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Fun Stuff => MAKE => Topic started by: elizaknowswhatshesfor on 23 Jun 2010, 10:07
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So I've got two beautiful cameras & I've spent the first half of the year taking hundreds of photos on various different types of film only to find out that I can't get them processed anywhere near by.
I need a place that will do mail order & not even out the delibrate mistakes/redscale & high iso films.
Any suggestions?
Also does anyone else take film pics? What cameras do people have etc. etc.
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I have an old, beat up Pentax K1000 that I bought for $20 at a garage sale as kid. It's still my primary camera (new cameras are fucking expensiiiiive)
I just get film developed at Fred Meyer (grocery/everything store). It's not that expensive, is really fast, and you can get your photos on a disc, so you can load them onto your computer. It's swell.
mail order though....I have no idea.
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I have a Canon A1. The dogs bollocks, it is. I very rarely use it though because of the expense of the film.
Where do you live. There might be a college or school, or maybe a professional nearby who might let you use their facilities for a fee. Unfortunately, the latest generations of Digital SLRs have pretty much made film-based photography obsolete for anything except large format work, and a lot of places have shut down their facilities.
What I would personally suggest you do is get together about a hundred dollars, and build yourself a darkroom glove box. Then buy developing chemicals, a developing tank and a USB 35mm negative scanner (they're surprisingly cheap these days). Developing the film rolls into negatives is a pretty easy process, especially once you get practiced at it, and once you have the negatives you can run them through the scanner and do enlargements and darkroom effects digitally, print onto photo paper, digitise, etc. Given the costs most developing services charge this will save you hundreds of dollars and give you full artistic control over your outcomes. I take it you know how to open film canisters, load developing tanks, and so on?
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I have a degree in photography which I did ten years ago, so porcess wouldn't be probem, what I don't have is enough money or the place to set up a darkroom sadly, I'm staying at my parents house at the mo. I also have used many colour films & they are a bitch to process & print!
Oh yes, I'm also in England. I should've said...
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Hmm, is there a photography club or something in the area where some of the members might have darkrooms you could use in exchange for material costs?
I second the notion of getting a negative scanner. My mother got one to scan in some old family photos from the early 1900s that we just had the negatives for (and they were all custom cut, so didn't match any standard sizes), and the quality is fantastic. And of course this saves a ton of money in the long run, since you're only processing negatives, whether in a darkroom yourself, or with a service.
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all you really need is a developing tank and some chemicals to process your own film. why not hit ebay, they can't be that expensive.
i just got a brand new digital camera, but i still kind of miss shooting with my beautiful little nikon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikon_fg). nothing quite like the feel or sound of that shutter cycling, or the heft of the diffrent lenses. of course, sentimentalism aside, not having to pay for roll after roll of film, and being able to see the shot immediately are nice too.
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They still think electricity is the devil where I live, no photo clubs! I have been looking into a neg scanner, but it's just not something I can justify whilst living at my folks & saving up to move out!
When I do move out I would like to look into all that business, but what I'm after right now is a place that won't fuck up my photos...
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You cant justify spending 60-70 quid on a USB negative scanner and another 20-30 on chemicals, a developing tank and a home-made glovebox, but you do have enough money to consider sending off, what, ten, twenty, thirty rolls of film by post to be developed? At a minimum cost of £4.50 - £5.50 a film roll (doubtless more expensive via post)? Ok, whatever.
Where the hell do you live in England you can't get a bus to somewhere with a Boots?