The excitement of posting off film

thecornflake

thecornflake

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3 test rolls off to Peak tomorrow - T-MAx 100 from a Pentax Spotmatic, Vista 200 from Olympus XA and Superia 400 from Canon AE-1.

It's been a while since I shot them so I can't remember what's on them and I don't know how well they'll turn out, although all 3 cameras are in good condition so I'm fairly positive. I scan at home so I won't see them until I get the negs back, load them into the scanner and wait for the previews to come up.

There's no way you can get this excited inserting a memory card into a computer and waiting for digital images to appear.

Next month - home developing....
 
I was gonna say, wait til you get the excitement of opening the tank to see if your efforts have worked :D
 
I agree, the anticipation of waiting for the postie to arrive with your negs or devving your own is nerve-wracking and brilliant... Problem is when you send them off and they don't come back....:( I'm waiting on 3 rolls of 120 from Peak which I sent a week yesterday and they haven' t arrived yet. Going to give them a bell later but I suspect our very Royal Fail are to blame, usually Peak have them back within 2 or 3 days.

Andy
 
Worry not just yet, Andy, I've had peak take over a week before. I guess they have phantom traffic jams from time to time. No defence of RM though.
 
You're right mate, just me being impatient and worrying over my 'babies'... sad git.

Andy
 
It's the only risk of posting away I guess, someone losing them. I am going to give up devving my own as I don't shoot enough film and I am too lazy in the evenings to spend an hour getting smelly. I still have 2 rolls of acros in the tank that need doing from about 4 months ago...
 
I personally couldn't give up deving my own B&W, for the cost alone! The cost to dev about 7-8 sheets is the price of a bottle of developer and a bottle of fixer combined. Not really looked into the price implications of developing my own C41 and E6 though.
 
Although it's generally thought of as a disadvantage, the time it takes between shooting film and seeing the results is one of the great advantages of this medium. It gives you time to forget what you took, so the photos are much more interesting when they are finally revealed. Like most things in life, the greater the effort you put into something, the more it costs you (relative to what you earn) and the longer you have to wait, the more satisfying the result. I imagine our large format shooters would doubly agree :)
 
Well I like to see the results quickly and just don't understand the excitement of waiting.....I left Holland monday and emailed family shots (taken in Holland) back to Holland on Tuesday......everyone would laugh if I emailed shots one week to a month later :rolleyes:
 
Bogusprint spoiled posting films off for me when they trod all over a strip of negs then accused me of doing it even though the footprints were on the prints. On the rare occasions I get film D&Pd these days, I take them in to Boots so at least I can speak to a human face to face rather than have CS hang up on me if I need to complain. I'm another impatient one - 1hr service even if it is a couple of quid extra. By the time I've traipsed into town to pick them up, paid to park etc. the extra cost is relatively small. I get them scanned at the same time and use the prints and scans as proofs to see which (if any!) are worth scanning and enlarging here.
 
The anticipation is great, up to a point. I don't mind waiting a few days to get films back from Peak or the Darkroom but once it drifts into weeks I get too impatient. I also been known to use Asda or Tesco or Snappy Snaps if I can't wait the couple of days that the best postal services take.
 
I put B&W rolls in the fridge to develop later and then get distracted for a few months.

I processed about 8 rolls last week and hanging the negs up got me thinking, "well, I recognise the location but no idea of the camera" more than once. Not much good as test rolls if you can't remember what you were testing.
 
Strappy said:
I put B&W rolls in the fridge to develop later and then get distracted for a few months.

I processed about 8 rolls last week and hanging the negs up got me thinking, "well, I recognise the location but no idea of the camera" more than once. Not much good as test rolls if you can't remember what you were testing.
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Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought you only needed to refrigerate film pre-exposure? Am I getting mixed up with something else? Maybe I'm thinking about x-rays...harmful to unexposed film but fine when it's been shot...
 
Film, ideally, should be kept cold pre- and post-exposure. The former is to preserve the emulsion so that it responds properly to the light intensity it experiences during exposure. Sensitivity falls as a function of time, but the rate can be slowed by cooling. Once the image has been shot, keeping the film cool acts to preserve the new chemical state of the emulsion, hence preserving the image recorded. To keep an eye on perspective though, we're talking a timescale of years to elapse before serious changes will become apparent.
 
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FujiLove said:
Maybe I'm thinking about x-rays...harmful to unexposed film but fine when it's been shot...
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Film is susceptible to x-ray damage whether it is unexposed or exposed. In fact, x-rays might be even more harmful after the film has been shot, especially if it is underexposed film or film meant for pushing. It is only after development that you no longer need to worry about x-ray damage.
 
X ray machines are pretty safe these days the small amount if exposure isn't really going to harm films. I remember this debate 30 years ago. I never lost a film through an airport. Obviously prolonged exposure wouldn't be very healthy.
 
Blank_Canvas said:
X ray machines are pretty safe these days the small amount if exposure isn't really going to harm films. I remember this debate 30 years ago. I never lost a film through an airport. Obviously prolonged exposure wouldn't be very healthy.
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I'm not saying that x-rays are to be completely avoided, only that film is still theoretically susceptible to x-ray damage until developed.

I put my film through x-ray scanners all the time and I haven't had a problem yet. I've never travelled with super fast film though.
 
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