Discussions (142)

Reasonable price for developing and scans

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Christopher J. Hobel says:

Hi Everyone,

I havent shot film since mid 1990's. I recently won a Zeiss Nettar 517/16 and I ran some 120 Tmax100 through it..

Film cost at my local mom n pop was $6.99 for 120 kodak T Max100

My developing and scan costs for 12 exposures (potentially) at same place is $13.02 american.

They recharged 6.99 for devloping which was the price of the film.... and scanning as 5.99 and plus tax.

Is this Reasonable?

What outside mail order services do you guess recommend. Does a local walmart photolab do a good job?

I dusted off my SLR Yashica fx70 quartz as well and bought some portra400.

If I had unlimited space I'd collect just prints but i kind of like the idea of marrying analog and digital w scans .
7:55AM, 5 August 2017 PDT (permalink)

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DannyOKC says:

$13 seems normal (which is not to say "reasonable"). The Darkroom starts at $13. (If it's 110, or cross-processed, or pushed, etc., they tack on a buck or two for each.)

I used to pay about $5 for development and prints back in the late 90s/early 2000s, so it all sounds too expensive for me.

Dwayne's is still very cheap. And until I started developing my own (which is very easy and much, much cheaper), that's who I sent my film to.

For those starting out, (or returning to the fold), I recommend Dwayne's for development, and scanning it yourself. A Canoscan 9000 MK2 is $174 on Amazon. That's the price of scanning 29 rolls of film in your case, so it'll pay for itself pretty quickly. Once you're comfortable with the scanning, drop another hundred bucks on the necessary gear and chemistry and start developing your own. I actually enjoy developing film. And it brings the cost, way, way down. Each roll I develop costs less than a buck. The scanning is free by my own labor. And the whole enterprise is quite affordable.

To put it another way, my development and scanning costs under $1 for a roll of film.

For those who rely on others for development and scanning, they're paying around $13 per roll of film.

They're likely getting better development, at least for color negative and slides, and they're maybe getting better scans, but I sincerely doubt it's better enough to justify the extra twelve bucks.
84 months ago (permalink)

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cadd says:

Check what's available in your local area. Where I live in the UK there's a gallery which has developing, scanning and darkroom printing facilities in back, it runs classes and you can join as a member, annual fee, and pay to use the facilities. It's £2 per roll of b&w 35mm, £3 per roll of 120 b&w to develop, they have the Paterson tanks and dev/stop/fix on site. There's also a Jobo colour film developer and they make up the C41/E6 chems to order.

Easiest way to find this will be to do a search for classes in your area, if nothing is available within a reasonable distance the other option is as mentioned above, start doing it at home. Good luck and enjoy.
84 months ago (permalink)

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Christopher J. Hobel says:

I had my 120 film developed and scanned and was told I was rung up wrong when i dropped off. So it ended up being $6.99 for developing and scans for 120 film ( i had 8 good exposures) was $1.99 ea. So all together just under $25. I am now using the darkroom for $11. Ironically the high end scans i paid $1.99 for are the same size ones listed on darkroom as standard, I think 1024 x1024 good up to 5x7. Darkroom did recommend to me the enhanced scans for extra $5 good up to 11x14 pics for 120 film. I just sent them some 35mm Portra400 for $11 plus return postage ($3.75)
Originally posted 84 months ago. (permalink)
Christopher J. Hobel edited this topic 84 months ago.

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sudododo says:

$13 sounds about the norm. Any cheaper and I think you're getting a deal (from what I've seen).
84 months ago (permalink)

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Detroit Imagery says:

TheDarkroom is about $17 including shipping to process and scan (standard) a roll of 35mm film. Options take it up from there. You also need to pay to ship it to them as well.

I use a local film shooter for my processing and scanning. $15/roll for 35mm film.
77 months ago (permalink)

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bigcrow says:

Here in Tbilisi, Georgia I pay about 1$ for developing and 5 cents for scannig per image and I don't think it's too cheap. The main expense is fim, which I have to buy on ebay or BH
72 months ago (permalink)

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bigcrow says:

but the quality of scans is not very high. I can pay extra, up to 1$ per image for high quality scans... but... I don't wanna. Will be better to save money for my own scanner
72 months ago (permalink)

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