What are AG Photolab like these days? Or Photo Hippo?

mippy

mippy

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Gillian
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I have a lot of films (35mm, dev only as I self-scan) to get processed, but haven't used them for a few years, and the internet suggests they've been a bit inconsistent since the lab moved from Birmingham to the north east.

Has anyone any recent experience?

Trying to choose between them or PhotoHippo (which I've never used but seem reasonably priced). The last dev I had done was Analogue Wonderland, which was fine, but the extra cost adds up for 9x colour and 3x B+W...
 
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I've been using filmprocessing.co.uk for the odd roll. They seem to be decent, quick and reasonably priced. They also do some of the weird stuff like souped films so I think they are secret enthusiasts.

Filmdev with basic scan is £5 a roll so not too bad for colour. They are back open again.
 
I find the C41 and E6 developing first class. The C41 comes back very quickly if it is on its own, ie develop only. E6 can take a bit longer as they wait for enough films for a run. I find they are well worth the wait.

Andrew.
 
AG Photolab still does high quality work, but it has become a lot slower. It used to be that film posted to them on Monday would be back with me on Wednesday, always turned round in the lab in under 24 hours. Nowadays they average a week and it has taken even longer than that sometimes.

I still use them for colour developing though -- I just assume that It's going to be at least a week before I get the negatives back.
 
mippy said:
I have a lot of films (35mm, dev only as I self-scan) to get processed, but haven't used them for a few years, and the internet suggests they've been a bit inconsistent since the lab moved from Birmingham to the north east.

Has anyone any recent experience?

Trying to choose between them or PhotoHippo (which I've never used but seem reasonably priced). The last dev I had done was Analogue Wonderland, which was fine, but the extra cost adds up for 9x colour and 3x B+W...
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I gave up on AG a few years ago after some nasty damage to films. They refunded the cost, but that's not the point. Noe dev/scan goes to Filmdev (no E6) and everything else goes to The Darkroom UK in Cheltenham, Freepost label, rapid turnround and never had any neg damage that could be attributed to them. They use XTOL for their black and white too, if that floats your boat.
 
srichards said:
I've been using filmprocessing.co.uk for the odd roll. They seem to be decent, quick and reasonably priced. They also do some of the weird stuff like souped films so I think they are secret enthusiasts.

Filmdev with basic scan is £5 a roll so not too bad for colour. They are back open again.
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Another vote for filmprocessing.co.uk. I've had several 135, APS and 110 films developed there so far, and I've been very happy with the quality and speed of service - for development, at least... I don't go for scans or prints.

For my most recent 110 films, I didn't want them cut into short strips (which is the usual approach), so they kindly returned them uncut, carefully rolled and placed inside 35mm film cannister tubs. There was a little extra postage for that, because their freepost service doesn't cover packages - but it was very reasonable, and well worth it.

They also have a high-street shop called "MyPhoto" in Plymouth, if any members live nearby and prefer to vist in person. Wrong end of the country for me, so I'll continue using the post-in service...
 
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ProggyMat said:
They also have a high-street shop called "MyPhoto" in Plymouth, if any members live nearby and prefer to vist in person. Wrong end of the country for me, so I'll continue using the post-in service...
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I've been in the My Photo shop and they're very friendly and helpful with a great assortment of film to buy as well. Last time I was there they offered same day processing too. But driving to Plymouth means leaving Dartmoor and visiting the real world, and that's a horrible thought.

Come to think of it, I had the last roll of C41 that I shot processed at the camera shop on my local high street (Dartmoor Photographic) rather than posting it to AG Photolab. I've been shooting so much film this year that I've actually forgotten where each roll was processed. And now I have to decide who to trust with the roll of Ektachrome that I'm just finishing.

(Yes Mike, it's me.)
 
Tavitonian said:
I've been shooting so much film this year that I've actually forgotten where each roll was processed
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I wish I could say the same... I mean, I'm shooting mostly film these days, but simply haven't had the opportunity to get out and about as much as I'd like. I'm trying to put that right ;)

Tavitonian said:
(Yes Mike, it's me.)
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It's so good to see you here, mate :)

BTW, I still haven't finished off that roll of Kentmere 400 I was talking about at "the other place". I hopefully will in the next few days, then I'll be following you down the caffenol rabbit hole :D
 
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