Toronto Photography Meetup Group

So ... I just discovered that Downtown Camera raised its pricing on processing medium format film, and decided to do some price comparison. Surely chemicals have not gone up in price? Toronto Image Works charges much less.... E6 costs $8.49 per roll compared to $6.00 at TIW. C41 is $7.50 per roll as compared to $4.75 at TIW. TIW also charges $4.75 for b&w rolls.

Is there anywhere cheaper in Toronto that I might have missed? Otherwise.... I think Toronto Image Works are my new best friends.

What?! I dropped off 3 rolls just yesterday and they never told me!

Save your money and process B&W at home. It's can cost less than 50 cents a roll!!!

Alternatively, you can try colourgenics or elevator (only do bulk - 6 rolls plus but you get to choose developer)...

I've lost some faith in TIW recently (I use them for C41 and E6) ... negs come back very dirty...

I've used elevator for their bulk service and everything comes back clean, unscratched and sleeved.

Avoiding having to clone out scratches and dust has got to be worth a premium unless you feel your time is worthless ;P

got it wrong .... C41 is $5.50 a roll..... but E6 has definately gone up since the last time I got stuff processed. It used to be $6.49 for a roll of E6, and is now $8.49 per roll -- so the price increase is only for slide film. But..... I like shooting slide film, so TIW is still cheaper right now for me.

Oh okay.. the price for E6 at DC went up awhile ago.

Does colourgenics still process film?

Eight Elm is very reasonable for C41 dev. And they will give discounts if you're bringing in multiple rolls at once. Better still, if it's not busy they'll develop on the spot and you've got your negs in 10/15mins.

anyone ever use Vistek? They only seem to have equipment for C41 processing, but a roll of 120mm is $4.50 for processing only. Not a bad price. I should give them a shot. Just finished that roll of Ektar 100. hmmm......

Did you have TIW cut the film for you or did you get it back roll intact with a protective sleeve.

What are the prices like for 8 Elm? I recently got some 120 C41 developed at Elpro (at Elm and Yonge, just across the street from Aden and next to the Pizza Pizza) for $4 - develop only.

I was impressed with TIW .... the roll was clean, and came in a plastic sleeve. I thought they did a pro job..

Colourgenics replied to my email by the way:

we are still processing c41 negative film 3 days a week (Monday, Wednesday, Friday)

35mm @ $10.00
120 @ $8.00
4x5 @ $5.00

push/pull avaialbe at extra $5.00

Do you know if they develop B&W also and if they do what is the price? Thanks!

TIW does free push.

Downtown will do 1hr service at no extra charge if it's develop only for C41.

I've always liked West Camera...

standard service - they insert the uncut roll in the plastic sleeve... lots of dust on/in the sleeves...

8 Elm sends B&W to TIW.

Unless I'm missing something, Elevator clocks in at an astounding $15 per roll for 120 C-41 processing (4 rolls per run @ $60) according to their website....

If your in the west part of the city, Browns Photograpic Imaging have fair pricing and very clean professional. They're on 5035 Timberlea Blvd. Unit 4. Mississauga.

I've never run C41 with them so I'm not sure, but B&W is something like $40-45. Yes, they are expensive, but they do one shot chemistry and you can customize the type of chemistry used. I use them when processing negs that I can't risk - ie spent thousands of dollars on a trip shooting free film - why risk processing to save a few dollars.

For the hobbiest/weekend warrior it's probably too expensive but if you're working on a project then it's well worth the extra expense.

I paid $2/roll for C41 35mm development @ Eight Elm. Negs come back sleeved/uncut. I did notice some fine scratches in one of the rolls though, but nothing that came through on a scan (when using Digital ICE).

Rephrase that to "West OF the city" in the GTA.

I have mixed results with Brown's as on several occasions my negs have been pretty dirty and my proofs on two occasions had to be redone. I Though you cannot beat the price and quick turnaround. It is also nice to still see the little "Mom and Pops" labs still around. I sometimes think you get what you paid for.

I put a roll into Vistek yesterday, and pick it up today. Should be interesting to see how their service works. The downside is that they only do C41, but that's not all bad,.

Pikto also does developing, a bit pricey the one time I did it there it was fine no problems.

I don't think Pikto does any of their developing in house -- maybe just 35mm

I know they do 35mm in house because I asked them other then that I'm not sure.

As film gets less and less prevalent it doesn't surprise me that it will get more and more expensive.

I rarely shoot colour neg or slide anymore but on occasion I do. The last roll of C41 (Ektar) I had done by Downtown came back good but I wasn't that impressed with the colours out of that roll.

I, like Ken, found that TIW did leave negs dirty/dusty - that's been my most recent experience but I stopped using them for B&W some time ago - only going to them when absolutely necessary about 2 years ago now.

I process my own B&W at home and that's usually what I shoot in either 120 or 35mm.

I haven't tried anywhere else - Henry's sends their stuff out (or they used to) and I don't know what Vistek does and I've had horrible experiences with any WalMart or Costco that I've ever used (for 35mm that is).

The only thing recently that's impressed me film wise was Sensia because it was a) cheap ($5 per roll) and b) the results were very good - only drawback is it's only 35mm to the best of my knowledge.

Cheers,
Dave

That's a great price for me because I work just around the corner from them. It'll be quite convenient. I'm going to bring a roll or two of 120 to 8 elm hopefully tomorrow to see what their 120 C41 processing is like. I'm hoping that they will be my regular guys to go to for C41 in general.

Currently, I take it to downtown just because they're my regular guys for most other things.

Apart from the initial cost of getting some equipment, DIY B&W is fun and cheap, and so I would suggest others do it too if they don't already (This coming from a total beginner.)

I would estimate about ~$100 to get started in B+W processing if you go all new. A LOT less if you find used online... and then there's cheaping out with some of the mixing equipment.

... but then, that's another topic. Maybe that B+W Darkroom session thread

Hummm, maybe it's time I sell off my darkroom gear.