Just a few years ago you could get film processed almost anywhere: Walgreens, CVS, Target, Walmart, Costco, Meijer. No more.
Digital photography did them all in. It also led Kodak and Fujifilm to kill several film stocks. But film has survived its long dark night. People born into the digital age are discovering what we longtime film shooters have always known: film is special.
And so I see more people starting film-photography blogs, sharing their film shots on Instagram, and scouring thrift stores and eBay for that next camera to try. And astonishingly, several new films are being introduced this year, including Kosmo Foto Mono, JCH Street Pan 400, Ferrania P30, and even a reborn Kodak Ektachrome. It’s a great time to shoot film!
But where to get it processed? If your town has a camera store, it might process film. I live in Indianapolis, where Roberts Camera still processes 35mm color negative film. I never order prints, just scans, which Roberts burns to CD. The scans are generous, 3130×2075 pixels at 72 dpi. I like generous scans! And the price is right, at about $8. And they turn orders around within two business days.
But what if you aren’t close to a camera store? Or if you shoot film they can’t handle, like black-and-white film or medium-format (120) film, or an uncommon format like 110 or 127? That’s when I turn to one of several by-mail labs around the United States. I’m going to recommend the ones I use. I’d love it if you’d share the ones you use in the comments, especially if you live outside the United States.
Old School Photo Lab
I’ve used Old School Photo Lab of Dover, NH, the most. Their Web site is oldschoolphotolab.com. They proces, print, and scan 35mm, 120/620, 110, 126, 127, 828, APS, and 4×5 sheet films. They handle color and b/w negative and color slide films.
You order through their Web site. Processing a roll of 35mm or 120 color negative film and getting their standard scans costs $16 shipped both ways. (You can print a prepaid shipping label on their site.) Prices for other formats vary. They give discounts if you send several rolls at once.
I love OSPL because their standard JPEG scans are a generous 3072×2048 pixels at 72 dpi. You can order even larger scans, at 6774×4492 pixels at 72 dpi, for an extra $7 for JPEG or $17 for TIFF.
When your scans are ready, they email you a link to where you can download them. If you want a CD of the scans, it’s 3 bucks extra and you have to wait longer to get them. OSPL prints digitally. I occasionally order 4×6 prints and they’re fine.
I love OSPL’s service. I’ve gotten scans in as fast as four days after mailing them film! But it normally takes about a week. Quality is consistent and good. The owner personally responds when you contact them. The lab is active on Twitter and the feed is often a hoot.
Dwayne’s Photo
Dwayne’s in Parsons, KS, is perhaps the granddaddy of all by-mail labs. Their Web site is dwaynesphoto.com. Dwayne’s processes, prints, and scans 35mm, 120/620, 220, 127, 110, 126, Disc, and APS films. They process color and b/w negative and color slide films.
Dwayne’s is great, except that ordering is complicated. You have to print a paper order form from their site, the right one for the kind of film you’re sending, and fill it out. When you send them more than one kind of film, you have to fill out multiple order forms.
Processing and scanning a roll of 35mm color film costs $14 including return shipping. Other services’ prices vary. They don’t offer a prepaid label to mail your film to them. But if you send more than one roll of film, they steeply discount shipping.
Their scans are 2740×1830 pixels at 72 dpi. You can choose to download your scans or have them mailed to you on CD; the price is the same for either service. I’ve not ordered prints from Dwayne’s.
Dwayne’s pretty consistently emails me a link to my scans within a week. Quality is consistent and good. And I’ve had good, if impersonal, experience with Dwayne’s customer service.
Willow Photo Lab
Willow Photo Lab of Willow Springs, MO, is far and away the price leader. Their Web site is willowphotolab.com. They offer processing, printing, and scanning of 35mm, 120/620, and APS negative films, in color and black-and white, through their Web site. They process b/w film by hand!
With your first order they’ll include a list of all of their services, which includes 220 and 4×5 sheet films, the ability to specify D-76 or T-Max developer for b/w film, and discounts for large orders. When I order from this list, I pay directly through PayPal, print the receipt, write on it what I want, and mail it to them with my film. They always figure it out.
Processing and scanning one roll of 35mm costs just $7. Other services are similarly inexpensive but prices vary widely. Shipping costs depend on how far away from Missouri you are; most of my orders have been $3. They don’t offer prepaid mailing labels.
Scans are skinty at 1536×1024 at 72 dpi, sent to you on a CD. The last time I ordered their higher resolution scans, 3089×2048 pixels at 72 dpi, it cost me an extra buck. But that’s available only on their full service list. Willow still does wet-process printing on light-sensitive photo paper.
Willow is a small lab of just a few technicians. Send them film when time is not of the essence — they try hard to turn orders around within a week, but it can take longer. I hate to say it, because I really like Willow, but quality is uneven. I’m giving them extra chances because early this year a lightning storm took out a lot of their equipment, and it’s taken them time to get everything back the way they want it.
When you email them with questions, the owner responds cheerfully, personally, and promptly. A couple times we’ve struck up long email conversations about lab life and film photography, which is fun.
The Darkroom
The Darkroom, of San Clemente, CA, is the SEO king of by-mail labs. Google “film processing” and see where they show up! Their Web site is thedarkroom.com. They process, scan, and print 35mm, 120, 126, 110, APS, single-use cameras, and 4×5, 5×7, and 8×10 sheet film. They handle color and b/w negative and color slide films.
The Darkroom offers online ordering and payment. You can download a prepaid shipping label from their Web site, or they will send you a prepaid mailer if you ask.
Processing, standard scans, the scan CD, and shipping both ways for a roll of 35mm color film costs about $17. Prices for other formats are similar. Scans come with every order, both via download link and CD.
The Darkroom’s standard scans are puny, 1536×1024 pixels at 72 dpi. You can order larger scans, 3072×2048 and a whopping 6774×4492 pixels, for an extra $4 or $9 per roll, respectively. I’ve never ordered prints from The Darkroom.
Scans are usually ready about 7 days after I drop the film into the mail. It takes up to a week longer for my negatives and the CD to arrive, but I expect that they’d arrive faster if I lived closer to California. I’ve never needed to contact The Darkroom for customer service.
Film Rescue International
Any lab can process expired b/w or C-41 color film. But sometimes you’ll find some very old, very expired film in a camera. That film can be fragile. Or perhaps the expired film is newer, but it’s crucial you get the best possible quality images from it. Send it straight to Film Rescue International. They process any film, no matter how old, and use creative darkroom and Photoshop techniques to coax the best possible images from it. Their Web site is filmrescue.com. They’re expensive, and they’re not fast, but they do outstanding work.
I’ve used Film Rescue just once, for a roll of Verichrome Pan I found in a Kodak Brownie Hawkeye. That film had been in the camera for more than 40 years in unknown conditions, so I was afraid it might have deteriorated badly. They got good, high-contrast images from that film. They lacked “that Verichrome Pan look” but were crisp and clean.
Don’t forget the now U.S Ilford Lab
https://www.ilfordlab-us.com/
Expensive, but when this was Swan lab, they had exceptionally clean processing (not very well made contact prints, tho, I got the idea the “kids” didn’t understand conventional printing that well). Can’t tell you how important it is to get clean, dust and ‘ding’ free film processing. If you don’t like the eventual prints, you can always have them remade, but damaged film is a horror!
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I see that Swan is still out there. I had read somewhere speculation that the Ilford lab was actually The Darkroom; both have a San Clemente address. But then, so does Swan.
A couple times I’ve gotten back negs with scratches on them. Once I am pretty sure that happened in camera, but the other time I doubt it.
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Yeah, I second the Ilford lab. With the exception of the film I process myself, all my black and white goes there.
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I like Old School for b/w. They’re my favorite b/w lab.
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Thanks for sharing these resources. Still have my Nikor tanks and reels but it’s been close to 50 years since I’ve used them, and then just for b/w.
Still need to try out the Leica I just had restored…
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If you’re going to shoot just a little here and there, it makes no sense (to me) to process your own. Just send them out! Hope you get out with your Leica soon!
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Moro em Boa Vista, estado de Roraima, Brasil, longe, portanto. dos grandes centros. Revelo os meus filmes preto e branco em casa, tenho revelador, fixador, etc. Fotografo, revelo e escaneio o filme, tornando um arquivo digital, depois escolho as melhores foto e mando para um laboratório em São Paulo. Tenho uma Nikon F2, uma Nikon FM2n, uma Asahi Pentax KL e uma Asahi Pentax SP500.
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It’s great to be able to process your own film as you do! Thanks for commenting!
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Hey that’s fun. I like that you link to old posts because I missed a lot before I encountered your blog.
Cool old shots from your rescued film. We have relative in Niagara Falls so as a kid I went there regularly. In our family photo Mom would have had a firm grip on my arm because I was infamous for climbing things that I shouldn’t.
Also the 3rd shot is taken in the secret garden, with the Rainbow Bridge in the background. Unlike a lot of things in Niagara Falls it is still there 40+ years later.
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Ten years of archives await you my man! And how cool that you recognize the scene in one of the Niagara Falls photos. I’ve only driven through the area, once, in about 1990.
Fun tip: https://blog.jimgrey.net/?random will display a random post.
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I develop my own B&W film in Caffenoll. For color film I use my local Camera shop “The Photo Shop” in Falmouth Cornwall and like you Jim I just have them scanned to CD, They will process any kind of color film neg in C-41 ie; 35mm,120,110 and APS. I can get slide film done as well in E-6.
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Oh how nice that your local lab processes E6. I have to send away for that.
I just had a bunch of prints made for a postcard exchange I’m part of – I have peel-and-stick postcard backs for 4×6 prints. When I need prints like that I just upload them to Walgreen’s, a large drug-store chain, and they print them and either mail them to me or leave them at the store nearest me for pickup.
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I use my local camera store here in Burbank, CA. They are CAM Photo & Imaging and the have a website here http://www.camphotobur.com/.
It’s a great little old school store selling new and used camera equipment as well as accessories and services including developing and printing, scanning plus service and repair. They have a large stock of film and provide good advice.
Some of their services are farmed out but turnaround is still reasonable.
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Isn’t it great to have a local camera store? And yours in “beautiful downtown Burbank” no less! (That’s a pop-culture reference from the early 1970s.)
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:D It is and and I hope they continue to be in business, I give them as much as I can
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Of professional labs like Richard Photo Lab, Photovision, The FIND Lab, Indie Film Lab, Goodman Film Lab, etc.
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Yes. Someday perhaps I’ll have a need for pro-level attention and quality!
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Very timely post.
My Mom has been getting a lot of reprints done from old 35mm negs. She can take them to Meijer and they send them off somewhere. The picture quality is quite good, but the turnaround time keeps increasing and they seem to be getting very sloppy about making the right number of prints from the right negatives.
So I was just suggesting she try one of the mail order places, and this should give me a good start on figuring out where to suggest.
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Several of the places I listed do negative reprints. Gotta tell you, I have a lot of anxiety over giving anybody my negatives. I’d scan them myself and send the digital files off to be printed!
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I have used Dwayne’s before for B&W which was ok for developing film and scans. However, I dug out my box of photographic equipment that I have had since 1974, from when I took photojournalism at SDSU, and purchased new chemicals to do my own B&W again. My mother once took photography in the 70’s also and had a darkroom built in her house which I used up till it was sold in 2006. Still have the Beseler 23C in my possession even though I scan also.
Color is always sent out of course especially since I am pretty much a slide guy even though my stash of Kodachrome is useless. I’m looking forward to Ektachrome and the possiblity Kodachrome might come back given a comment by a Kodak executive.
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I shoot scads of color negative film. People tell me color isn’t significantly harder to process than BW. One of these days I’ll try it.
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This list is a good service Jim. Several names I had not heard of. I too have had exceptional service from Old School. Highly recommended.
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Old School is very good, to be sure!!
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There’s also F-11 Photographic Supplies in Bozeman, MT, and Allen’s Camera in SLC/Orem/Provo/Layton UT, and Nichols Photo in SLC UT.
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Do they accept mail order?
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You can also send your color (C-41) and B&W to Southerland Photo in Huntsville, AL. I get all my film done there and since it’s local it’s usually 24 hour. They scan straight to CD for me. For B&W they still develop by hand so it takes a little longer. They also provide VHS to DVD, scan film slides and photo restoration. http://www.southerlandphoto.net
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Thanks for the tip!
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When discussing Willow Photo Lab, you say “quality is uneven.” Can you give me a better idea of what you mean, an anecdote perhaps? I’m thinking of sending them some work because I value traditional prints on ra-4 paper.
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I got one roll back where the negatives were a little spotted. But mostly the challenges I’ve had with them has been in the scanning. Twice I’ve had to send negatives back for rescan as the first scan was not up to par.
Since I wrote this, the owner of Willow sold it. I’m not sure to whom.
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Willow Photo Lab has resurfaced with new owners in Somerville, Ma.
Prices are similar to the earlier owners.
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Yes! I used the new Willow once already. It’s much the same service and quality as before.
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very cool blog post
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