Ok, so I've got this roll of film, what do I do with it?

baldmountain

Most folks here are shooting digital but there must be a few people out there still shooting film. I dragged out some of my old gear and shot a roll of black and white film. Where should I get it developed? The last time I took a roll of black and white to CVS, (the drugstore), they left a trail of developer on the film and ruined it. Should I mail it to a lab of find a local shop? Anyone know of a good shop in the littleton, ma area?

ChatKat

Mpix
Mpix still does film. Millers if you have a pro account.

I have my film gear - Canon Elan 7E. I used it mostly with the old 28-80 lens and the 50 2.5 macro lens. Now I have L glass and a bigger collection. I should go get some film and shoot ...we have a few local places here that still do film. I used to do my own Black and White developing and printing.

Justiceiro

Here is my situation. I ave a roll of Black and White 120 slide film. That's ride- slide. I live in Germany. What do I do now?

darkdragon

I know there are a few shops around here that develop B/W film, but definately not at any of the soccer mom places (you know, cvs/costco/walmart)

I get my 120 film developed in town, they actually charge more for B/W than for color or slide which I find strange. Of course, my other option is to buy the equipment and do it myself. That would be around $300, I'd rather pay $7 to have it developed ;-)

You might look in your phone book and see if there is anyone in the area, or just send it off mail-order style.

baldmountain

So I got lazy and took it to CVS. When I went in to pick it up I got a blank roll. (They were supposed to call to let me know but didn't.) So, is my camera busted, did I massively under/over expose all the pictures, did I screw up and load the film wrong? Or did they process the film wrong, or expose the roll while loading it into the machine or otherwise ruin the film?

It's no wonder people are so keen on digital. You remove so many places other people can ruin your images.

Sigh, I may try again but I'm tempted to buy some basic processing gear and do it myself.

aj986s

Ritz Camera used to have a fairly comprehensive film processing program, including decent B&W work. But not sure about nowadays......

I, too, used to process most of my own B&W stuff way back when...in the '70 -80's...

aj986s

baldmountain wrote:

So I got lazy and took it to CVS. When I went in to pick it up I got a blank roll. (They were supposed to call to let me know but didn't.) So, is my camera busted, did I massively under/over expose all the pictures, did I screw up and load the film wrong? Or did they process the film wrong, or expose the roll while loading it into the machine or otherwise ruin the film?

It's no wonder people are so keen on digital. You remove so many places other people can ruin your images.

Sigh, I may try again but I'm tempted to buy some basic processing gear and do it myself.

Are frame numbers visible along the edges of the negatives? If so, then something happened within your camera. If not, then the film was processed wrong.

If frame numbers visible, is there any evidence of a rectangle for each frame? If overexposed, the frames should be black; if underexposed, frames should be very faint. If no evidence of frames at all, then either film didn't advance, or shutter isn't opening.

Easy way to check the shutter is to open the back (without film of course.....) and fire the shutter to see if it opens or not. If an SLR, you can do the same by removing the lens, too.

baldmountain

aj986s wrote:

Are frame numbers visibile along the edges of the negatives? If so, then something happened within your camera. If not, then the film was processed wrong.

If frame numbers visible, is there any evidence of a rectangle for each frame? If overexposed, the frames should be black; if underexposed, frames should be very faint. If no evidence of frames at all, then either film didn't advance, or shutter isn't opening.

I didn't take the blank film but the woman at the counter had it in her hand. I didn't see any frame numbers. The whole film looked exposed/blank.

aj986s wrote:

Easy way to check the shutter is to open the back (without film of course.....) and fire the shutter to see if it opens or not. If an SLR, you can do the same by removing the lens, too.

The camera is smart and can tell if there is no film in the camera. It doesn't look like the shutter is moving but that may be the camera being too smart. I'll try without the lens and see what happens.

Travis

Justiceiro wrote:

Here is my situation. I ave a roll of Black and White 120 slide film. That's ride- slide. I live in Germany. What do I do now?

Send the roll to the local natural history museum for display!

sara505

baldmountain wrote:

I didn't take the blank film but the woman at the counter had it in her hand. I didn't see any frame numbers. The whole film looked exposed/blank.



The camera is smart and can tell if there is no film in the camera. It doesn't look like the shutter is moving but that may be the camera being too smart. I'll try without the lens and see what happens.

Sometimes I remember that my camera (Canon Elan) would not feed the film and I didn't know it until I developed the film. Or maybe it was the Spotmatic F (my all-time favorite camera of my life).

I had a makeshift darkroom in every place I lived for many years and did all my own b/w developing and processing. I loved it. I can still "go back" to that happy place occasionally when I get onto a batch of good b//w conversions.

I miss the darkroom, but am so happy to be out into the light and not breathing that stuff!

System

blanck roll
if the roll is blank, it means that the film is not exposed at all.
in you case i should agree with some issue with your camera ;
- film not feed (but it seems your camera should complain)
- shutter doesn't fire (easy to check)
- really wrong exposure (can happen easily if your camera is "manual") ... but on one roll ... i doubt.

could it be an eroor in the process of the film. yes but it sounds exceptionnal :
labs are either using dx roll coding, either using manual setup done by pros.

by the way if you are doing often BW film, the better is to process your self (the cost of the laboratory - film process side - is about 100 / 150 euros , dont know in $) but you have to ... have a scanner able to scan negatives and slide films (I personnally use an epson 4490)

Art Scott

Justiceiro wrote:

Here is my situation. I ave a roll of Black and White 120 slide film. That's ride- slide. I live in Germany. What do I do now?

when I was in Praha Cz just 4 short years ago, there was 5 or 6 film processors in less than 1/2 miles radius of my flat......sure Mannheim has film processors close to you.....Fuji machines and film was da bomb in Praha.