Topic: Planning to break my 2ish year hiatus in Film use.

[Mike (happyforest)]

Inspired by the recent post showing Ilfords film manufacturing, an upcoming holiday
and my desire to break my 2ish years hiatus in film use.

I am planning to take my Etrs, some fresh Ilford Pan f, some out of date products and waste a bit of film, whilst away.

As this is my first use of Pan f, I thought I would get the development of this done professionally.

Using the resources section  I have looked at who I might entrust to do this.  Some of information is out of date.

It seems a lot of the labs out there use colour paper to print photos onto and don’t indicate what they use to develop the film.

HarmanLab (formerly IlfordLab) see to be the best option at the moment and helps keep them in business.

Does anybody else use a uk lab to develop their film they can recommend over them?

Thanks in advance.

Mike

[Francois]

I really don't know. But using Ilford Labs is definitely the best way to guarantee that you'll get real silver based photo paper.

[irv_b]

Hi Mike
If you are talking about the negatives, for my colour I use Peak Imaging, ( I develop my black and white at home ) and they list which developer that they use. I can't comment on how good the B&W turn out but the C41 and E6 always turn out excellent. Again for prints I would go to Ilford maybe a bit more costly but I'm sure it'll be worth it.

https://www.peak-imaging.com/about/film.processing

[Late Developer]

Hi Mike,
As Irv said, Peak Imaging has a very good reputation..  I haven't used them, personally, but I'd always trust Irv's recommendation.
I recently had some 35mm and 120 B&W and a couple of rolls of Portra 800 processed by Ag Photographic in Birmingham. they did a nice job in a matter of a few days and weren't too pricey.
If you're going to use PanF+ then getting it developed professionally is a wise choice IMO as my experience of it has been variable. I'm a bit ham-fisted and managed to scratch the negs before reading that it is known to be a bit "delicate" and needs careful handling. I'm sure many are fine with it but I'd recommend developing a couple of "test" rolls before committing to anything that's important.
Anyway, I hope your return to film is a successful one.
Paul.

[Mike (happyforest)]

Thanks All,

I have used ag-photolab before for colour work and have no compaints with them, I also thought they used silver based paper but their site says it's fuji crystal archive.  I'm sure they used to use silver based, but hey ho.  I have come across peak but not used them, so either way whoever I choose I have not used them before for black & white.

I can develope the film myself but don't want to trust the pan f to my old chemicals and haven't had time to test the film out, so harman lab is the best option.

I think I had convinced myself to use harman lab, (as they now call themselves) before I posted but was looking to see if there was a reason not to.

I hope after this, I have something worth sharing with you all.

Also I can't back out now as I have told you all I am doing this.

Thank you once again for your comments.

Mike

[MiguelCampano]

If Harman Lab in the UK is like the Ilford Lab here in the U.S, they use Ilford DDX as their standard developer.

[Sandeha Lynch]

You could try The Darkroom in Cheltenham - https://www.the-darkroom.co.uk/

Competitive rates, and I've had them do my colour this past 15 years. Very friendly so easy to ask what they use.