[trains are bad]

Since I inherited a 35mm SLR, I've been looking for a cheap and fast place to get film developed.

Wal*mart develops 35mm for $1.70 but charges $2.50 for scanning which comes to $4.20 a roll. Add $1.50 or so for fuji 200 brings it to almost $6 a roll.

Poor as I am, I can't afford to shoot terribly much at this rate. I thought maybe I could scan my negatives with my flatbed scanner, thus saving $2,50 a roll, but either I can't or I'm not doing it right because it doesn't really give usable results. I've seen Wolf Camera stores around here but have yet to stop it to see what they charge to scan negatives.

I know you can develop black-and-white yourself and I might look into it, but I live in a tiny apartment with low WAF for things like converting bathrooms into darkrooms.

 

[leftnose]

You don't really need a full-on darkroom to develop B&W film. All you need is a daylight changing bag, a developing tank, timer, and the necessary chemicals.

That said, yes developing B&W film is relatively easy and can be done over a kitchen sink (but don't dump the fixer down the sink), but what are you going to do with the negatives? To me, the most fun in developing your own negatives is printing them. Setting up a wet print darkroom can be expensive.

 

[trains are bad]

Well if I could scan negatives with my Canon Mp210 or HP f2110 scanners, then I would be set. At this point I'm happy to keep my negatives as analog masters and scan my film for viewing and interneting. I think the cost of having walmart scan to CD or 'make prints' is the best opportunity to save money.

 

[Braver]

Well, I don't know about developing in other countries, but those numbers look about right. Film really that cheap over there? Man...

Are you sure your scanner is capable of scanning negatives? There has to be a light in the lid and stuff.

And yeah, you could do B&W development anywhere. If you can bring em to you computer with a scanner, you have your own low cost film photography setup. Wet printing should be fun too, but that brings it all to a level I'm not sure you want to be worrying about right now. I sure wouldn't (no real darkroom options around the house anyway)

 

[trains are bad]

Quote:

Are you sure your scanner is capable of scanning negatives? There has to be a light in the lid and stuff.

Probably not. I had hoped you could scan them in any flatbed scanner, but apparently not.

Walmart here in dallas has Fuji 200, 4 rolls for $5.94. 400 is more like $7.50

 

[Braver]

hm, sadly those scanners won't work. although perhaps they make a film adapter for them. One came with a HP scanner I bought a while ago.

 

[ozz]

Epson makes a scanner for the negatives easy to spot which models
without looking at specs it has a wired connection to the lid and acenter
pull out on the lid. When I had my film camera ( was stollen) I used
Wolf Camera for transferring and developing.

 

[hmai18]

It's a shame. I bought my last SLR body a few years back right before D-SLRs really took off and technology really started to trickle down. At this point, I'm making the most of my Canon P&S and saving up to get a D-SLR after I finish grad school to get back into more serious shooting.