No more film processing in Dubai

mikotini

mikotini

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Michelline
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I have personally visited the last two 'photo studios' (Kodak PhotoFast in Sheikh Zayed Road and Deira) and they confirm that they are out of developing chemicals and they do not know when they will have more, if any. I have also spoken to someone from Gulf Colour Labs in Abu Dhabi and they have stopped their film processing service and sold all their machines. I am gutted. Especially since I have just fairly recently fallen madly, deeply in love with film. I have had my fair share of point and shoots growing up in the early 90s but now I guess you could say, I mean business. Scored a proper film SLR to learn on (a Canon AE-1) and have been experimenting with a variety of 35mms (Lomochrome Purple, Cinestill 800T, Ilford HP5 and XP2 to name a few). To be met with the fact that there are no available places wherein to process my films is devastating.

Help.

I am not averse to the fact that I would need to send my film out but I do need to keep the costs within my means.
 
mikotini said:
I have personally visited the last two 'photo studios' (Kodak PhotoFast in Sheikh Zayed Road and Deira) and they confirm that they are out of developing chemicals and they do not know when they will have more, if any. I have also spoken to someone from Gulf Colour Labs in Abu Dhabi and they have stopped their film processing service and sold all their machines. I am gutted. Especially since I have just fairly recently fallen madly, deeply in love with film. I have had my fair share of point and shoots growing up in the early 90s but now I guess you could say, I mean business. Scored a proper film SLR to learn on (a Canon AE-1) and have been experimenting with a variety of 35mms (Lomochrome Purple, Cinestill 800T, Ilford HP5 and XP2 to name a few). To be met with the fact that there are no available places wherein to process my films is devastating.

Help.

I am not averse to the fact that I would need to send my film out but I do need to keep the costs within my means.
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Sorry to hear that. I guess the obvious solution would be to learn how to home-develop your film.
 
It is a lot cheaper to dev your own and both colour and black and white are fairly straight forward, just a matter of getting things at the right temperature really. Give it a go, if I can do it.... etc. :D

And welcome to film and conventional, if you need any help with anything give us a shout, someone will probably have the answer. (y)
 
How many rolls are you shooting? We process films for overseas customers regularly. It could be more economical to send a batch out to the uk every 2/3 months or so.
 
mikotini said:
I think so too.
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I have no experience with developing colour, but I was doing my own black and white when I was about 10 -11, and I wasn't any sort of child prodigy! I think the main difference with colour is that temperatures are a bit more critical, but others will advise on this. Go for it.
 
I understood that chemical availability was an issue? That's why i suggested sending them off.
 
RumpFace said:
I understood that chemical availability was an issue? That's why i suggested sending them off.
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Good point, but it may be that commercial amounts are difficult and that personal amounts may be available for import. However it would probably be financially viable to use a service such as yours to begin with.
 
Errrrmmm, and if the "OP" develops herself the "colour" film what is she going to do with it? [I guess B&W printing is still possible but is colour printing as easy?].
 
TLR-330 said:
Errrrmmm, and if the "OP" develops herself the "colour" film what is she going to do with it? [I guess B&W printing is still possible but is colour printing as easy?].
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Most people now do scan there home developer rolls. Then it's a digital picture and can be printed anywhere!
 
Andysnap said:
It is a lot cheaper to dev your own and both colour and black and white are fairly straight forward, just a matter of getting things at the right temperature really. Give it a go, if I can do it.... etc. :D

And welcome to film and conventional, if you need any help with anything give us a shout, someone will probably have the answer. (y)
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Thank you so very much and I cannot wait to learn how to develop myself. :)
 
MartynK said:
I have no experience with developing colour, but I was doing my own black and white when I was about 10 -11, and I wasn't any sort of child prodigy! I think the main difference with colour is that temperatures are a bit more critical, but others will advise on this. Go for it.
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I will. :)
 
RumpFace said:
How many rolls are you shooting? We process films for overseas customers regularly. It could be more economical to send a batch out to the uk every 2/3 months or so.
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It depends really but last month I've shot about 7 35mms. Can you dm me the details please? Thank you so much.
 
mikotini said:
Thank you so very much and I cannot wait to learn how to develop myself. :)
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It is a very magical thing, when the tank opens and you remove a spiral and there are images on it. Still gets me even though I've been devving my own for a number of years now.
 
Andysnap said:
It is a very magical thing, when the tank opens and you remove a spiral and there are images on it. Still gets me even though I've been devving my own for a number of years now.
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I am heavy on the research at the moment. :coffee: Also, would love to see your work. Is it ok to ask for (Instagram/Flickr/etc) handles on here?
 
It's peak imaging in the uk where i work. I'm not management or anything and I'm on here for my own interests in photography.
But we do fully process controlled E6, C41 and BW and just about everything else and we are happy to do overseas mail order.
 
RumpFace said:
It's peak imaging in the uk where i work. I'm not management or anything and I'm on here for my own interests in photography.
But we do fully process controlled E6, C41 and BW and just about everything else and we are happy to do overseas mail order.
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Perfect. I shall check it out. Thank you!
 
mikotini said:
I am heavy on the research at the moment. :coffee: Also, would love to see your work. Is it ok to ask for (Instagram/Flickr/etc) handles on here?
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I'm andysnapper1 on flickr. It's a bit of a mish-mash to be honest, some large and some medium format as well as 35mm and a bit of digital, although I shoot with digital very rarely nowadays.

Andy
 
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