Toronto Photography Meetup Group

Has anybody tried Silvano's? There still offering cross processing and film pushing according to the website.

no, haven't tried them.... they are a bit out of the way for me. I got back the roll from Vistek -- good results. clean, no dust, and came in a sleeve. I might use them again. But for slide processing, TIW is still the cheapest.

I believe Henry's use Silvano's, at least they did a year ago and at that time had been using them for at least 6 months.

I have had two rolls done by Silvano's. One roll of colour negs and one roll of Velvia. The negs that came back were crap. I suspect push processing and I did not ask for it and dark spots (thats on the neg, the spots printed light) all over the place. The slides however were beautiful, but alas they were not my slides, don't know who got mine.

That being said, I think everyone here has a least one story of bad results from at least one of the film processers being discussed here. I doubt if anyone of them have never screwed up. Of course the non pro labs screw up the most often. I should note that with Silvano's the screw ups with the films was separated by about six months. What are the odds of that.

So far, I like Downtown Camera for processing either E6 or C41, but E6 is pricey now with the raise.

Toronto Image Works is the best price for both, and the results for me were fine.

Vistek processes C41 only, and they did a nice job, and price is decent.

I need to give Eight Elm a tryout. I have a few rolls that I can bring to them, as I just finished off a couple more rolls this weekend.

Jeez... I've been shooting a lot of film lately.

I dropped by 8 elm the other day and asked about 120 C41. He told me that they don't do it in house and send it out instead. Essentially it's next day service. It's $10 for develop+scan which is roughly the same price that I get from downtown. I didn't ask about multi-roll pricing though.

I'll stick with Downtown for now because they can get it back to me on the same day. I usually drop it off at lunch and pick it up after work. So far they've done a decent job for my casual needs.

I was in Downtown @ lunch to snag some Sensia 200 ($5 for 36 - expired in Jan.. still good though) and to see if my 120 roll of Provia 400 was ready (dropped off yesterday @ 5:15pm).

The roll wasn't ready yet but then again, I asked for 24 hour turnaround not 2 hour

Pricing for them for 120 is as follows:
2 hour - $11.49
24 hour - $8.49

220 (if you can get it or if you shoot it) is as follows:
2 hour - $18.49
24 hour - $15.49

Of course, if you get some sort of discount with them, that's not applied to these prices - this is what they publish.

Cheers,
Dave

Costco Scarborough has discontinued their film processing services. NOOOOOO! I use them for cheap 35mm process + scan.

I'm interested in developing my own B&W, and picked up a used Patterson System 4 tank and other darkroom bits and pieces already. I also bought a few cheap rolls of film off eBay (Shanghai 100iso), and now I'm wondering about chemicals. The auction listed times and temperatures for D76, D23, or Rodinol. Which would be a good "starter" developer to learn on? What about fixers? I've also read about Caffenol which seems more environmentally friendly to dump down the drain, although I'm not sure if I should use homebrew formulas on my first roll... Any recommendations from you film people?? Thanks.

First off, I'd say start a new thread...

I started out with a scale and some D76 one-shot development -- most literature will tell you not to do that, however anecdotal evidence (including some members of this group) will also say this is not a problem. I have since switched to HC110 and a baby syringe to satisfy the chemists (http://www.covingtoninnovations.com/hc110/). I also have a pack of Microphen I'd like to try.

Most developers are safe to pour down the drain.

I don't think there is too much variation in fixers. That's the stuff you don't want to pour down the drain.

Been shooting B+W film for just over a year now, and just started my third roll of film... and by roll I mean 100' bulk roll