Tips & Tricks
List Of Mail Order Film Developing Labs
Photo: Lance Robotson
Here’s to saving ourselves some time from running around town trying to look for a decent film lab. Throw those keys on the table, and grab your comfy office chair because all you have to do is put those rolls of film inside a mailer, and in a few days, you’ll have your prints at your doorstep. Easy enough!
I’ve compiled a list of some of the best companies out there that pride themselves in processing quality images for their customers, and are passionate about keeping the art of film processing alive.
[REWIND: List Of Places To Buy Rolls Of Film Online]
Not only will these companies process your rolls of film, some of them offer scanning services, processing of medium and large format, 35mm slides, Advantix processing, odd sized negatives, black and white, disposable cameras, etc.
North Coast Photographic Services
What mail order film lab do you use and what do you like about it? Leave it in the comments section below.
This LAB is the best! https://www.iconla.com/
All the Pros in LA shooting film bring their film here.
Highest quality and most affordable photo scanning services, High quality scans and excellent customer service. Great to work with https://www.smoothphotoscanning.com/
Blue Moon Camera and Machine is the best lab! They take mail orders as well and have a one week turn around time. Great scanning services and they specialize in optical printing and custom darkroom work. @bluemooncamera
I use CVS 14.00 for 20 glossy prints, and I don’t get my negatives back .But they seem to be the only game in town, where I live.I would like to try out these folks at the Dark Room. Soon as I finish this roll.
Boutique Film Lab is a great lab for C-41, B&W and E-6. They can process roll film and sheet film up to 4×5. High quality scans and excellent customer service. New customers even get 1st roll free using coupon code “firstrollfree”. https://boutiquefilmlab.com
I use local shop for film processing. They only charge $9 per roll of film for processing and scanning in high resolution. If the film is blank they will credit you back $2. Check them out. https://photo60studio.com/35mm-film-processing-developing-c-41-washington-dc-maryland-md-virginia-va/
Fast Foto and Digital develops film and scans super high quality and great to work with! http://www.fastfotoanddigital.com/
Perfect timing to read this article. Can anyone recommend a good photo scanner for digitising some older images in studio?
Canadians can also use http://www.cariboulab.com, I personally love dealing with RPL. I hear fantastic things about them.
Dalmatian Lab, Greensboro, NC http://dalmatianlab.com/
As a hobbyist, I’ve gotten great turnaround and results with traditional B&W film
FIND lab is great as well. I like their Frontier basic scans for a great price, then do corrections in Lightroom myself.
It would also be interesting to know how many people are getting film processed locally. I’m in the St. Louis area, which is a fairly large city, but has limited options for this and what is there is more expensive than going out of state.
Such a timely article. I was just about to start going through many photo sites for some helpful ratings. This has made my homework alot easier.
Pro Photo Irvine! I used to go to Richard Photo Lab but PPI does the same scan for almost half the price. They also use the same noritsu scanner, although RPL also has the frontier scanner.
I haven’t used Pro Photo Irvine, but one of the guest bloggers of KEH mentioned that he pushes or pulls C-41 films; reading the Kodak Tech Pubs on C-41 film indicates that it is unpushable. I asked him for the lab that pushes C-41 and he said Pro Photo Irvine.
Thanks for your suggestion Cha. I just bought my first film slr and shot my first couple rolls of B&W, and now I’m looking for a decent place to get my film developed and scanned. I’m definitely going to go by Pro Photo… I’ve gotten a lot of gear from there, but I know almost nothing about their photo lab.
I was first going to give The DarkRoom a shot, but after looking at their scan specs, I was a little worried that they only scan at 72 dpi.
That’s a helpful list. I’ve been using The Darkroom and have been satisfied with their service, but wouldn’t mind shopping around.