Sending film in for developing.

I have been using my local Wal-Mart over the years to get my film developed
and it has been super cheap. I could get a roll of 35mm print film done for
about $2-$3.00. Now it is the same price as the one hour places and they
take a week. It used to take two days. It is strange that 120 film
developed there is still only something like $2.00 a roll for 10 exposures,
but it does take two weeks. I know they send it to Fuji in my state. I sent
my last roll to York. It used to be that York had about 10 labs and I could
send it to Chicago or somewhere around there. Now I have to send it to
Maryland, which I guess is their only lab. I have heard they are owned by
the same company as Clark and a few others. (York is cheaper though.) I
can get my film developed (both formats) at my local camera store, but again
it is around $6.00. I don't do enough to do my own. I was wondering if any
one knows of a place to send film that is not going to cost an arm and a
leg? I'm in Wisconsin. Thanks.

On Sun, 14 Nov 2010 13:25:14 -0600, Ric Trexell wrote:
I have been using my local Wal-Mart over the years to get my film
developed and it has been super cheap. I could get a roll of 35mm print
film done for about $2-$3.00. Now it is the same price as the one hour
places and they take a week. It used to take two days. It is strange
that 120 film developed there is still only something like $2.00 a roll
for 10 exposures, but it does take two weeks. I know they send it to Fuji
in my state. I sent my last roll to York. It used to be that York had
about 10 labs and I could send it to Chicago or somewhere around there.
Now I have to send it to Maryland, which I guess is their only lab. I
have heard they are owned by the same company as Clark and a few others.
(York is cheaper though.) I can get my film developed (both formats) at my
local camera store, but again it is around $6.00. I don't do enough to do
my own. I was wondering if any one knows of a place to send film that is
not going to cost an arm and a leg? I'm in Wisconsin. Thanks.

I've just started (after about 35 years) using 120 film again. Plus
I'm in northern Calif (Santa Rosa), but heyyy. You may wish to try these
folks:

Keeble & Shuchat Photography – 290 California Avenue Palo Alto, CA 94306
Phone: (650) 327-8996 FAX: : (650) 327-6231
KSP PhotoFinale Web Site: www.photofinale.com/kspphoto/
KSP Web Site: www.kspphoto.com

Develop and Proof Sheet (B&W):
120mm ........................................... 12.00
220mm ........................................... 16.00

They also handle 35mm (color and B&W) and 120/220 color, plus all
sorts of enlarging. I just bo't some 120 B&W film (5 rolls), UPS took about
a day and a half (I'm at the end of the UPS drivers route). I'm fairly sure
they do this work in house. Here we have a Walgreens store close by that has
all the 35mm color print eveloping/printing machinery right there behind the
counter. Unfortunately, the guy there didn't even know there WAS any kind of
film besides 35mm color!

--

Proud owner of a Mamiya RB-67.

"Jim Bianchi" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 14 Nov 2010 13:25:14 -0600, Ric Trexell wrote:
I have been using my local Wal-Mart over the years to get my film
developed and it has been super cheap. I could get a roll of 35mm print
film done for about $2-$3.00.
snip
I've just started (after about 35 years) using 120 film again. Plus
I'm in northern Calif (Santa Rosa), but heyyy. You may wish to try these
folks:

Keeble & Shuchat Photography â?" 290 California Avenue Palo Alto, CA 94306
Phone: (650) 327-8996 FAX: : (650) 327-6231
KSP PhotoFinale Web Site: www.photofinale.com/kspphoto/
KSP Web Site: www.kspphoto.com

Develop and Proof Sheet (B&W):
120mm ........................................... 12.00
220mm ........................................... 16.00

They also handle 35mm (color and B&W) and 120/220 color, plus all
sorts of enlarging. I just bo't some 120 B&W film (5 rolls), UPS took
about
a day and a half (I'm at the end of the UPS drivers route). I'm fairly
sure
they do this work in house. Here we have a Walgreens store close by that
has
all the 35mm color print eveloping/printing machinery right there behind
the
counter. Unfortunately, the guy there didn't even know there WAS any kind
of
film besides 35mm color!

--

Proud owner of a Mamiya RB-67.

Some of those machines are designed for only 35mm film. Even if it will
handle 120 size, if they only run 35mm, you don't want to have them process
your 120 size. The 35mm film will eventually wear a path in the rollers, and
that can put marks on your 120 film.
Typically, the person running those machines was last week working in
housewares, and the week before was in automotive. So it's not suprizing
that he isn't familiar with different film types. Frequently, they don't
even check to see if it's C41 process- hand them a roll of Ektachrome and
watch the fun begin! The roll will unbalance the chems, and affect every
roll after that until the chems are dumped.
Also, the negatives are scanned rather than optically printed, so while your
camera may create a quality image on the film, the final print will look
just like a low quality digital image.
Home/hobbyist processing of color print film is not difficult or expensive
once you learn how to do it.

Ric Trexell wrote:
I'm
familar with the drum scanner process a little bit, but couldn't explain it
if my life depended on it.

Maybe this will help:

Take a picture and and make a tube out of it. Take bright flashlight and shine
it at a spot on the tube. Look at that spot with a magnifying glass. Now rotate
the tube a little bit and look again. Keep doing that until you've looked at
every spot around the tube. Then move the light and magnifying glass a little
to the side and start all over again.

Eventually you've seen every spot on the tube, which happens to be every spot
of picture.

Now why is this better than a regular scanner? A regular scanner uses a
row of photocells. The resolution across is limited to how close the
photocells are placed. The smaller a photocell, the more noise it
produces (meaningless information), the more light it needs to see
and the higher the cost.

Since you are using a highly focused beam of light and a lens on the
photocell, a drum scanner can use a much more sensitive, but large cell
and still have a smaller spot. The number of spots across it can "see"
is determined by how narrow the beam is and how precise the postioning
mechanism is.

The postioning mechanism is basicly a screw on a stepper motor, so for any
given resolution it's cheaper than squeezing photcells together.

The spot size around the drum is determined by how far around it moves
during each scan cycle. More prescision can be obtained electricaly by
using faster photocells and analog to digital converters, or it can be
obtained by slowing down the drum.

Did that help?

Geoff.


--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson N3OWJ/4X1GM
To help restaurants, as part of the "stimulus package", everyone must order
dessert. As part of the socialized health plan, you are forbidden to eat it. :-)