Best place to get films processed and scanned.

Giving FilmSafe in Southampton a go as they use a Noritsu. Film arrived with them this morning. Acknowledged within a few hours. They have turnaround info on the received email so that helps with the ' is it ready yet' kind of impatience. I think they're same price as filmprocessing.co.uk but turnaround is a bit slower.

FilmSafe normal service is £11 per roll for c41, medium scan and negatives returned. They don't seem to charge extra for half frame. Just need postage out on top.
FS also do same day so that's £16 with same medium scan and negs returned.

I've slightly gone off FilmDev as it's so much more work to order and send with having to print out the order rather than just do it online and pay in advance. It's also useful to know when it's gone into the lab too. You hear nothing then the paypal invoice of joy appears.
 
srichards said:
You hear nothing then the paypal invoice of joy appears.
Click to expand...
Given the post is one of the big variables in the whole lab processing malarkey, I really wish more labs (and specially Filmdev) would send an email on receipt/check in to the lab!

Y'all may remember I sent a couple of films including an Adox Scala 50 to PolyFilmLabs. They are quite open about slow processing. It was pay in advance via the web, and they tell you the next thing you'll hear is when processing is done and it's ready for despatch. For a 3 week turnaround, that was a fairly anxious time.

I haven't scanned the C41 film I sent yet, but I have scanned the reversal film (twice... my own fault, make sure IR dust stuff is OFF for BW reversal!), and the results were... not as nice as the little windows looked before scanning. But the most annoying thing is the film came back cut into 4s rather than 6s!
 
Quite a lot of labs have things like film cut in different numbers as extra cost items. Can't remember whether FD do it for nothing if you ask or they do 6s anyway. Haven't used them since last year.

Got 3 to send off at least so I'll probably use FilmDev as they work out so much cheaper and their scans always seem to be just that little bit better than everyone else's somehow.
 
Return of negatives.

AW - slow and I end up prodding them most times. Usually 3 weeks before they even send them which isn't the 7 to 10 days after they quote on the website.
Filmsafe - bit less slow but just ok. Now lost points for having a sticky label on the negative sleeve to secure them.

FilmDev/Filmprocessing.co.uk. Both decently quick so you get negatives back around a week or so after the scans.
 
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PolyFilmLab, where I got my Scala 50 slides done (and a C41 roll)... negs returned in strips of 4, not in filing sheets. Although I do have filing sheets for strips of 4, they really don't work all that well, so it's a No from me.
 
The Darkroom UK are pretty quick with returning negatives. If I post films off on a Monday or Tuesday, I usually have the negs back by the end of the week, sometimes before. E6 can take longer because I think they only process that one day each week.

This is for develop only. Scanning might add extra time if you opt for that.
 
FishyFish said:
The Darkroom UK are pretty quick with returning negatives. If I post films off on a Monday or Tuesday, I usually have the negs back by the end of the week, sometimes before. E6 can take longer because I think they only process that one day each week.

This is for develop only. Scanning might add extra time if you opt for that.
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I've been sat on three rolls of E6 that have needed doing a while but the price has just been prohibitive for me
 
E6 chemicals aren't massively cheap. The Bellini kit does 8 and that's £36. Looks very complicated as well.

firstcall-photographic.co.uk

Bellini E6 Kit, Six Bath, 1 litre

This top-quality, excellent value kit is unique. It is the only small volume E6 Kit you can buy (processes eight films that still uses the 'traditional' six-bath process). It is designed to make one litre of each solution: First Developer, Reversal bath, Colour Developer, Pre-beach, Bleach...
firstcall-photographic.co.uk firstcall-photographic.co.uk
 
srichards said:
Giving FilmSafe in Southampton a go as they use a Noritsu. Film arrived with them this morning. Acknowledged within a few hours. They have turnaround info on the received email so that helps with the ' is it ready yet' kind of impatience. I think they're same price as filmprocessing.co.uk but turnaround is a bit slower.

FilmSafe normal service is £11 per roll for c41, medium scan and negatives returned. They don't seem to charge extra for half frame. Just need postage out on top.
FS also do same day so that's £16 with same medium scan and negs returned.

I've slightly gone off FilmDev as it's so much more work to order and send with having to print out the order rather than just do it online and pay in advance. It's also useful to know when it's gone into the lab too. You hear nothing then the paypal invoice of joy appears.
Click to expand...

Coming back to this my experience with FilmSafe has been a bit of a mixed bag. Dev and Scan was a bit slower than normal, but only by a day or so but after two weeks I emailed to ask if they'd sent my negatives back to me yet and all I got was an email confirming my order was done... the same email I got when the scans were sent.
I reached out to them again and it'd taken them an extra week to post them which is not a massive deal but I'd have hoped for at least an email shot of "we're a bit swamped, we're running behind, sorry", but there was nothing, so I used their chat thingy, got a reply fairly quick saying "oh its been sent today".
Turned up a few days later (royal mail around here is godawful), and was impressed with how they're packed up and sent until I noticed they'd been cut into strips of 4, not the strips of 6 like I'd asked and paid for.
Got in touch yet again and they apologised and refunded the money for that, but its feeling a bit like there's too many niggles for me to want to use them again, which is a shame because the scans were nice.
 
I realised I've got some ECN2 film so thinking of film processing.co.uk when I get around to using it. Has anyone used them or got any alternative for ECN2?
 
I’ve been getting back into film and recently sent a test roll to Photohippo. Not bad, but the scans were very contrasty. Ive since picked up a batch scanner which has already proven better and I haven't experimented with it yet.
 
Max Spielmann develop on site at my local branch within an hour. Not cheap but we knew that didn't we.
 
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