Cheapest place to develop film in Singapore?

[maxilite]

my personal calculations (before i decided to try out bulk and self dev), for local context:

On the self-dev and send-2-shop debate:

If XXX shoots 21 rolls and send in all 21 rolls at once, shop is cheaper.
If XXX shoots 21 rolls and send in 21 rolls 1 by 1, self develop and send to shop is about the same price.

If XXX shoots 42 rolls, even if you send 42 rolls in at once, self development is still cheaper.
If XXX shoots 42 rolls, and you send 1 roll to the shop at a time, self development saves you $415.

*note: calculations is based on 1 year. from 2nd year onward, anything more than 2 rolls, self development is cheaper.
calculations based on $40 each for chemicals/changing bag/dev tank and $300 canon scanner.
Time spent self developing/sending to shop is a YMMV issue.
On one hand, self development allows immediacy. However, we are limited at developing one/two rolls at a time.
If we want to develop many rolls at once, it would take significantly longer than shops.
On the other hand, shops take from about 1/2 a day, for 1 roll, to a few days, for many rolls. It is faster for shops to develop many rolls at once (compared to self development) , but takes significantly longer if rolls are developed one by one.

For analog vs digital:
Light/Casual Shooter - anything lesser than 5k-10k shots, film is cheaper. (5k for rolls, 10k for bulk)
Heavy shooter - anything more that 10k shots, digital is cheaper.

*notes:
in the longer run, digital cameras will have to be changed every 5-15 years.
This makes films cameras even cheaper, for light shooters esp, since only CLA is required once in awhile.
This is based on a $200 film camera (e.g. A-1/AE-1/AE-1P) and a canon 6D.
Lens costs were not considered since lens pricing can vary greatly. In general, analog lenses are cheaper though.

Hope my calculations can help others decide whats best for them.

 

[joh]

But then, how is the shop results compared to what you can achieve. Say, you have experienced a good recipe and can manage consistency in having pretty decent results. Would you still be happy with what you get from mini labs?

 

[sfoto100]

my personal calculations (before i decided to try out bulk and self dev), for local context:

On the self-dev and send-2-shop debate:

If XXX shoots 21 rolls and send in all 21 rolls at once, shop is cheaper.
If XXX shoots 21 rolls and send in 21 rolls 1 by 1, self develop and send to shop is about the same price.

If XXX shoots 42 rolls, even if you send 42 rolls in at once, self development is still cheaper.
If XXX shoots 42 rolls, and you send 1 roll to the shop at a time, self development saves you $415.

*note: calculations is based on 1 year. from 2nd year onward, anything more than 2 rolls, self development is cheaper.
calculations based on $40 each for chemicals/changing bag/dev tank and $300 canon scanner.
Time spent self developing/sending to shop is a YMMV issue.
On one hand, self development allows immediacy. However, we are limited at developing one/two rolls at a time.
If we want to develop many rolls at once, it would take significantly longer than shops.
On the other hand, shops take from about 1/2 a day, for 1 roll, to a few days, for many rolls. It is faster for shops to develop many rolls at once (compared to self development) , but takes significantly longer if rolls are developed one by one.

For analog vs digital:
Light/Casual Shooter - anything lesser than 5k-10k shots, film is cheaper. (5k for rolls, 10k for bulk)
Heavy shooter - anything more that 10k shots, digital is cheaper.

*notes:
in the longer run, digital cameras will have to be changed every 5-15 years.
This makes films cameras even cheaper, for light shooters esp, since only CLA is required once in awhile.
This is based on a $200 film camera (e.g. A-1/AE-1/AE-1P) and a canon 6D.
Lens costs were not considered since lens pricing can vary greatly. In general, analog lenses are cheaper though.

Hope my calculations can help others decide whats best for them.

wow.. this is good! will read slowly later

 

[maxilite]

But then, how is the shop results compared to what you can achieve. Say, you have experienced a good recipe and can manage consistency in having pretty decent results. Would you still be happy with what you get from mini labs?

lets just say shop results are "decent".

However,

If XXX has never self developed in his life, he'll never know what kind of results/differences there are between a lab produced and a self developed roll. (i.e. he'll be satisfied with lab developed rolls)

If XXX has self developed before and knows how to get what he likes (meaning he has to customize development duration/no. of agitations/temperature/dev&fix chemical mix etc...), then if there are no labs out there that can do that for him, he'll have to do it himself (i.e. self develop). Else, he'll just have to make do with lab results.

Happy or not, its depends on XXX's personal experience VS expectations. its a ymmv thing.

Personally, i'm a noob and use tri-x. i still won't be able to differentiate a self dev. and a mini lab dev. (maybe due to tri-x's lattitude?)
However, if i'm in scenario 2, and assuming i dont have the time + chemicals to dev at home, plus i don't want to waste money to buy chemicals just to dev 1 roll. I can just send it to a lab for dev and self scan/adjust in pp/lightroom. (since i'm not a purist)

 

[kgston]

But then, how is the shop results compared to what you can achieve. Say, you have experienced a good recipe and can manage consistency in having pretty decent results. Would you still be happy with what you get from mini labs?

I would think cost and quality is 2 distinct issues. If quality is a factor, then cost factor will have a lower weightage as labs will not be able to provide what what you have optimized with your own time and effort. Whereas if you look purely at a cost perspective, it is not exactly cost effective for film enthusiasts as maxilite pointed out with his detailed breakdown.

 

[catchlights]

to be competent in anything, you need to at least spend 1000 hours on it, so if you really have the drive, just go for it.



it is the same like you can't give a 5DMIII to a person who had never shoot a wedding before, expecting him to produce some results,

want to see some results? it won't happen in 5 weddings, or 10 wedding, to be competent as a wedding photographer, a person need to spend 1000 hours on it (education, shooting and post production) that is about 50 weddings.

 

[crispy12]

However competence is a subjective term. I can imagine some people will be satisfied with their negs even if they have little experience. On the other hand, some pros with 100s of rolls of experience can never be fully satisfied.

I would think cost and quality is 2 distinct issues. .

This is really important! I also enjoy the entire process, from tweaking the development stage to printing stage (unfortunately can't say the same for scanning, aha!) For me, can't put a price on that.

 

[amritsg]

Any film processing shops open during Chinese new year?