Kirk Gunn

Cheapest way to get ~10 rolls of film developed....

My wife was "cleaning house" and suddenly plopped a bag of undeveloped 35mm film in my lap. Most are 24 or 36 exposures, along with 2 disposable cameras.

I'm a member of Costco, so that may be the cheapest way to go, but wanted to probe the membership to see if perhaps a mail order outfit might less expensive ? No real urgency to complete this order.

Thanks for any comments !

Jeff Gatie

Request development of the film to negative only. Then spend $2 on a cheap photo loupe and view the negs through that. It would be cheaper and would let you know what you have on the film without spending the money for prints. If you like what you see, have them scanned to a CD and print your own. Otherwise, there are plenty of film developers on the web. Some reputable, some not (a lot of mail order/internet developers specialize in stuff you would be embarrassed to have the clerk at the local Costco looking at). Note that going this route (negs only) will cost more for prints if you do want them all printed, unless you do it yourself from the CD.

Todd Christ

signup under lots of online photo developers (i.e. snapfish.com) with separate email accounts, each account usually gets one free roll processed

AjayM

I don't know how you print at home, but that is generally the most expensive way to go. Printing typically will cost around .30-.50 a print depending on your printer (that's not accounting for the wear and tear on the printer).

Cheap developing and 4x6 prints can run around .10/print if you do 20 rolls, cheaper if you do more (prices from snapfish). There's just no way between ink and paper you can touch that.

If you think some of the shots aren't worth printing, instead of just doing negatives and a lupe (which is an option, but it's hard to make out shot quality with a negative), get them to print a contact sheet. Then pick out what you want printed in the end. If you end up printing most/all of the prints it will cost more, but contact sheets can be a lifesaver (and wallet saver) if you only want to print a handful out of the roll.

Andrew

Kirk Gunn

Thnx folks - I just dropped all 21 rolls off at Costco after a "Men are from Mars" moment with my wife. Ended up that after sitting in a drawer for months/years, she really needed them developed by next week....

Should cost about 60 bucks or so.