Developing at home and sending out for prints

lightfox · Jan 5, 2012

I'm planning on buying a C41 kit in the next couple weeks to develop my own 35mm color negatives. Can I then take these negatives to somewhere like CVS or Costco to make prints and scan to digital. Will they accept them?

wblynch · Jan 5, 2012

The Costco near me will do that. Last time I was there the gal was scanning another customer's old negatives to DVD. It's simple to have them print it.

They will likely charge a higher price than when they develop the film. And it's probably better to take the whole roll in before cutting into strips.

But really, for 35mm it's hard to beat commercial processing. (my Costco charges only $1.59 for 35mm color processing)

holmburgers · Jan 5, 2012

I think doing the opposite might actually make more sense. Target near me charges 99¢ for a roll of 35mm C-41, just negs.

Printing is where the artistry comes into play. You're not going to get great prints from CVS or Costco; no way, no how. They will however give you great negatives that you can take into your darkroom and make amazing prints from.

My 2¢

Bob Carnie · Jan 5, 2012

Well not always.... remember that all these are roller transport machines , and when they make your proofs at 4x6 a digital ice program is on to take away dust and scratches, this fools the client into thinking the film is scratch free.
Put the film in a normal enlarger black and white or colour and hope that your processing location is doing a good job cleaning the rollers or you will have scratch nightmare which in a analoque print is hard to next impossible to fix.

just my 2cents.

holmburgers said:
I think doing the opposite might actually make more sense. Target near me charges 99¢ for a roll of 35mm C-41, just negs.

Printing is where the artistry comes into play. You're not going to get great prints from CVS or Costco; no way, no how. They will however give you great negatives that you can take into your darkroom and make amazing prints from.

My 2¢

wblynch · Jan 5, 2012

I redo all my commercially processed negatives on my own Electronic Enlarger and they come back clean and unscratched from Costco.

The prints from Costco are amazingly good, especially considering the price.

holmburgers · Jan 5, 2012

Well shows how much I know...

Theory is certainly different than practice

lightfox · Jan 5, 2012

Thanks for the advice everyone. I was thinking about developing at home because it seems like a cool hobby, and I like chemistry. I figured I could get prints from the negatives or get digital scans and print the best ones after some editing.

However, I didn't realize that commercial processing was so cheap ($1.59 at Costco as wblynch says) which makes me less inclined to develop at home. How does printing at home compare in terms of ease and cost to developing at home?

brofkand · Jan 5, 2012

I did the math and for the amount of color film I shoot and the cost of the chemicals and the keeping properties of them, it didn't make sense to do it myself when I have a Costco right down the road.

Scanning is a different matter; their scan CDs are $3 at time of development, but they're not particularly high-resolution. Perfect for web and smaller prints, maybe up to 8x10; 11x17 would be pushing it.

This is all moot if you shoot a lot of color film or shoot formats other than 35mm; Costco will only do 35mm. They may or may not have the ability to do larger formats, and they may or may not be able to provide higher resolution scans, but they don't.

I have them develop my film then I take it home and scan it and store it in negative pages.

lightfox · Jan 5, 2012

When did you did the math how many 35mm reels per month did you assume to use? I won't use very much film at all. Maybe 2-4 reels a month. How long do the chemicals last by the way?

$3 for a scan CD is a price I'm willing to pay. I have a normal scanner at home, but I'm guessing a normal home-use scanner will not produce higher quality images when scanning negatives than what Costco uses. Also, I think there would be a lot of manual labor to scan negative strips individually, edit for color correction, and break apart the frames into separate files.

BradS · Jan 5, 2012

wblynch said:
The prints from Costco are amazingly good, especially considering the price.

must be a good store...the Costco near here does an amazingly shitty job. Only Walgreen is worse. At least Costco is consistently shitty. Walgreen will actually do it right about three rolls out of five.

brofkand · Jan 5, 2012

lightfox said:
When did you did the math how many 35mm reels per month did you assume to use? I won't use very much film at all. Maybe 2-4 reels a month. How long do the chemicals last by the way?

$3 for a scan CD is a price I'm willing to pay. I have a normal scanner at home, but I'm guessing a normal home-use scanner will not produce higher quality images when scanning negatives than what Costco uses. Also, I think there would be a lot of manual labor to scan negative strips individually, edit for color correction, and break apart the frames into separate files.

I've heard it said the chemicals don't last as long as D-76; others have said they last longer. In any event, a 1L Tetenal kit has a capacity of about 15 rolls (they advertise 8, but I've read where people get 15 or more). Assuming the chemicals last for 3 months, that's 5 rolls a month. I don't shoot that much color, although that may change and it probably would if I had the ability do develop it myself. I shoot lots of B&W film, and obviously develop and scan it myself.

I have a Plustek scanner, and it works great. It's time consuming, but I enjoy it for the most part. If you don't have the equipment, pay the $3. The scans are good quality (you can actually see grain, unlike when I used a flatbed to scan), but not terribly high resolution. Certainly not the kind of resolution a good lens and a slower film like Ektar 100 are capable of.

perkeleellinen · Jan 7, 2012

I do the opposite - I send my films to a lab and make prints at home, printing is where the fun is with colour.

Developing at home and sending out for prints

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