Film processing

macbeth

Happy New Year all!

I came across my old film camera equipment a few months back and its been whispering to me. To quiet that silliness, I decided to get a few rolls of Kodak 400 color print film and run some through each body; A Nikon F, F2 & Nikkormat and A Canon A1, AE1 & AT1. The question is, where to send it. Does anyone have any experience with the labs out there? I'd like to get it developed and scanned ( hi res )?

thanks!

macbeth

Edit: I live just east of NYC.

[Deleted User]

Dodge Chrome in Silver Spring Md and Taylor Photo in Princeton NJ still process c41 and e6. Not sure about NYC sources.

[Deleted User]

Update: Taylor Photo has recently merged and no longer offers film processing. Dodge Chrome has a location in DC as well.

macbeth

flip said:

Update: Taylor Photo has recently merged and no longer offers film processing. Dodge Chrome has a location in DC as well.

I'll certainly check them out. Thanks!

MrFotoFool

If any city still offers film developing, I imagine it would be NYC (and Los Angeles). The lab I used to work at (Jones Photo) still does but they are in Arizona so I am sure you can find someplace closer. Just be aware that because film is now a niche market it is not cheap.

macbeth

MrFotoFool said:

If any city still offers film developing, I imagine it would be NYC (and Los Angeles). The lab I used to work at (Jones Photo) still does but they are in Arizona so I am sure you can find someplace closer. Just be aware that because film is now a niche market it is not cheap.

I was hoping to hear fellow nikonistas experiences. You know, good vs bad.

MrFotoFool

macbeth said:

I was hoping to hear fellow nikonistas experiences. You know, good vs bad.

When you say "good vs bad" are you referring to experience with different processing labs, or are you referring to shooting film vs shooting digital?

MrFotoFool

I will offer one followup to your original statement that says you want to get it developed and scanned HI-RES (emphasis added). I don't know how all labs do it, but the lab I worked at would develop a roll of negatives and offer fairly low res scans of all the images. If you wanted to order Hi-Res scans (which are much more expensive) they were done after the fact on a per image basis. Considering a roll of film may have many images that are not worth hi-res (maybe not even worth keeping at all), it makes little sense to do hi-res scans of an entire roll. Just my two cents.

mhedges

Also don't expect even hi res film scans to be good as a modern DSLR image.

[Deleted User]

Both Taylor Photo and Dodge Chrome scan slides with more modest flatbed scanners, as well as the more sophisticated (and expensive) drum scanners. You have to determine what size prints you will need which will dictate the amount of resolution required, and therefore the type of scan. Think about it this way, the less the resolution of the scanned file, the cheaper it is.

I would not recommend having all images in a film roll scanned prior to editing them carefully with a loop and choosing only your best.

It was rare for me to use drum scans with 35mm chromes and only when I wanted large prints above say 8"x12". Typically you tell the shop what size prints you will ultimately need, and they choose the least resolution you will need to produce excellent prints at the chosen size. Sometimes I would ask for higher res drumscans (up to 500MBs) when I expected print sales say above 30"x40" (4x5 film).

I have always had good luck with film processing out of both these companies, though Taylor did mess up some 4x5 E6 images years ago when they processed it in C41 chemistry by mistake.

Dodge Chrome does e6 and c41 in batches, so they may accumulate orders over some period (weekly?) before running the chemistry.

Another option is to "scan" your images using a high MP digital camera, macro lens which can go to 1/1 image size, and other accessories such as the Nikon ES-2. I have not tried this method, but there are differing views on the internet about the output quality.