Film Developing in the UK

Ste_S said:
Anyone used Palm Labs recently ?
http://www.palmlabs.co.uk/

Despite being a Brummie resident, I wasn't aware of them. <3miles from my work and home and easier to get to than AG. If any good they'll likely be getting all my dev/scan business
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I haven't used them for a couple of years but always I pressed by them. They don't charge until they have finished the work and will ring up if they are not sure of anything.
 
Popped into Palm Labs and got four rolls of pushed 120 HP5 dev and scanned (Noritsu for those that are interested). Quite impressed, scans are nicely contrasted just how I like them. All my B&W will be going there now. £10 for B&W dev + medium scan which seems to be the industry standard these days.
 
If anyone else is wondering why their scans haven't come back from Filmdev yet this week, their website says they're closed from the 5th to the 12th.

I was panicking thinking my film had got lost in the post or something, phew, panic over! :lol:
 
Carl Hall said:
If anyone else is wondering why their scans haven't come back from Filmdev yet this week, their website says they're closed from the 5th to the 12th.

I was panicking thinking my film had got lost in the post or something, phew, panic over! :LOL:
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Haha, was wondering the same thing! I sent mine 'signed for' too so that'll be even longer!
 
just sent 6 films off, mine were signed for yesterday, so hopefully by the correct person!
 
Carl Hall said:
It's a shame they're not more active on social media, as it's the perfect place to let people know that they're shut in advance.
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They are on twitter, @film_dev IIRC, and did mention this. I thought it had already been reported, but apparently not on this thread. I'll try and do better if I notice notice of closures later!
 
ChrisR said:
They are on twitter, @film_dev IIRC, and did mention this. I thought it had already been reported, but apparently not on this thread. I'll try and do better if I notice notice of closures later!
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Well in that case I'll shut up and admit it's my own fault for not using Twitter :lol: I use Instagram and Facebook, but have never got on with Twitter.
 
It was machine maintenance I think. They tweeted not that long ago that they'd finished all the maintenance so they were processing now.
 
srichards said:
It was machine maintenance I think. They tweeted not that long ago that they'd finished all the maintenance so they were processing now.
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Yup:

@film_dev "Maintenance is now complete and we are processing orders from today. Filmdev Team"
 
i dont do any of the gossip sites. cant stand the crap posted on them.
anyway i do love the filmdev service got my scans back today as well-looks like the film i found in the bottom of my dads camera bag was blank, i was looking forward to pics from 30 odd years ago. o well will post some of the ones i took instead. ive also loaded a 35 year out of date film to try its a 1600asa film so thought i should rate about 250asa?
 
Carl Hall said:
I really need to get on the Twitters. lol
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Any other F&C on "the Twitters"? I've been on since the early days for work originally... I'm @carusb. I know our @srichards is on Twitter... I'll let her tell her username if she wants. Oh, and our @stevelmx5 is too... @everyday_photo (he's advertising some weird camera so I don't think he'd mind).

Anyone else?
 
ChrisR said:
Any other F&C on "the Twitters"? I've been on since the early days for work originally... I'm @carusb. I know our @srichards is on Twitter... I'll let her tell her username if she wants. Oh, and our @stevelmx5 is too... @everyday_photo (he's advertising some weird camera so I don't think he'd mind).

Anyone else?
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I'm on but barely use it, mostly just for talking to cycling mates I really see. Oddly enough @steveo_mcg there too.
 
ChrisR said:
Any other F&C on "the Twitters"? I've been on since the early days for work originally... I'm @carusb. I know our @srichards is on Twitter... I'll let her tell her username if she wants. Oh, and our @stevelmx5 is too... @everyday_photo (he's advertising some weird camera so I don't think he'd mind).

Anyone else?
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I wondered who @carusb was [emoji6]
 
ChrisR said:
Any other F&C on "the Twitters"? I've been on since the early days for work originally... I'm @carusb. I know our @srichards is on Twitter... I'll let her tell her username if she wants. Oh, and our @stevelmx5 is too... @everyday_photo (he's advertising some weird camera so I don't think he'd mind).

Anyone else?
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Maybe I'll give it another go... it's been a few years since I tried it properly. Instagram is where the cool kids are nowadays though ;)
 
Carl Hall said:
Maybe I'll give it another go... it's been a few years since I tried it properly. Instagram is where the cool kids are nowadays though ;)
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Yeah, that @everydayphotographics seems to be hip and trendy and down with the kids over there on Instagram [emoji6]
 
Carl Hall said:
Maybe I'll give it another go... it's been a few years since I tried it properly. Instagram is where the cool kids are nowadays though ;)
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No, the 'cool kids' are on f and c....:D
 
Carl Hall said:
Maybe I'll give it another go... it's been a few years since I tried it properly. Instagram is where the cool kids are nowadays though ;)
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I've just started with instagram on my Mac (phone not really up to it and has no photos of interest, except a couple of the grandkids...), and I don't really "get" it at all. But I don't think I was ever a 'cool kid"! (See the shot in this post in a long-defunct thread...)
 
ChrisR said:
I've just started with instagram on my Mac (phone not really up to it and has no photos of interest, except a couple of the grandkids...), and I don't really "get" it at all. But I don't think I was ever a 'cool kid"! (See the shot in this post in a long-defunct thread...)
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It's kind the opposite of Twitter, I guess. Facebook is photos and statuses (status? statuses?), Twitter is just statuses/tweets, and Instagram is just photos. The thing I like about Instagram is that you don't get all the "share if you think that... blah blah blah" rubbish that comes with Facebook.
 
Got my scans back from Harman labs of my first roll of Ilford XP2 Super 400 the other day and I couldn't fault the service. I'd expected this would be the case as it's part of the Ilford group. The prices where similar to other companies I'd looked at and I got the scans back quickly. I'll definitely be sending my next roll of film to then
 
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ChrisR said:
I've just started with instagram on my Mac (phone not really up to it and has no photos of interest, except a couple of the grandkids...), and I don't really "get" it at all. But I don't think I was ever a 'cool kid"! (See the shot in this post in a long-defunct thread...)
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You kind of have to work on it a bit (and understand hashtags) to get any benefit out of using it. I've discovered a fair few photographers whose work I really like from spending time on there
 
Craigus said:
Does anyone know if filmdev charge for push processing?
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When I asked, they said they would do 1 stop for free, but recommended I not bother. So I didn't and it was fine. No idea which film, though.

Of course, they have re-structured their charges since then. Ring them up, they're really helpful.
 
ChrisR said:
When I asked, they said they would do 1 stop for free, but recommended I not bother. So I didn't and it was fine. No idea which film, though.

Of course, they have re-structured their charges since then. Ring them up, they're really helpful.
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I've sent B&W to them semi-recently and asked for a 2 stop push without extra charge.

Switched to Palm Labs who dip and dunk and they're quite happy to push anything, including C41 which other labs can be sniffy about.
Going to shoot a few rolls of 120 Portra 400 at 1600 as a test and drop them off with them to process
 
Had some very good turn-around times from AG Photolab for 'develop only' C41 35mm and 120 lately. The last 2 times I've posted the film on Wednesday lunchtime and got the negs back though the letterbox on Friday, which has got to be as good as a postal service gets. :)
 
From somewhere, possibly Emulsive, I found a reference to a film lab I'd never heard of, SilverPan. Prices etc here. Process only prices seem fine (£4 for C41, £4.50 for B&W), and give a lot of flexibility, eg for black and white you can choose XTOL, Rodinal, Ilfosol etc. The scans at £8-£10 a roll (35mm) for what they call standard (which looks like what I call medium, ie about 2400 ppi) are a bit expensive, but they're done on a Flexcolor and again have a lot of choices available, including Raw. They do offer E6 (just starting I think), but I saw a mention that they'd collect orders for up to a fortnight before processing.

Has anyone on here used this lab?
 
I've sent a roll of HP5 away to Ilford for dev & print, thought I would try it for a change. Waiting for it to come back in the next few days. :)
 
gazmorton2000 said:
I've sent a roll of HP5 away to Ilford for dev & print, thought I would try it for a change. Waiting for it to come back in the next few days. :)
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I think @srichards has used them quite a lot, though may have converted to Filmdev now. Ilford's one of the few labs where you can get a wet print, IIRC...
 
ChrisR said:
I think @srichards has used them quite a lot, though may have converted to Filmdev now. Ilford's one of the few labs where you can get a wet print, IIRC...
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I've used Ilford about twice. Both times it was too slow for me. I just use Filmdev exclusively now.
 
srichards said:
I've used Ilford about twice. Both times it was too slow for me. I just use Filmdev exclusively now.
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What about the quality though? 5 days definitely doesn't seem too slow for me when I am used to using Canadian Film Lab with a 10 working day turnaround plus delivery to Canada. :ROFLMAO:
 
gazmorton2000 said:
What about the quality though? 5 days definitely doesn't seem too slow for me when I am used to using Canadian Film Lab with a 10 working day turnaround plus delivery to Canada. :ROFLMAO:
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Filmdev is better. Their scans are better than the Ilford ones. The Ilford packaging is nice but the actual results don't seem to be quite as good. I was disappointed. They didn't even turn the images. Filmdev rotate them so they're all correct. It's those little things. Ilford only had two scan levels. Low res useless or ultra high res and stupidly expensive. I had a custom size but FilmDev medium was better. FD was also cheaper and faster. I felt like I could rescan the Ilford ones and get better results. I rarely feel like that with the FilmDev ones.
 
srichards said:
Filmdev is better. Their scans are better than the Ilford ones. The Ilford packaging is nice but the actual results don't seem to be quite as good. I was disappointed. They didn't even turn the images. Filmdev rotate them so they're all correct. It's those little things. Ilford only had two scan levels. Low res useless or ultra high res and stupidly expensive. I had a custom size but FilmDev medium was better. FD was also cheaper and faster. I felt like I could rescan the Ilford ones and get better results. I rarely feel like that with the FilmDev ones.
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Interesting, thanks. I have only done dev & print with Ilford, no scans. If I need anything scanning, I can either scan the print or send the negatives off to CFL I guess.
 
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