Best for E6 120 processing?

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So I shot some film. It's Velvia 50. I'd like to get it processed but I don't really know what I'm looking at. Everywhere I look seems to want more money for slide film. I dunno, I just picked it because I liked the colours.

I would like to send it off to a lab, have them develop it and then I suppose I'd like them to scan it so that I can order prints from it and give people digital copies of their portraits - assuming that the pictures have come out!

I'm a bit lost to be honest, I'm not sure who is offering a good service, all the add ons seem to make the price a bit confusing. I just want to know where the best value for money is I suppose, I don't have much money! I saw one offer for lomo film that was dev, print and scan for £10 but they never got back to me and said if I counted as lomo.

Help? Someone just tell me where to send the bloody thing? Preferably somewhere I can pay online and don't have to give my card details over the phone or send silly things like cheques?
 
Hi Charlotte. I just sent my first ever roll of 120 film off to Peak Imaging for processing. Posted monday and it arrived back today. Very speedy service and great on the phone. Can't fault them really. Freepost to get it there too. They do processing and then scan,print or both.

Edit - Oops, just re read and I paid over the phone.
 
Hi Charlotte, I recently sent a slide film to Peak Imaging for the first time. I was really impressed with their service, and they have a freepost adress you can send the film to.
 
Cool. I'm also looking at the lomography shop in London since I've been there in person and they seemed nice - anyone used it?
 
gazmorton2000 said:
Hi Charlotte. I just sent my first ever roll of 120 film off to Peak Imaging for processing. Posted monday and it arrived back today. Very speedy service and great on the phone. Can't fault them really. Freepost to get it there too. They do processing and then scan,print or both.

Edit - Oops, just re read and I paid over the phone.
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£16 for a half decent scan to CD!
 
Ah. I paid for the smaller cans whilst it was only my first roll. I didn't even know if the camera worked. In the future I plan to buy a scanner and do process only I think.
 
AG are pretty good. You can pay online but they are slow. They have one of the easier online order and payment systems. Peak's is a faff but they're very good and they're quick but they aren't cheap. AG are cheap, good but a bit slow.

http://www.ag-photolab.co.uk/e6-process-only-70-c.asp

There's also UK film lab. http://ukfilmlab.com/Pricing/ They are more of a pro lab. They do scans and some editing. I assume you could give them a particular set of presets you work to.
 
Do I need to pay to get them mounted for any reason? I figured I'd just stick the envelope in a box like my granddad used to...
 
Unmounted transparencies can get creased even in the envelopes. Mounted ones do seem to stay in better condition. It just depends on how careful you think you'll be with them and whether you might need to rescan them later.
 
srichards said:
.There's also UK film lab. http://ukfilmlab.com/Pricing/ They are more of a pro lab. They do scans and some editing. I assume you could give them a particular set of presets you work to.
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UK Film Lab are great, the best lab I've used and do great scanning, but they don't do E6.

CharlotteM said:
Do I need to pay to get them mounted for any reason? I figured I'd just stick the envelope in a box like my granddad used to...
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I don't see any reason to mount them unless you plan to project them, personally.

Out of curiosity, have you shot much Velvia before? I've seen a few portraits where it's been used successfully, but it's not normally a film used for portraiture as it usually renders Caucasian skin tones very red.
 
skysh4rk said:
UK Film Lab are great, the best lab I've used and do great scanning, but they don't do E6.



I don't see any reason to mount them unless you plan to project them, personally.

Out of curiosity, have you shot much Velvia before? I've seen a few portraits where it's been used successfully, but it's not normally a film used for portraiture as it usually renders Caucasian skin tones very red.
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Nope, never shot it before. I liked the warmth it gave.
 
CharlotteM said:
Nope, never shot it before. I liked the warmth it gave.
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Well, I hope the Velvia works out for you.

I don't use much slide film, mostly because it's more expensive to scan and isn't usually as good for skin tones as many of the C41 offerings, but when I do, I usually use Genie Imaging (who are pretty cheap) or AG Photolab.
 
Went with AG Photolab in the end. They seemed to do a pretty high res scan (medium) for a good price.
 
Woops, but slow to the party. I always use AG for anything colour. Slow but great quality. Not bad value for money.
 
Agreed, AG are pretty low cost, excellent quality, but slow as molasses! They have averaged at 7.3 days for the 4 sets I've put thourgh them, and that's with chasing up! Peak are averaging at 4 days, while Photo Express (perhaps irrelevant as they don't do E6) average 3 days, and I've often got them in 2.

AG have told me it's quicker if you don't have a scan, and quicker if you don't have E6 (!). I tried with no scan and it was as slow.

BTW the Genie prices on the estimator look good, but seem to be wrong. I'm still trying to work out why. They've got 3 films, sent Monday and paying extra for e-send, I got the "entering production" email on Tuesday and nothing since. It's Friday already, and I'm impatient!:(
 
I've had dev only no scan for 35mm with AG and they're treacley it has to be said. 10 days is the usual turnaround! Quality is good though. Shame Royal Mail ruin negatives by crushing them so they have marks on due to their pinch rollers.

Lucky I found a local place with a one hour service that don't cover the negs in fingerprints and water marks...£3 too!
 
OH I meant to say... I've not bothered gettting E6 mounted (bar the once), and don't have any more problems with it in the post than any other film... which is to say, no problems at all!

It may depend on the sleeves; some processors use nice soft sleeves with a bit of give, and some use quite tight sleeves (eg Darkroom).

My slide holder for the Plustek has lost the spring in one of its holders, so I can only mount 3 frames at a time, whereas I can get 6 frames in the strip holder, depending on how they cut it...
 
CharlotteM said:
Went with AG Photolab in the end. They seemed to do a pretty high res scan (medium) for a good price.
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Charlotte, another vote for AG, I send them all my 120, always had good results from them.
 
I send all my E6 to Genie Imaging. They seem to run E6 pretty frequently, it's usually done the day after, and no issues with quality of processing. Price is very competitive as well.

I scan everything myself so I don't know about their scanning service, or the cost.
 
Peak for me, never had a problem and longest return was 6 days but that was for 14 rolls of 120.
 
Interesting Peter, that's the first time I'e seen a processing shop that DOESN'T do C41! Plus their process doesn't seem to include scans, which are £8.80 per frame (but presumably top quality, maybe drum scans).
 
ChrisR said:
Interesting Peter, that's the first time I'e seen a processing shop that DOESN'T do C41! Plus their process doesn't seem to include scans, which are £8.80 per frame (but presumably top quality, maybe drum scans).
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Yeah, I was going to say... doesn't really fit with my request for a cheap processing service!
 
I'm not wanting SCANS as well -- the ordinary E6 process is cheaper than Peak and others as there is NO VAT and he will 'do them while you wait' if you hang about in Southend-on-Sea having Fish & Chips. ( and if you go there you pay NO POSTAGE )
 
pentaxpete said:
I'm not wanting SCANS as well -- the ordinary E6 process is cheaper than Peak and others as there is NO VAT and he will 'do them while you wait' if you hang about in Southend-on-Sea having Fish & Chips. ( and if you go there you pay NO POSTAGE )
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I will keep it in mind, but I can't imagine a situation where I wouldn't want scans. :-)
 
CharlotteM said:
I will keep it in mind, but I can't imagine a situation where I wouldn't want scans. :)
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I would normally do my own 35mm E6 scans rather than pay the exorbitant charges; I tend to get 35mm C41 scanned because of the colour problems. With 120 it's currently a problem: the V500 is in Edinburgh and I'm not!
 
ChrisR said:
I would normally do my own 35mm E6 scans rather than pay the exorbitant charges; I tend to get 35mm C41 scanned because of the colour problems. With 120 it's currently a problem: the V500 is in Edinburgh and I'm not!
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At the moment I don't have the money or the space for a scanner, as much as I would love one. I certainly don't shoot enough rolls to justify it - if I shoot as much as I plan this year I might manage 10 rolls...
 
CharlotteM said:
At the moment I don't have the money or the space for a scanner, as much as I would love one. I certainly don't shoot enough rolls to justify it - if I shoot as much as I plan this year I might manage 10 rolls...
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Well, I bought my Epson scanner for £5, so there are deals out there if you're patient. It wouldn't take long to recoup your investment given the costs of E6 development and scanning.
 
skysh4rk said:
Well, I bought my Epson scanner for £5, so there are deals out there if you're patient. It wouldn't take long to recoup your investment given the costs of E6 development and scanning.
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Quite big though, aren't they? Or perhaps I am just thinking of a friends one which is a particularly large flatbed.

I live in student digs where every inch of space is precious (my book habit is taking over...).
 
CharlotteM said:
Quite big though, aren't they? Or perhaps I am just thinking of a friends one which is a particularly large flatbed.

I live in student digs where every inch of space is precious (my book habit is taking over...).
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Unfortunately, there aren't very many scanners capable of scanning 120 format that I would consider small. In fact, I don't think there are any.
 
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