I have had this happen several times, for differing reasons - can't handle
the size (120 or 4x5), the film type (Kodachrome!), the film canister (250
magazine). Frustrating, isn't it??!!? I once read that 850f all the film
shot world-wide is 35mm color negative, process C-41, in P&S cameras. It is
no surprise as processing becomes more market focused and totally
"hands-free" automated, that unless your film type and processing needs fit
the norm, you are out of luck. Your choices get reduced to paying a premium
for non-standard processing (and long delays) or doing it yourself.
As Shawn has already mentioned, processing film at home is easy and cheap,
especially B&W. You can push or pull the development, control contrast by
changing the agitation method, whatever you need. You can even make B&W
contact sheets fairly easily in a bathroom setup. Much more and life gets
complicated without a real darkroom, but you'd be surprised. :)
For color, the only trick is the temperature control. A cheap styrofoam
cooler, a few cement bricks and an aquarium heater solve that problem rather
neatly. It just takes a little planning to heat the water bath a day or so
ahead of time. The cement bricks help keep the temperature steady since
they are _much_ slower to give up heat than water. They smooth out the
variations of dipping the tank and bottles in and out of the bath. Works
just fine for C-41 or E-6.
John P
______________________________________
there is no "never" - just long periods of "not yet".
there is no "always" - just long periods of "so far"
BILL F BROOKS <brookswf@xxxxxxxx> lamented:
>Has anyone ever had film sent back to them undeveloped because the lab
>*couldn't* develop it? I just had a roll of Tri-X that I wanted pushed
>to 1600 ISO returned with a nice little note saying they couldn't push
>process it. They have pushed film for me in the past, but perhaps are
>now totally automated and use the DX coding exclusively...I guess it's
>time to find another lab...
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