Recommendations for developing Photography film?

James Malamatinas · January 7, 2013

Not quite cinema related but heopfully someone might be able to help anyway. My father has a large number of undeveloped rolls of film (which have been kept in the fridge about 30 years!) from his old Canon stills camera that he would like to get developed. If possible he is looking for a service that would develop the film and also scan them so he would have both prints and digital files.

I have absolutely no experience with this but didn't want to risk giving these old stocks which have a high personal value to a company that may not be very experienced, so I'm looking for a company people have used and been happy with. London based would be ideal.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Matthew W. Phillips · January 7, 2013

You may have to divide it up between different labs as not all may still use the process chemistry you need. If you have any K process, you might not be able to process them at all. Hopefully someone on this forum can help you. I know Dwayne's here in the states does a lot of different processes but they dont do Kodachrome anymore as of 12/20/2010, I believe.

James Malamatinas · January 7, 2013

Thanks for that Matthew, I've asked him what type film the rolls are so I'll be able to find out soon. This may sound stupid, but if there is noone who develps the particular stock he has, are there ways of scanning the negative and then processing it digitally? I imagine this may be expensive...

Matthew W. Phillips · January 7, 2013

Thanks for that Matthew, I've asked him what type film the rolls are so I'll be able to find out soon. This may sound stupid, but if there is noone who develps the particular stock he has, are there ways of scanning the negative and then processing it digitally? I imagine this may be expensive...

No question is stupid but to answer it, you MUST process the film before you can scan. The emulsion cannot be exposed to light until its went through the bath, so to speak. You might, if you get in a pinch, be able to find home brew chemistry to process it yourself if you want to go that route.

Mark Dunn · January 7, 2013

Black and white is no problem and if it's no more than 30 years, nor is colour negative, as the processes haven't changed. Any professional lab can deal with it. Ilford are good for B/W but a clip test might be wise first. If the emulsion type don't mean anything to you, post some pictures of the cassettes here.

As Matthew says, if it's reversal, Kodachrome is obsolete but it might be developable to B/W neg. Agfa changed their reversal process to E6 in the mid-80s.

I've always use Dunns (no relation) dunns.co.uk

Edited January 7, 2013 by Mark Dunn

David Cunningham · January 7, 2013

These guys are fantastic and have done great work for me:

http://www.filmrescue.com

Check them out. If it's Kodachrome they will process it as B&W negative for scanning. You won't get any color, and that really is your only options left with Kodachrome.

If you send them older color negative film they will process as B&W negative unless you ask them to try color. See their site for all the details.

Ian Cooper · January 7, 2013

Not London based, but might be worth getting in touch with http://www.processc22.co.uk/ as at least they're UK based.

I've not used them myself, and as the website hasn't been updated in the last year I'd drop them an email first before sending anything off.

Obviously if the films are B&W, C41 or E6 (or the equivalent codes from other manufactures) then you don't need to go to any particularly special lab as they're still current processes. Personally I've used The Darkroom in Cheltenham via post, but there'll no doubt be options nearer to London.

James Malamatinas · January 7, 2013

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I've taken a look at http://www.filmrescue.com and they seem like they know what they are talking about. I've spoken to my Dad too and it seems like he does sadly have Kodachrome as well as some Ektachrome and AGFA colour. It's a real shame that they can only be processed in B & W, I think he's a little disappointed by that. I've noticed that there are ways of mapping colour to digital B & W photos so I might look into that once processed. Does anyone have experience doing this or using a service that does?

Matthew W. Phillips · January 7, 2013

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I've taken a look at http://www.filmrescue.com and they seem like they know what they are talking about. I've spoken to my Dad too and it seems like he does sadly have Kodachrome as well as some Ektachrome and AGFA colour. It's a real shame that they can only be processed in B & W, I think he's a little disappointed by that. I've noticed that there are ways of mapping colour to digital B & W photos so I might look into that once processed. Does anyone have experience doing this or using a service that does?

Ive never done it personally, but you can utilize the original color method of putting it through RGB filters and combining them. Dont know how it will turn out?

David Cunningham · January 8, 2013

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I've taken a look at http://www.filmrescue.com and they seem like they know what they are talking about. I've spoken to my Dad too and it seems like he does sadly have Kodachrome as well as some Ektachrome and AGFA colour. It's a real shame that they can only be processed in B & W, I think he's a little disappointed by that. I've noticed that there are ways of mapping colour to digital B & W photos so I might look into that once processed. Does anyone have experience doing this or using a service that does?

James,

If you ask them, they can process the Ektachrome and AGFA colour as colour. However, it's a bit more risky as the process is more touchy to age, etc. If the colour is more important to you than the actual picture, then ask them to do colour. If the image coming out as clear as possible is the most important thing, then do B&W.

David Cunningham · January 8, 2013

Sorry... strike that... no go on AGFA colour either. Double check with them, but I don't think they can process that as colour. Ektachrome, yes.

Mark Dunn · January 8, 2013

If the Ektachrome says E-6 then it's the current process and any E-6 lab can do it. Ditto the Agfacolor if it's process AP-44 as that's identical to E-6. IIRC, back then Agfa called its reversal products -color and not -chrome so do check.

You can't recover colour from film processed as B/W.

You could always wait and see if someone in the future resurrects the K-14 process; it's unlikely but not impossible. It happened with Polaroid, but that's a lot simpler.