 7dayshop is the cheapest on films....)...
 
Got the film from 7dayshop ;)

The only reason to get the CD is to share online really - how can you see my journey into film otherwise! I gues for 20-30 CDs I could get a scanner though...
 
Rob.Richards said:
Got the film from 7dayshop ;)

The only reason to get the CD is to share online really - how can you see my journey into film otherwise! I gues for 20-30 CDs I could get a scanner though...
Click to expand...

Get the prints scanned in a normal scanner - darned sight cheaper :D
 
Rob.Richards said:
Got the film from 7dayshop ;)

The only reason to get the CD is to share online really - how can you see my journey into film otherwise! I gues for 20-30 CDs I could get a scanner though...
Click to expand...

Don't forget you're limited on most sites to a fairly small image size, on Flickr for instance with a free account, you can upload photos up to 10MB in size, If you have a Pro account, you can upload photos up to 20MB.

So even if you get them scanned at super hi-res you'll have to scale them down to put them on most of the basic photo sites like Flickr, Snapfish and Photobox.

Also, if you use Tesco or Asda to process your C41 B&W and put onto CD, which costs £2-£3 you can then just get the ones you really like printed.
 
ujjwaldey8165 said:
Get the prints scanned in a normal scanner - darned sight cheaper :D
Click to expand...

See I am just so dense and follow this with another (probably stupid) question! How do you scan negatives on a regular scanner I figured you would need one that did this specifically...

Anyone got any reccomendations on a cheap scanner then?!!?
 
Sorry Rob for not being clear. I meant you can scan the positive prints ( the paper ones) on a regular scanner, just as we scan any document.....I think the quality might suffer a bit, but might not matter for posting on the web.

High res scanning for posting on the web might be a bit of waste of money ( as Nick points out so eloquently)....
 
Little scanner can be had for under £50...

Arthur
 
ah - that depends on the resolution you choose. But the scanned print is always going to be a copy of a copy while the scanned negative is a copy of the original...

Arthur
 
use ilfords own lab. They develop and print to real black and white paper so never problems with tint and they will last a very long time without going a funny colour.
Not the cheapest but very good. They scan too for an extra £3 or more if you want to be able to print bigger. But scanning from prints will give very good results for web usage, especially you have them printed on glossy paper.
When scanning from print scan at twice the size(or bigger) you need for web and dowsize and that will remove almost all specs of scan dust.

http://www.ilfordlab.com/

p.s. scanning b+w negs can look awful, especially if your neg is quite grainy. Scanning from print usually looks better unless you have very high quality scanner. You can't use ice/IR dust removal when scanning B+W film because it thinks the grain is dust. Using a flatbed scanner to scan 35mm film is never very good, you need a dedicated film scanner. So scanning from prints is fine for web.
 
Well, I think that seals it for the moment. I will get them printed and save up for a scanner and then scan the prints at double the resolution and then downsize as suggested! In the mean time, I have just remebered my father in law has a scanner!!!

Sorted! Thanks all!

Rob
 
I would add that for scanning prints for the web, any cheap flatbed scanner will do a good job with a little post processing. One of the cheap £50 ones is good enough. Even these scan at 1600 dpi which is more than plenty. If you think a 5x7 print then at 1600 dpi that's 11200 x 8000 pixels which is way more than you need.
I still use a very old HP Scanjet 4 which only scans at 600dpi and even that is plenty for good quality scans for web from prints.
 
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