120 Film Processing - Mail In

[JDR]

I hope that I’m posting this in the right place. I‘m looking for a mail in service for medium format film development. Gone are the days when a local lab provided film development and the local drugstores are iffy at best. Any recommendations?
thanks, JDR

 

[Trail Images]

I've used North Coast in Carlsbad Ca. for years. I know the owner Richard Shute since my drag racing days when he photographed our race cars for prints.
I actually have 4 rolls of 120 at their shop right now for E-6 processing.

https://northcoastphoto.com/

 

[BrianShaw]

Professional Film Developing & Scans by Mail - Only $12

The Darkroom, over 40 years experience in professional film developing. Develop by mail from $12 - Images on CD, developed negatives & digital download.

thedarkroom.com

 

[Kodachromeguy]

I often use Northeast Photographics in Bath, Maine: https://www.northeastphotographic.com

Another excellent lab is Praus Productions in Rochester, NY: https://www.4photolab.com

Dwayne's in Parsons, Kansas, has developed C-41 135 film for me, but they certainly will do 120: https://www.dwaynesphoto.com

 

[Two23]

If you're wanting b&w, just do it yourself. Honest, it's as easy as making pancakes. You can see your negs the same day you take them.


Kent in SD

 

[Moose22]

I've used North Coast in Carlsbad Ca. for years. I know the owner Richard Shute since my drag racing days when he photographed our race cars for prints.
I actually have 4 rolls of 120 at their shop right now for E-6 processing.

https://northcoastphoto.com/

These are my local. Really good people and they do good work. I'm in there almost every week. They do my color and all my prints.

 

[Roseha]

LTI Lightside in NYC has a mail order form and a link to create a mailing label on their website.

Old School Photo Lab in New Hampshire is also good, I send infrared films to them.

 

[gone]

Another vote for DIY. I spent so much money sending film out it was crazy. Turns out 120 film is easier to load onto a reel than 35mm, and by doing it myself I learned how much difference your choice of developer makes. A lot!

The initial cost of chemicals, a thermometer and developing tank was minimal, and the work involved was even less. Especially if you use the bathroom like I do to load the reels instead of a change bag. For $100, you can buy a nice developing tank, chemicals and lots of film.

I use this cheapo Wolverine F2D 20 Super film scanner below for proof scans, it's really fast and really cheap. If you shoot color, then I'd send it out. I've been developing my own B&W film for a couple of decades, color requires more exacting temps and stuff.

Wolverine F2D 20MP 4 In 1 Film Images Slides 8mm Movies Digital Converter for sale online | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Wolverine F2D 20MP 4 In 1 Film Images Slides 8mm Movies Digital Converter at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

LTI Lightside in NYC has a mail order form and a link to create a mailing label on their website.

Old School Photo Lab in New Hampshire is also good, I send infrared films to them.

LTI Lightside in NYC is very good but specializes in BW only, no color. I've also used North Coast Photo in Carlsbad CA which process both color and BW. For another dollar or two, they will cut the film and insert them into plastic sheets for protection and to keep the film flat. I stopped getting 120 rolls back from processors because they wind up bending to the roll making it hard to handle afterward.

 

[Donald Qualls]

DIY is best, IMO, but not everyone has space or ability to protect family/pets from chemicals. The last time I sent film out, it went to The Darkroom -- it was 35 mm, but shot in an RB67 for pano sprockets. They handled it as well as I could ask.

 

[Roseha]

LTI Lightside in NYC is very good but specializes in BW only, no color. I've also used North Coast Photo in Carlsbad CA which process both color and BW. For another dollar or two, they will cut the film and insert them into plastic sheets for protection and to keep the film flat. I stopped getting 120 rolls back from processors because they wind up bending to the roll making it hard to handle afterward.

Hi actually LTI will process C41, just not E6. I like to use them also, they give me a discount as a long time repeat customer.

 

[AnselMortensen]

I have had good results from North Coast, and also from Oscar's Photo Lab in San Francisco.

 

[calico]

Richard Photo Lab and The Find Lab have done good work for me.

 

[Roger Cole]

I often use Northeast Photographics in Bath, Maine: https://www.northeastphotographic.com

Another excellent lab is Praus Productions in Rochester, NY: https://www.4photolab.com

Dwayne's in Parsons, Kansas, has developed C-41 135 film for me, but they certainly will do 120: https://www.dwaynesphoto.com

I've used Dwayne's ever since I did my "year of farewell to Kodachrome" in 2010 after buying up a bunch at scalper prices as I heard about the discontinuance too late to get it regular retail. I've sent them plenty of C41 and E6. Never had a problem with the negatives or prints or E6, and they return mounted slides for 35mm E6 too unless you request otherwise (or did last time I sent them a roll.)

 

[Roger Cole]

Another vote for DIY. I spent so much money sending film out it was crazy. Turns out 120 film is easier to load onto a reel than 35mm, and by doing it myself I learned how much difference your choice of developer makes. A lot!

The initial cost of chemicals, a thermometer and developing tank was minimal, and the work involved was even less. Especially if you use the bathroom like I do to load the reels instead of a change bag. For $100, you can buy a nice developing tank, chemicals and lots of film.

I use this cheapo Wolverine F2D 20 Super film scanner below for proof scans, it's really fast and really cheap. If you shoot color, then I'd send it out. I've been developing my own B&W film for a couple of decades, color requires more exacting temps and stuff.

Wolverine F2D 20MP 4 In 1 Film Images Slides 8mm Movies Digital Converter for sale online | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Wolverine F2D 20MP 4 In 1 Film Images Slides 8mm Movies Digital Converter at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

Color isn't really difficult either. I did bunches of it back in the 90s with a dishpan full of water for temperature control, and it's even easier now with readily available temperature controllers at reasonable prices. Cinestill sells one, but an aquarium heater is the cheapest solution. I just used Dwayne's for C41 and E6 when I got back into photography for a few years 2010-14 or so because I just didn't shoot enough color to bother with buying the chems, some of which would go bad before I developed enough film, even though I had a Jobo by then.

With the all liquid kits, which are almost all of them nowadays anyway, it's easy to mix just what you need to cover your film, and that minimizes the spoilage if you don't shoot much, but I literally was shooting a roll every few months. It just wasn't worth it for me.

But if I shot a lot of color I'd do it myself too, even if I didn't have the Jobo. "More precise" yes but it's not rocket sci...er, engineering, not at all. Just follow the instructions and it's pretty easy and works just fine.

 

[JDR]

Wow! Thanks to all for your feedback. Glad to have options as I re-enter film photography. LTI and Northeast Photographics sound like good places to start since I’m living n the northeas.
I’ll also think of doing b&w myself at some point since I used to develop panatomic-x and plus-x in the mid 70s.

again, my thanks to all!

 

[Sirius Glass]

I've used Dwayne's ever since I did my "year of farewell to Kodachrome" in 2010 after buying up a bunch at scalper prices as I heard about the discontinuance too late to get it regular retail. I've sent them plenty of C41 and E6. Never had a problem with the negatives or prints or E6, and they return mounted slides for 35mm E6 too unless you request otherwise (or did last time I sent them a roll.)

I shot about ten rolls of 36 exposure Kodak UltraColor in Moab and the red rock areas and Dwaynes made all the red rock green as though it was grass. I had to send all the film and prints back at my cost to reprint ever single photograph. I have never used them since.

 

[Roger Cole]

I shot about ten rolls of 36 exposure Kodak UltraColor in Moab and the red rock areas and Dwaynes made all the red rock green as though it was grass. I had to send all the film and prints back at my cost to reprint ever single photograph. I have never used them since.

Hm. I never had a problem with their prints which always looked fine, as good or better than I could do with RA4. Their scans were not great sometimes but I was getting them mainly just for a digital reference file and for posting online, not for printing via inkjet or the like so they suited my needs ok.

YMMV I guess.

 

[Eff64]

Wow! Thanks to all for your feedback. Glad to have options as I re-enter film photography. LTI and Northeast Photographics sound like good places to start since I’m living n the northeas.
I’ll also think of doing b&w myself at some point since I used to develop panatomic-x and plus-x in the mid 70s.

again, my thanks to all!

East Coast here as well, and I agree with your thinking. Coast to coast is a pita for this, and really adds to the turnaround. I recently tried Northeast, once for b/w 120, but they did a good job and will use them again.

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

Hi actually LTI will process C41, just not E6. I like to use them also, they give me a discount as a long time repeat customer.

OK thanks for clarifying that. I shoot E-6 Velvia chrome as well as BW, so I had to switch developers. LTI recommended CRC Color (Color Resource Center) in Manhattan to me when they stopped devloping E6.

 

[allmotionisrelative]

I shot about ten rolls of 36 exposure Kodak UltraColor in Moab and the red rock areas and Dwaynes made all the red rock green as though it was grass. I had to send all the film and prints back at my cost to reprint ever single photograph. I have never used them since.

Oh man, I wish I had know this last week. I thought I’d try them out and I just sent 15 rolls of color film over there. My mate used to develop my color rolls but he’s no longer available. Now I’m keeping fingers crossed til it comes back.

For OP, I usually develop my own if it’s B&W, which is what I mainly shoot. I shoot color much more infrequently so I try to wait until I have a decent amount to send them out.

Doing B&W myself feels so satisfactory. I’d like to do color but I don’t trust myself to ge temps, etc right. It feels like there’s less room for error with developing color.

 

[Roger Cole]

I wouldn't worry too much. Mine were always fine and apparently Sirius's second batch were.

 

[Donald Qualls]

an aquarium heater is the cheapest solution.

I'd have to disagree here; few if any aquarium heaters that will got to 102F/40C will cost less than a cheap eBay sous vide unit (mine was under $40). Further, cheap aquarium heaters don't have fine temperature control and will destroy themselves if out of water for even a few seconds while active, where a sous vide typically has 1 F temperature tolerance and automatically shuts off it the water gets low.

 

[JamesEsq]

I've had pretty good luck with TheDarkroom.com

 

[Anaxagore]

TheDarkroom is good, Holland Photo in Austin can also do mail in processing. IIRC they are cheaper than TheDarkroom, but they do not do the slide processing themselves so slides take a longer time.