I have a mini lab in a small town in the sticks, in a small country on the periphery of Europe. We have had the best six months film processing in the last 5 years.
We have on average a 50% increase in film processing in that time frame...........
Without industry figures to compare, this is all just a nice story. As labs close it will create a bigger pool for those left (hopefully) or this could be the death throes of commercial film developing.
What ever it is, I'm lovin it.
Hello, greetings to Ireland!
First of all I want to say that I very much appreciate your work and efforts to do your part for the film revival in rural Ireland. Good job!!
Second, concerning your last sentence: I've did a lot of research for myself concerning the global lab situation (it just interested me and I had quite a bit of free time

) and I've got quite interesting, positive and encouraging results: In short: The decline in the number of labs had already stopped about 18-24 months ago (on a global basis). Even better, quite a lot of new labs (including those for E6), film and used film camera shops have opened in the last two years. Mostly founded by younger film enthusiasts and professionals. This trend has been so far stronger in some markets (e.g. North America, UK, Australia, Vietnam) than in others (like Japan, but there are lots of labs, so less need for new ones).
And most of the current labs are reporting increasing business. Here just some examples:
1. "The Darkroom Lab", USA. One of the biggest labs in the US developing several thousands rolls a day. They are reporting increasing business and lots of new, young customers. Have look at this recent interesting video about them:
2. "Richard Photo Lab", USA. Also one of the biggest Photo Labs in the US. Have a look at this recent video:
Some years ago there has been published a video of them by the "Framed Show". Meanwhile they have a much bigger operation and more staff due to increasing demand.
3. Another example from Sydney, Australia: "The Rewind Lab". A quite new lab. One of the founders is our member Stephen Frizza (who is also running additionally his small "Lighthouse Lab"). You can see a small report of them with interviews of Stephen and his partner in this video from the Australien "Pushing Film" youtube channel (from 16:20 onwards). Quote from Stephen (in the middle of the video): "Film resurgence is huge":
4. During my research I was quite impressed how active and enthusiastic the film community is in Australia. Several new labs, film shops and film camera shops have opened there recently. In Melbourne alone I've found about 30 labs! Some of them new like "Ikigai Camera", "Film will never die" and most recently "Work in Process" by Brock Saddler. Here is a recent video about him and his new lab:
Another new film lab and agency in Brisbane, "Racquet Film":
https://racquetfilm.com/ https://www.instagram.com/racquetstudio/
5. There are also emerging film communities in several metropol areas in Asia (e.g. Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Kuala Lumpur, HongKong, Manila, Jakarta). In most cases the driving forces are new labs which are very active in promoting film use (via social media; facebook, instagram and youtube are meanwhile by far the most important mediums attracting new, young film shooters; this movement is huge).
Just as one example of this development the "Soup'n Film Lab" in Jakarta:
https://www.soupnfilm.com/
https://www.instagram.com/soupnfilm/
They are co-organising the "Walk the Analog" and "Lowlight Bazar" film photography events. Have a look here:
From this community also a film photo youtube channel evolved: GGSG TV:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4jHs8zU_zv2swGhqyXNRhw/videos
6. In Vietnam there is a quite strong increasing film community with several new labs and film-cafes in Hanoi and Saigon. The Vietnam film photo facebook group has already more than 82,000 members and is growing extremely fast with more than 4,500 new members every month. At the end of September this group will be bigger than photrio.
7. Here another example from Lille in France, "L'Atelier Photolix". Also a lab run by young enthusiasts. Most of their film customers are in the 20-30 year old range:
8. The number of film photography youtube channels is signficantly increasing. There are meanwhile so much of them that I've lost track with an overlook of all of them

.
And interestingly: More and more of the digital youtubers include film photography topics in their digital focused channels. So even the "digital dieharts" are realising that there is a new interest in film.
And lots of youtubers which have main topics generally outside photography are discovering film for them and reporting about it. Here just an example from a food and travel focussed channel (run by an American couple now based in Berlin) which also have some videos about their new love for film. Have a look here, this video of such a vlog has already more than 765,000 views:
And this one more than 348,000 views:
9. Another examples from the US: New lab (including E6) and film+camera shop in Seattle:
https://www.shotonfilmstore.com/
https://www.instagram.com/shotonfilmstore/
And new from New Jersey:
https://www.medfordfilmlab.com/
And new from Florida:
https://www.lagovistafilmlab.com/
Another new one from Florida:
https://www.coastalfilmlab.com/
10. New labs in Africa? Yes, even there. One example for a new lab in Cairo:
http://thedarkroomcairo.com/
11. New used film camera and repair shop (both online and brick and mortar, Berlin) in Germany:
http://clickundsurr.de/
12: New film lab (C41, E6, BW), big camera repair shop (including repair experts for electronic cameras) and used camera online shop in Finland: Camera Rescue Center:
That are only some examples. There are a lot more new labs, film and film camera / repair shops out there worldwide. Everytime when I dive into a new research phase I find more new ones. Facebook, youtube and instagram are the driving forces for rising new interest in film. Countless activities there on these platforms. E.g. the hashtag #filmphotography has more than 10,769,840 pictures on instagram.