Where do you get your films developed/scanned?

[bakedbeanz01]

i disagree. you can't just develop anywhere, you can't risk your negatives getting scratches. personally fotohub and the B1 store at meidi-ya are the best places to develop, cos they handle your negs with care. as for scanning, do it with kgston. i've been scanning with fotohub for the past 6 years at a lousy 8-bit until kgston came around.

 

[kgston]

Hi everyone,

I just wanna ask about the quality of photo you'll get. Does it depend on both developing and scanning process, or just depend on the scanning part?
If it doesn't depend on the process of developing, I can develop it anywhere at cheapest price, then after that can print or scan it at a good place, right?

Developing and scanning both play an equal part to getting good results on film. Of course it is given that you still need to use good lenses and have a properly calibrated camera.

Although one might say the developmental process might be the same (same chemical and developmental time), however it is impossible to tell if the lab is overusing a single batch (or not replenishing) their chemicals which might lead to uneven development or whether they clean their machines frequently which might lead to scratches on your film. Once I sent 10 rolls of BW film to fotohub to develop and most of them came back poorly developed, hence I was "forced" to consider developing myself. Even reputable labs are not immune to these problems. Film users in sg is getting smaller and labs still have their bottom line to worry about.

That said, doesn't mean you pay more they will use fresher chemicals and clean their machines more regularly.. It is still best for you to send a few rolls to all the labs you know and test all of them. See which lab give you the best consistent results. As for BW, as others would also recommend, it's best to do self development.

Scanning also plays a very important part in digitizing your film images. Film itself contain a lot of latent information and to what extent that can be harnessed totally depends on the kind of scanner you use. Of course drum scanning is the best and gets the most of every grain but at what cost? However if you use a consumer grade scanning device then you are only maximising only about 40% of your film's potential. It really boils down to how much you are willing to pay to meet your expectations.

 

[raytoei]

hi... sorry to complicate your answer: It depends. Let me explain.

I find more variability of quality due to print shop vs scannings, this is further compounded by types of development, B&W C-41 vs B&W.

I used to shoot alot of ilford xp-2 and I used to go the neighbourhood 1-hour shop. The quality was terrible, brown streaks etc. The lady at the shop was indignant that it was my camera because I was a newbie, the camera was old etc etc etc. But I got better prints from Ruby, Photohub and Konata (in Peninsula). I sort of figured out that a. the chemicals in one hour shops do not get enough refresh. b. the better shops (more expensive ones) have high volume, hence better chemicals and better trained folks.

Scanning has its problems too, many of the shops do not have TIFF but JPEG instead, which is okay. In the end, I decided to develop it myself to cut down the variables and time. Afterall, we have to contend with changes in emulsion (film), cameras, lens, development and scanning. Since early Feb/late jan, I have shot 208 rolls and counting, I neber looked back.

Self-development is a learning curve and only worth it for the hobbyist and those who intend to shoot a lot of film. If not, going to a better shop makes sense.

raytoei

 

[alanpotpot]

Tried at Triple D and Im quite satisfied with their service. Development and 16-base scanning for B&W is 15SGD. Quite good price if you ask me. Fotohub is also nice but they are on the expensive side.