fotoxxx charges 10.7 for E6 development. any cheaper place to develop slides?

[soken]

I haven't used slides for quite a while. I remember that i spent 8.56 for developing 1 roll of slides at fotohub.
I went there today and the girl said that the price increased,and it is 10+gst now.

I think 10 is really a bit expensive.
any one know any other places to develop slides?
I believe if they just keep rising the price, no body will use films any more. :angry:

 

[MagnumLite]

Most film enthusiast are aware of the fact that the more popular film photography gets the higher the cost of development will get and specialist lab will more or less know the demand if they are keeping tab on the number of development they are doing for film, that's business. Guess for that reason some of us have resorted to doing our own film processing, and as for alternative processing for E6, maybe you would want to check this out http://www.clubsnap.com/forums/medium-large-format/1116496-underground-e6-lab-expose.html.

 

[knight84]

I haven't used slides for quite a while. I remember that i spent 8.56 for developing 1 roll of slides at fotohub.
I went there today and the girl said that the price increased,and it is 10+gst now.

I think 10 is really a bit expensive.
any one know any other places to develop slides?
I believe if they just keep rising the price, no body will use films any more. :angry:

Look for losheng on the forum! He develops and has amazing quality.

 

[Riotbmx]

My friend who is studying in HK develops his E6 over there at about SGD4(next day collection!) I got a bunch of slides yet to shoot, when I'm done with them I'll prolly send them to LS or post to HK to have it done.

 

[catchlights]

come on, as if processing slide can make lots of profit, be thankful there are someone still offering such service nowadays.

 

[theITguy]

If there is a market, others may come into the market for a share. The only fact is the volume is not enough to turn a profit for Fotohub.

In HK, they typically have the volume to push through. There is also running costs for Fotohub. If it runs a roll of slides then for the next 2 weeks no people develop, chemicals can get bad over time and need replacement or replenishment.

1 year plus ago, I looked for Velvia 50 120 format. Cathay's Steven told me if want to bring in, need 5000 rolls. Who can take it?

Be grateful service is still available locally.

 

[mamypoko]

$10 is nothing compared to the images that have been captured on slide film.

Shoot it while it is still available.

 

[paapoopa]

i seriously rather they increase price than not available in singapore.

 

[losheng]

In the hay days of film, developing a roll of slides without mounting was a mere $4.50. However, that was also before the days of the hybrid workflow, so most of us will have the slides mounted in plastic mounts. Processing and mounting will come to up around $10-12 (memory is falling me ...). But if the slides are really precious, you don't want to leave the slides in these cheapo mounts - you want them safe and sound in the glass mounts, which cost around $1 each (I think). And this was in the mid-90s, when a 5-room HDB flat was probably 200k. On on a per roll basis, we were paying probably around the same nominal amount back then.

So putting things into perspective, slide processing cost hasn't really increased all that much. Especially when you have to pay for 3-4k for a full frame digital camera, and only 300 for a fantastic film camera. And still, the quality from that slide film and film camera is still way ahead of that digital counterpart!

It's painful, but not all that unreasonable.

 

[Riotbmx]

So putting things into perspective, slide processing cost hasn't really increased all that much. Especially when you have to pay for 3-4k for a full frame digital camera, and only 300 for a fantastic film camera. And still, the quality from that slide film and film camera is still way ahead of that digital counterpart!

My friend bought the Fuji X10 and told me they made a Velvia stimulation, I thought that's very cool until I tried shooting with a X100.... with disappointment... You can't get Velvia photos if you're not shooting with Velvia slides, there's no shortcut

 

[catchlights]

$4.00 to $4.50 is 120film, 35mm is much higher around $7.50, back than I shoot mostly 120, occasionally 4x5, 35mm mostly is for personal, each month spending a few hundreds on processing alone.

and you have many places to go to, during the 80's Kodak still have lab outlets at Market Street car park and headquarters at Alexandrian Road, Rainbow color, AD colors are all the pros send their slide film to. and Fuji film has pro lab in AMK Ave 10.

and also Spectra Color, Albert photos.

now all of them are gone, so be thankful, don't complain.

btw, back than one plate of char kway teow was only $1.50, nowadays you can't even find $2.00 char kway teow at school tuck shops.

 

[NazgulKing]

I would rather they raise the price a bit more and make sure they do a bloody good job instead of the half assed one I keep getting. All the scratches and the residue...

 

[losheng]

Spectra Color

I miss Spectra Color - my favourite lab! I regretted not asking to step into the darkroom to see how they do wall projections for larger-than-life enlargements. I wonder where are all the technicians now?

 

[catchlights]

I miss Spectra Color - my favourite lab! I regretted not asking to step into the darkroom to see how they do wall projections for larger-than-life enlargements. I wonder where are all the technicians now?

Miss them too, didn't hear from them for very long time, Bernard, Merlin, Kenny, Ruby, Helen, Jeanette all are like family.

 

[kgston]

I think most people are fine with rising prices, and indeed for these kind of prices; without the volume, its hard to make money. But the crux of the issue that I feel is the lack of improvement in standards or quality. I can't say about the scratches or dirt for the film personally, but I have noticed that they have gone from good film sleeves back at the days when they were at beach road to the cheaper kinds of film sleeves that is mainly used for negative films. Personally, I think a price increase should be justified at least with a consistent level of quality and standard and improvements in the finer details, like providing archival sleeves instead of the crappy loose ones...

 

[sfoto100]

my first 135 slides is dev with photohub.. ya they use loose sleeves, but i didn't know they are lousy ones until i read kgston post..

i think one way out is to do self development, u can get Tetenal 1 litre kit from ebay.. mine just arrived 2 days ago.. just pour some hot water and there you go

or we can share the chemical when Losheng do purchase of E6 chemicals, he is always on the look out for people to share the cost of the chemicals..

 

[theITguy]

I think most people are fine with rising prices, and indeed for these kind of prices; without the volume, its hard to make money. But the crux of the issue that I feel is the lack of improvement in standards or quality. I can't say about the scratches or dirt for the film personally, but I have noticed that they have gone from good film sleeves back at the days when they were at beach road to the cheaper kinds of film sleeves that is mainly used for negative films. Personally, I think a price increase should be justified at least with a consistent level of quality and standard and improvements in the finer details, like providing archival sleeves instead of the crappy loose ones...

No volume no talk. I import my own boxes, sleeves and envelops from US as there is simply no demand for volume stuff in Singapore.

 

[sinned79]

cheap also doesn't mean good...

slightly side track (from slides), i do my own b/w film processing but for color film processing, i send to Grace Digital Photo for processing, 1st time send, the negative came back with scratches, furs and dust spots... so I thought, give them another chance, so send another 2 rolls for them, same thing come back... its so bad that i dun even bother to do cloning... so much so for so much work (then digital!) to clone away all these scratches, furs and dust spots. :|

guess i need to look for a new lab to do my color film processing... so far quite satisfied with fotohub which charges ard $5.80 for a C41.

 

[NazgulKing]

cheap also doesn't mean good...

slightly side track (from slides), i do my own b/w film processing but for color film processing, i send to Grace Digital Photo for processing, 1st time send, the negative came back with scratches, furs and dust spots... so I thought, give them another chance, so send another 2 rolls for them, same thing come back... its so bad that i dun even bother to do cloning... so much so for so much work (then digital!) to clone away all these scratches, furs and dust spots. :|

guess i need to look for a new lab to do my color film processing... so far quite satisfied with fotohub which charges ard $5.80 for a C41.

I'm not satisfied at all with Fotohub, but they are among the best here. Konota has given me plenty of scratches before, and whatever not, till the film is practically usable. Fotohub has fouled up my slides before, though they haven't in recent times.

If money were no issue, I would have sent the lot to the US for development and scanning, but I think I will only do that for holiday shots, not the usual stuff I shoot in Singapore.