Film Developing in the UK

How you tried adjusting exposure in Photoshop:- image then adjustments then exposure then gamma correction slider..also in Photoshop:- image then auto color. If you put one jpg up we can play with it.
 
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Yeh I've tried playing around with it but the colours are completely messed up. Looking at the film and comparing it to a film that it is fine, its very foggy. Pretty sure thats a sign of over developing.
 
Max Jowitt said:
Wondering if someone can help me out.

Just got a roll of Portra 160 developed and its come back looking very over exposed and has a blue cast. It was shot on a Mamiya RZ67 Pro ii and i'm sure I got all my exposures correct. It was developed at Snappy Snaps, poor choice I know but needed a quick turnaround. Scanned them in with an Epson V600 Photo (and pretty sure all the settings are right on that)

Heres what the initial scan looks like

View attachment 111217

And then with Epson Scan auto correction
View attachment 111218


If anyone has seen something like this before or knows what the hell is going on please help!
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I've not seen anything quite like that, but my experiences of scanning Portra have been that Epson Scan tends to produce a blue cast on the images. I usually fix them in Nik Color FX. Mine haven't been quite as pronounced as those though.
 
Max Jowitt said:
Yeh I've tried playing around with it but the colours are completely messed up. Looking at the film and comparing it to a film that it is fine, its very foggy. Pretty sure thats a sign of over developing.
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My first guess is developing fault as using win 10 snipping tool then copied image to Photoshop, I can't do anything to improve it.
 
Let's get clear and start from the beginning - you have posted some scans. How do the negs themselves look?
 
They almost look cross-processed.
 
Max Jowitt said:
Wondering if someone can help me out.

Just got a roll of Portra 160 developed and its come back looking very over exposed and has a blue cast. It was shot on a Mamiya RZ67 Pro ii and i'm sure I got all my exposures correct. It was developed at Snappy Snaps, poor choice I know but needed a quick turnaround. Scanned them in with an Epson V600 Photo (and pretty sure all the settings are right on that)

Heres what the initial scan looks like

View attachment 111217

And then with Epson Scan auto correction
View attachment 111218


If anyone has seen something like this before or knows what the hell is going on please help!
Click to expand...
I had a roll of Vista+ come out entirely green - the negatives were magenta. Edge markings had normal colours so not development. Clearly faulty on the negs so not scanning and I do not own a bright green filter so it was not me!
 
AgPhotographic said:
This is the problem we have, uploading. Even though we paid for a lease line (that is, our own personal line back to the exchange)

Therefore our plan is to implement a server where customers are able to log in and download their images once they are notified they are ready. I want to implement this as part of a major website re-vamp that we are currently working on which will combine our current 2 sites into one. We are very close to phase one launch, which will be the replacing of the ag-photographic.co.uk website for product sales (on the face of it, the site wont look all that different to the outgoing one, but it has a lot more sophistication "under the hood"). The lab will then be brought in under the same domain as phase 2, and launched. I would hope we can get this download solution sorted at that point.
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I use your services for pretty much all my needs except Remjet and large format films so this is some good news, hope everything goes well.
 
Filmdev tweeted they will have a new price list from 1st October.

I did wonder why my films haven't been processed yet (sent Monday special delivery) when they've always managed to turn them around within two days previously. Perhaps they're getting inundated before prices potentially go up ?
 
Ste_S said:
Filmdev tweeted they will have a new price list from 1st October.

I did wonder why my films haven't been processed yet (sent Monday special delivery) when they've always managed to turn them around within two days previously. Perhaps they're getting inundated before prices potentially go up ?
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mothdust said:
Oh b****r... guess it had to happen sooner or later!
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Maybe they're going to reduce the prices :) Then again, probably not! :(
 
I'll suppose filmdev will blame Brexit for 25% increase in C41 dev and scan :rolleyes:
 
Minimum order value has also disappeared so I assume you can just send a single roll of anything...

Typically I'd just printed off a couple of pre-filled sheets to use again but they're out of date now. :rolleyes:
 
It is indeed a substantial price hike and only jpeg scans now :(
 
srichards said:
Minimum order value has also disappeared so I assume you can just send a single roll of anything...

Typically I'd just printed off a couple of pre-filled sheets to use again but they're out of date now. :rolleyes:
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...and maybe more chance of getting one film, in a jiffy bag, through the system for posting @ large letter rate for 90p.
 
Filmdev were probably too cheap before. Certainly for C41.

Ilford take forever and their results aren't even as good as filmdev. Return packaging is very fancy but I'd rather see the money go on spending time doing a good scan not on a box.

Loss of Tiff is a bit annoying but maybe they would do it for regulars if asked?

Is there anywhere else that does B & W and does good quality scans for less? I can't be faffed with CDs as it means having to use the external CD drive now. AG negs got trampled and tramlined either by them or RM so they were no good by the time I got them. If they do a download option in future I might give them another go.
 
To be fair to Filmdev, they are still the cheapest for C41 I guess - for dev and medium scan at £6 vs £9 at AG for example. Peak, are £17 (!?) for dev and medium scan with download link.
B&W is the same as AG now at £10 for dev and medium scan (although AG charge extra for pushing).

Despite the 20% hike, I don't think my C41 will be hit that much. It's still cheaper than elsewhere, and feel I can send volume without it hitting my wallet too much.
Will look forward to see what AG does if/when they start offering downloads with their new site.

I don't know about B&W now. It's less of a hike, but £10 is a bit of a psychological barrier for me. I was planning on mostly shooting Tri-X through the winter, but financially I don't think I can justify it. Probably mostly digital I guess with the odd roll of Tri-X. Will look into home developing and scanning, but suspect the start up cost will be daunting.
 
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srichards said:
Filmdev were probably too cheap before. Certainly for C41.

Ilford take forever and their results aren't even as good as filmdev. Return packaging is very fancy but I'd rather see the money go on spending time doing a good scan not on a box.

Loss of Tiff is a bit annoying but maybe they would do it for regulars if asked?

Is there anywhere else that does B & W and does good quality scans for less? I can't be faffed with CDs as it means having to use the external CD drive now. AG negs got trampled and tramlined either by them or RM so they were no good by the time I got them. If they do a download option in future I might give them another go.
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You could try https://www.snapsphotoservices.com/...ITE-FILM-PROCESS-AND-19mb-JPEG-FILM-SCAN.html for £4...but postage ruins the cheap price at least for one roll.
 
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I might make do with the small scan and re-scan B & W. I was going to sell the scanner but I think I'm going to hang onto it now!
 
srichards said:
That's amazingly cheap. I might try them with a roll and see how they turn out (y)

7-10 working day turnaround though.
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Well I have no idea have they do B\W a cheap way, I'd be surprised if they would\could clean out the c41 m\cs and wait until they get enough B\W films to do all in one go. Maybe they use a giant jobo m/c o_O anyone know?
 
srichards said:
Just noticed Nik & Trick are offering dev and scan. They have one resolution which is 5444 x 3467. I don't know where on the filmdev scale that is.

https://ntphotoworks.com/shop/shop/film-processing-scanning/
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I wasn't particularly enamoured with N or T when I visited the shop, also their choice of fonts on their website is simply ugly and an affront to right thinking people and so I refuse to patronise their film emporium :D
 
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RaglanSurf said:
I wasn't particularly enamoured with N or T when I visited the shop, also their choice of fonts on their website is simply ugly and an affront to right thinking people and so I refuse to patronise their film emporium :D
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That website is an abomination.
 
FilmDev price is the same for large scans, which is what I had from them before, but I haven't ordered anything since they got a Noritsu scanner. The large Fuji scans were 3047 x 4547 = 13.85 megapixels, delivered as 8 bit tiffs. I think the Noritsu should be able to go up to 4492 x 6774 = 30.4 megapixels, and FilmDev announced they'd be able to do 16-bit scans, though we won't be getting these if they're only supplying jpegs (30.4 MP 16-bit tiffs would also be huge!). If anyone has had medium or large scans done there recently, what pixels dimensions did you get? PS (Image Size) or IrfanView (Image Information) etc. will tell you.
 
I've updated the nifty dev scan price estimator to include Filmdev recent changes. Is it correct they've dropped the minimum charge? Not sure I've done the edit properly for that in the formulae...

Not checked any others.
 
ChrisR said:
I've updated the nifty dev scan price estimator to include Filmdev recent changes. Is it correct they've dropped the minimum charge? Not sure I've done the edit properly for that in the formulae...

Not checked any others.
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Doesn’t look like there’s a minimum spend anymore, covered by the enormous price hike probably.
 
RaglanSurf said:
Doesn’t look like there’s a minimum spend anymore, covered by the enormous price hike probably.
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Was it really enormous? £1 a film as far as I could see, and still much cheaper than the competition generally.
 
Retune said:
FilmDev price is the same for large scans, which is what I had from them before, but I haven't ordered anything since they got a Noritsu scanner. The large Fuji scans were 3047 x 4547 = 13.85 megapixels, delivered as 8 bit tiffs. I think the Noritsu should be able to go up to 4492 x 6774 = 30.4 megapixels, and FilmDev announced they'd be able to do 16-bit scans, though we won't be getting these if they're only supplying jpegs (30.4 MP 16-bit tiffs would also be huge!). If anyone has had medium or large scans done there recently, what pixels dimensions did you get? PS (Image Size) or IrfanView (Image Information) etc. will tell you.
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Well I don't know if you can compare size of scan using a V750 to a lab m\c....anyway I compared what dpi I had to set the V750 to get filmdev low scan and Asda...well I was surprised, to get about 1660 X 1023 (filmdev a bit lower) I had to set the V750 to 1200 dpi..to get Asda scan of about 1800 X1220, I had to set the V750 to 1400 dpi.
What I didn't understand on the V750 is:- a different scanning system seems to kick in over 1200 dpi as to scan 24 frames in one go @ 1200 dpi, it took 10min 15 sec...but just upping it to 1400 dpi with the same negs took 15mins 30 secs h'mm couldn't be bothered to repeat again going up from 1200, 1300 to 1400 dpi
 
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ChrisR said:
Was it really enormous? £1 a film as far as I could see, and still much cheaper than the competition generally.
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Proportionally, yes. An increase from £5 (for C41 dev and medium scan) to £6 is a 20% increase.
As you say, for C41 they are still cheaper than pretty much everywhere. They're also (mostly) unique among their competitors in giving download links for scans rather than burning CDs. So, despite the 20% increase, they're still pretty much market leading for C41.

For B&W less so. They're about the same price as AG, and for B&W I'll probably go to AG now.
 
ChrisR said:
Was it really enormous? £1 a film as far as I could see, and still much cheaper than the competition generally.
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You're right Chris it is just £1 but as @Ste_S says, as a percentage increase it's huge. On average I spend between £25 - £40 a time with Filmdev and an extra £5 - £8 is a big increase. I appreciate they are still competitive but it seems a little cynical to me, obviously they were a making a healthy profit at their original prices but wanted more and have seen that they can wring a good percentage more.out their customers.
 
RaglanSurf said:
You're right Chris it is just £1 but as @Ste_S says, as a percentage increase it's huge. On average I spend between £25 - £40 a time with Filmdev and an extra £5 - £8 is a big increase. I appreciate they are still competitive but it seems a little cynical to me, obviously they were a making a healthy profit at their original prices but wanted more and have seen that they can wring a good percentage more.out their customers.
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I disagree. At the £3 level they're probably making a loss on every single film they process. How much time do you think it takes them to through and check all the frames? They rotate them as well. Ilford don't. Plus cost of chemicals, upload time, return postage. Even just opening the envelope and sorting out what films to process takes someone time do which has a cost. Even at £5 a dev how much time does it take to sort out each order? Even with some automation I often get phone calls. I realised ages ago that £3 a time really wasn't a high enough cost. Then add in the costs of buying the machinery in the first place.

Is the Black and White even processed in their machine or done by hand?

It's the restaurant cost of ingredients issue again ;)
 
RaglanSurf said:
You're right Chris it is just £1 but as @Ste_S says, as a percentage increase it's huge. On average I spend between £25 - £40 a time with Filmdev and an extra £5 - £8 is a big increase. I appreciate they are still competitive but it seems a little cynical to me, obviously they were a making a healthy profit at their original prices but wanted more and have seen that they can wring a good percentage more.out their customers.
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Asda goes and have used Filmdev once then they put their prices up. :(
 
srichards said:
I disagree. At the £3 level they're probably making a loss on every single film they process. How much time do you think it takes them to through and check all the frames? They rotate them as well. Ilford don't. Plus cost of chemicals, upload time, return postage. Even just opening the envelope and sorting out what films to process takes someone time do which has a cost. Even at £5 a dev how much time does it take to sort out each order? Even with some automation I often get phone calls. I realised ages ago that £3 a time really wasn't a high enough cost. Then add in the costs of buying the machinery in the first place.

Is the Black and White even processed in their machine or done by hand?

It's the restaurant cost of ingredients issue again ;)
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Well if it's a family business run from home it cuts cost down enormously.
 
srichards said:
I disagree. At the £3 level they're probably making a loss on every single film they process. How much time do you think it takes them to through and check all the frames? They rotate them as well. Ilford don't. Plus cost of chemicals, upload time, return postage. Even just opening the envelope and sorting out what films to process takes someone time do which has a cost. Even at £5 a dev how much time does it take to sort out each order? Even with some automation I often get phone calls. I realised ages ago that £3 a time really wasn't a high enough cost. Then add in the costs of buying the machinery in the first place.

Is the Black and White even processed in their machine or done by hand?

It's the restaurant cost of ingredients issue again ;)
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I'm sure they did some cost projections before they set up the business and decided that they could make a reasonable profit at that price point, If they were making a loss on every roll they processed then they seriously got their sums wrong.
If that's the case I'd rather they put their hands up and contacted their regular customers and explained the situation, "victim of our own success blah blah blah" "we need to charge more" we're all on a database after all.
I'm not saying they're not good value and apart from their huge cock up when I first started using them I like the service I get from Filmdev I just think this is cynical.
 
The speed of Filmdev, and the quality of the scans, is why I use them - as well as the download link vs CD. It's a shame the prices have gone up, but tbh the price of everything is going up (not going to get political but it's probably the B-word's fault).
 
mothdust said:
The speed of Filmdev, and the quality of the scans, is why I use them - as well as the download link vs CD. It's a shame the prices have gone up, but tbh the price of everything is going up (not going to get political but it's probably the B-word's fault).
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erm but we haven't left the EU....the only excuse would be the £ is down with some currencies for materiels, inflation is about 3% and pensions, savings and wages are being held down...................
 
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