UK Labs

[leica dream]

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I tackled it from the other end, asking AG to confirm the move because the contact had come from Digitalab instead from themselves. I got the same response to send things to AG at the new North Shields address. I have been very satisfied with AG in the past so shall probably continue.

[colonel]

I use https://www.filmprocessing.co.uk/

I get them to send scans to dropbox. Normally the day they receive the film is the day they process and upload the scans. I also get the negatives returned

Already good. Not sure how they compare to other ones as I have been using them for years .....

[leica dream]

Thank you. That looks interesting.

[Glas Y Dorlan]

I was just looking for alternative labs to AG and came across this thread. I've been using AG since 2017 and have sent many many rolls to them, mostly C41 but occasionally B&W and E-6. They've always been fast and reliable, and the ordering process is really easy, they always send a freepost Jiffy for the next order, which was a game changer for me. I sent off 3 films in December without knowing about the relocation, I simply ordered as usual and used an existing freepost Jiffy, it wasn't until after placing the order that I saw they had relocated. I hadn't heard anything for a while and so I contacted them, AG told me they had a Royal Mail diversion set up and my films should reach the lab. It took about a month to get my films back, I honestly thought they had been lost. I also sent off another B&W roll of 35mm and it arrived today with random scratches on the films (I use AG for processing and scan my negs with Nikon Coolscan scanner). Occasionally I see horizontal scratches caused by the camera, but these scratches were all at random angles. I've never seen this before with AG. I'm guessing the new staff aren't trained up to the same standard as when they were in Birmingham. Fortunately this roll of B&W was a test roll from a camera I just had serviced, but my confidence in AG has dropped with my recent experience, so I shall check out some of the other labs mentioned here. In the meantime, I hope AG can bring their business up to the same standard as before as they made the whole process of ordering so easy.

[leica dream]

That is all a very worrying tale and as another loyal AG customer I am concerned especially as I use them for B&W.

[LocalHero1953]

I have just booked 35mm C41 film processing with https://www.rapideye.uk.com whom I have used before for large format film processing. They charge £6/roll, for 7 day turnaround, no scans. I looked at https://takeiteasylab.com (£5/roll), but they were very vague about how long it would take to return negatives - perhaps up to a month! I also looked at Bayeux, mentioned by someone above: their charges are high (£10/roll), perhaps reflecting their pro clientele, but they also appear to do London walk-in trade with rapid turnaround. If I hadn't already used RapidEye and wanted to try them for 35mm, I might have tried https://www.filmprocessing.co.uk/ (£5/roll), as they aim for same day processing. The manager of the local Wex store mentioned they do B&W processing when I went in yesterday - it's not on their website, so perhaps it's a new venture. That would be handy for me if they do C41 as well (I forgot to ask). 

[chris_livsey]

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On 2/4/2025 at 4:45 PM, LocalHero1953 said:

 I might have tried https://www.filmprocessing.co.uk/ (£5/roll), as they aim for same day processing. The manager of the local Wex store mentioned they do B&W processing when I went in yesterday - it's not on their website, so perhaps it's a new venture. That would be handy for me if they do C41 as well (I forgot to ask). 

B&W is listed now on their site, headline £7 but  £8 =36 hand processed quote 7-10 days but depends on demand and when you "hit" the batch it reads:

We hand process our 35mm Black and White films once a week and usually estimate 7-10 days in production (but sometimes quicker), as we process these by hand. As soon as they have been processed, you will receive your shots!

Don't forget Harman Lab (Ilford) £7 (C41 same) I used to use them but haven't for quite a while and I don't recall we "fell out" or I just had a change, if there were quality issues I would remember. 35mm B&W Film Developing (No Prints) – HARMAN Lab

[leica dream]

I have just tried Harman. I had just a 24 exp FP4 to process. Took 8 working days to get negatives returned although emailed scans were received in 6. Cost for just process, basic scan and mail was £14.45.

Process looks OK but scanned images seemed exceedingly high contrast so I resolved to check by own flatbed scan at home. This proved that my personal scans are far superior so will be my own workflow in future wherever I chose to have film processed.

One very annoying aspect was that negatives returned sleeved in 4's (I prefer 6's) BUT not a straight run of 4's. Top sleve had one, next had 3, next had 4, next had one, then the rest were 4's. Frustrating for personal scans.

I shall not use this lab in future. I might even try going back to AG. Started to consider self process like I did 60 years ago, but with very low volumes maybe chemicals would not store for prolonged periods so might not be economical.

I have seen a firm called "Stuck in film" at South Croyden which cuts into 6's - anyone tried?  https://stuckinfilm.co.uk/collections/lab

[chris_livsey]

On 3/9/2025 at 8:17 PM, leica dream said:

I have just tried Harman. I had just a 24 exp FP4 to process.

Cut

One very annoying aspect was that negatives returned sleeved in 4's (I prefer 6's) BUT not a straight run of 4's.

Thanks for that, I have yet to find a B/W lab that matches never mind exceeds a home scan with only a basic scanner and do wonder how they set them up to be so poor.

I do sympathise with the filing issue, another irritation you can well do without, as we approach the 15th- Carry On Cleo1964
Infamy, infamy. They've all got in for me

Kenneth Williams as Caesar

[greene881]

AG Photographic+Photolab  has been my go to for several years. In the main good for the price.

However, I sent my last three rolls, for develop only, to Come Through Lab in Manchester and was 100% satisfied with the results.

 

 

[Rupert Greenwell]

I have just had some films of TRX back from Harman, I too found them to be a bit too contrasty, one film clearly had a reddish cast which is something that I haven't seen before.

Used Harman last year with FP4 and I didn't think that they were too bad . I once got somebody else's printed photos mixed in with mine from Harman !

[leica dream]

After reading the comments along this thread I decided to let AG settle down in the new environment then test my loyalty again. I have just had them process an FP4 film for me. Just develop without scanning. The service has been absolutely fine and professional. Indeed, the negatives were returned in 6's (their new standard) not only in a card package but even within that the negatives were secured between carboard covers inside the pack. They are back on my regular list.

[250swb]

If anybody hasn't received the email from AG Labs they have a new web site 

https://www.ag-photolab.co.uk/

for film buying and film processing so it seems business is back to normal.

[lincoln_m]

On 12/25/2024 at 11:18 AM, Bikie John said:

I popped in yesterday. Didn't have time for much of a chat as they were very busy, which was good to see of course. They confirmed that they do processing for B&W and C41 colour neg. Nowadays they farm out E6 slide processing to The Darkroom in Cheltenham - https://www.the-darkroom.co.uk/ . Given that they do work for most of the local pro photogs, they wouldn´t send stuff there if it were rubbish!

Apparently one of the things that they have noticed is that "young people" will come in with a film wanting it developed and scanned, and then just tell them to email the scans and chuck away the negatives!

Happy Christmas ... John

I'm shocked that "young people" ask "to email the scans and chuck the negs", but then I guess they are used to taking photos with phones and dumping the images unedited on their social media. It seems a bit of a sin (to me) to bin the negatives as they are the true original source. For special once in a lifetime trips even with digital Ms etc  I keep the memory card locked in the same way I'd keep my negs or slides as it is the original image and anything on my computer can be lost. Maybe young people want the "Film Look" but not the actual film because that means storage and archiving and as they don't print anything either then all their photos, from whatever source, are just on the cloud somewhere waiting to be lost. I find this quite disturbing to contemplate "binning the negs" but being realistic I don't think anyone in my family will be bothered with keeping all my negs, slides, and files after I'm gone! Quite a sobering thought.

I'd also highly recommend The Darkroom in Cheltenham. They return me clean (dust free) flat negatives (or slide film) in strips of 6 ready for me to scan at home, as I'm doing right now.