the unofficial Cosina-Voigtlander User Community

Yes - over $20/roll actually and that is in Canadian dollars, which are much closer to the US dollar now. I guess its one of the drawbacks of living in a small town that is in a relatively isolated area far away from anything. I have two choices for processing locally, the local pro shop that charges over $20 a roll or a national camera store chain that charges the same price. Both of these places send the film to a lab in Toronto for processing and turn around time is about two weeks. The last time I developed a roll of FP4+, it cost me about $26 CDN after factoring in the taxes. Since I scan the negatives onto my computer, I don&#039;t really care for prints but there is no option for me just to get the film developed without prints. The lab does a good job with the prints and the prints are of much higher quality than anything I&#039;ve ever got printed locally. C41 films are dirt cheap to process in comparison and that&#039;s the main reason why I use them.&nbsp; I think I never spent more than $5/roll for processing C41. I struck up a deal with a nearby supermarket and they&#039;ll just process the film for me with no prints for a bit over $2 a roll and its usually done within a few hours. For your information, processing for color-slide film is over $20 a roll too if I get the slides mounted. <br /><br />The prices in Toronto are much more reasonable. A big camera shop in Toronto called Vistek lists $5.99 per roll (135 or 120 film) for B&amp;W&nbsp; for processing (with no prints). $11.99 for processing and mounting slides. Both with a 1 day turn-around time. Unfortunately, I think that their services are only available to the locals. I have not looked into the possibility of getting pre-paid mailers. I have to do some research on it as I have no idea of what the costs are like. I&#039;m not even sure if Canadians can take advantage of pre-paid mailers.<br /><br />Another disadvantage for me is that the Digital Ice feature on my scanner doesn&#039;t work with B&amp;W films. Using this feature really saves a lot of time in photoshop as most of the scratches and dust particles are automatically removed by the scanner.<br /><br />I&#039;m going to set up a darkroom in the summer after I get back from a trip to Portugal. Once I learn how to develop and make my own prints, I&#039;ll start buying B&amp;W film again. I hope that I&#039;ll like working in the darkroom. I think that I might try medium format too at that time, perhaps starting with a nice Voigtlander folder or a basic Hassy kit to test the waters.<br /><br />I recently borrowed some MF equipment from a friend just to try it out. Guess how much processing cost me. About $36 per roll of 120mm and thats for the cheapest prints.

You don&#039;t need a darkroom for developing your film. I&#039;m using 2 old Agfa Rodinax tanks. You just loed the film like loading a camera, close the lit and when the film is rolled up in the rodinax tank, ad the chemicals to develop the film. All in &quot;plain&quot; daylight.

Agfa APX 100, while my stock lasts, developed in Xtol.&nbsp; Plus-X or TMax otherwise.&nbsp; E100G when I&#039;m in the mood for color.

Bert,<br /><br />That&#039;s good to know. Shows how much of a beginer I am.

I&#039;m saving up exposed rolls of Neopan 1600/400, to develop together in my Honeywell Nikor developing tank, which holds eight rolls at a time.&nbsp; So far I have five rolls ready to load, and there&#039;s more Presto in two Bessa bodies.&nbsp; I&#039;m going to try using some Paterson Acutol at 1:19.&nbsp; I&#039;m shooting my test Neopan 1600 at 640, and my Neopan 400 at 250.&nbsp; I like shadow detail. <br /><br />

QUOTE:
<br />....... I&#039;m shooting my test Neopan 1600 at 640, and my Neopan 400 at 250.&nbsp; I like shadow detail. <br />

<br /><br />I&#039;d like to see a pic using that technique posted. Wouldn&#039;t 1600 pulled down to 640 be just as grainy? ( curious newbie )