UKH

I just trialled the Fujilab Digital Imaging Service at Burnley (essentially a Fuji-approved franchise branch), upon a recommendation on flickr.

They are excellent value. I just wanted to try something other than Peak Imaging, who are fine but get expensive if you want your negs scanned at more than 1800*1200. The standard scan at Fujilab DIS is 3000*2000 which makes a difference. Spotless negs too.

This is their website which is I think trying to do a bit too much all at once so requires a bit of patience before you find what you want (i.e. the price of the service you want!)
http://photofilmprocessing.co.uk/

They are very communicative by phone though so if you are puzzled just check with them

In reply to Blue Straggler:

I've given up on most UK labs - especially for large format when I use Edgar Praus http://4photolab.com

In reply to Henry Iddon:

Yes I was going at it from a "cheap and cheerful" PoV rather than high-end LF work

In reply to Blue Straggler:
Is that really £9 for an E6 Blue? Eek!
Genie Imaging offer on just now, any film, any format, £4.99 for a dev +scan if you send 6 or more. The scan is saved as jpeg up to 18meg.

In reply to dek:

Crikey you are right! I had not looked at the E6 prices. Not terribly competitive I grant you. But everything else is good. I priced up Genie in advance of sending off my last batch and overall I think what I got done at Fujifilm DIS Burnley would have cost me about 35-45% more at Genie (on about £50 worth of d&p and scans).

Also the flickr group I found that was discussing minilabs had a lot more people in favour of Burnley than Genie, which had some disgruntled customers re: dust, fingerprints and "thin" scans. I know you've had good results from them but I think you said you've not scans done by them so maybe that is where they let themselves them down?

Here's some scans from the Burnley lab, the photos aren't great which is my fault (check the vignetting and the poor focus on a couple, let alone the dull compositions!). I think the scans are great though
http://www.flickr.com/photos/blue-straggler/sets/72157631533399112/

In reply to Blue Straggler: I would much rather purchase my own chemicals and do the processing myself. Buying chemicals is fairly cheap these days, and certain chemicals can be used again and again.

The other thing about doing it yourself is how much satisfaction you get with the finished product, for me that is what using film is about.

In reply to halo:

Do you do colour developing? I've done a bit but it's pretty complicated, to my mind.

Also, not everyone has the facilities to print and/or scan their own images, even though it's easy to develop film anywhere with the help of a black film loading bag. I'll be using Blue's recommendation for scanning, even though I develop my own black and white films.

In reply to halo:

That's lovely. I posted for the benefit of other lazy people like me though. I don't think I'd get much satisfaction out of doing my own processing. Been there, done that (with b&w). I like doing my own printing.

In reply to Blue Straggler:
Blue, I think I'll stick with Genie for the time being, at £2.29 for any film format it takes some beating for six films or more! ( It's good enough quality for me) Keeps a bit of throughput in the labs too...dunno how long their going to last?!

In reply to dek:

Maybe I misread some of the pricing at Genie.
Basically I was going to with Genie for my last batch, as per your recommendations, but then stumbled across a flickr group doing reviews of minilabs, and Fujilab Burnley seemed to come out on top, so I went with them before doing a proper price comparison!

Just got one roll on the go at the moment, which is a blessed relief It is in a half-frame camera though so it'll take ages to get through it!

In reply to Blue Straggler:
I've about ten 120s to dev and a pair of old 5x4s that I can't remember whats on them?
Missed bargain of a lifetime last month.... Charity shop had 3 or four Mamiya 7IIs 3 Nikon 5s one boxed......£50 for a Nikon, £200 for the Mamiyas......+ 43mm, 50mm, 80mm plus dedicated viewfinders for each (new-£400ish)....I was/am gutted! A buyer came in and scooped up the 7s + lenses for less than £600, all mint! The shop manager was ecstatic thinking she had done a great deal!

I got 2 67 m filters for a fiver...

In reply to dek:

People keep giving me working Canon SLR bodies with stuck-aperture lenses! I have 4 FD mount lenses, 3 of them won't stop down. Never seen even ONE other old manual lens with this issue! I wonder if it's a known phenomenon on the FD mount? (one Vivitar Series 1, one Kiron and two Canon)

In reply to Blue Straggler:
I'm not sure if it common or not, but I bet you'd pick up working FD lenses for peanuts from Ffordes etc?... Great quality glass too!

In reply to dek:

My Vivitar and Kiron ones are "cult classics" and fetch a minor premium :-$ Might treat them as "projects", I've never disassembled a lens before but these shouldn't be too scary - just remove the rear and drop lighter fluid onto the blades? Neither of the two donor bodies have aperture priority so they will try and fail to stop down the lens in most conditions, causing a bad exposure. I bought an A1 though so they can be used wide open on that. But that's not really the point is it! Harumph.

In reply to Blue Straggler:
I've a couple of old E series 70-150 nikons, rebadged Kirons I believe...if the were good enough for Galen Rowell??
Taking apart is the 'easy' bit!

In reply to dek:

Kiron and Vivitar shared product quite a bit, just rebadging. I think Tamron and even Tokina were in cahoots at various stages. It's like cars from the VAG group!
I have the Vivitar 24-48mm f/3.8-4.8. Unwieldy, slow, and the shortest focus distance is not so short. Bit stupid really, but people seem to like it!
The Kiron is a whopper, I think it is the 80-200mm with a constant max aperture of about f/4.0.