processing old negs

[peanuts]

could someone advise the best way to process some 50 year old negs please. I believe they were taken with a box brownie type camera by my Father. they measure about 60mm x60mm and appear to be in excellent condition. what are my options and likely costs.
Ah the date on the envelope is 5th Sept 1958 Hastings so they are holiday snaps

 

[W.Smith]

could someone advise the best way to process some 50 year old negs please. I believe they were taken with a box brownie type camera by my Father. they measure about 60mm x60mm and appear to be in excellent condition. what are my options and likely costs.
Ah the date on the envelope is 5th Sept 1958 Hastings so they are holiday snaps

Hi Peanuts,

You can do this the classic way: you need a fully equipped darkroom. With photo paper, an assortment of chemicals, a red light, and a lot of time for trial and error.

Or you can do this digitally: scan the negs, and post process/edit them like any digital photo.

appear to be in excellent condition

Yes, they may now, but they will deteriorate. It is celluloid, which dries out, gets brittle, and eventually turns to dust. Literally!

In my experience negs over 50 years old start getting bad real fast. And once they're gone, they're gone! Forever!

So good luck!

 

[peanuts]

Thanks for your advice.
I don't have a dark room unfortunatly (totaly digital) is this something I can hand in to Jessops ? can they handle individual 2" negs ? I thought most processing and printing these days was all automated.
It looks like it would require a specialist scanner to go the digital route ,not sure where I would find one of those.
Might try asking my local camera shop they might have someone who is still into film and will know