Developing old 35mm film

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  Duff5000 on 19/07/2013 - 15:42

  I got some old ones done. Probably up to 15 years old and kept in a room that got really hot in summer. I just had them run the film through so i could see if anything was on it (so no prints). I think most labs have the ability to scan as well. I didnt bother as i have access to a film scanner and i really wasnt sure if anything would come out.
  As it turns out they seemed to come out fine despite the storage conditions being really really crap. This was done at one of the few remaining shops that handle film in Mentone (VIC)

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  battler on 19/07/2013 - 15:44

  fair list here of sydney shops:
  http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/2078902
  (yes the post is about buying 35mm, but does cover processing it in sufficient depth)

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  _Bruce_ on 19/07/2013 - 15:48

  Having got a photography shop to scan negatives in the past (before they closed down) my advice is - don't. Most places will give you very poor scans. You can do it yourself for less if you buy a scanner and have a lot of time on your hands. Otherwise there are specialist places you can send negatives to.

  Of course this all depends on your expectations.

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    MissLouise on 19/07/2013 - 22:16

    Bruce, I know you were responding to a previous comment about scanning the negatives yourself, but for those who perhaps don't know, I just want to add that the film needs to be developed first before you can scan the negatives. If you remove the film from an un-developed roll, the images will be destroyed due to exposure.

    I used to work in a photography shop and people used to bring in exposed rolls and ask us if we could do anything about them! (We couldn't) It happened quite often! (Then digital cameras became popular and we got rid of the processing lab).

    Many photography shops will 'develop only' your roll of film so you will receive a set of negatives, but no prints. We charged $5.00.

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      nige0090 on 19/07/2013 - 23:52

      I think I need Develop & Scan to CD only. No point printing anything until I see what has survived.

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      _Bruce_ on 20/07/2013 - 07:25

      Yes thanks for the clarification. I have never had an issue with developing, but scanning can be very poor.

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  nige0090 on 19/07/2013 - 16:19

  Thanks, but it will take a bit of time to go through that whirlpool list. Most of those places don't develop, or if they do they make it very hard to find their prices.
  Does anyone have any recommendations of places they have personally used?

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  cpho on 19/07/2013 - 19:24

  My parents own a photoshop in Adelaide so obviously I can't help you there.
  But, considering your films are very very old, I wouldn't expect too much from them. The film would've degraded so much that the colours won't be any good. Today I saw a film which was about 5 years old, and it had just about lost all contrast and was very washed out. Who knows what 20 years will turn out as.
  Just find somewhere cheapish, and test 1 roll, and make sure that there's no silver retention. Some places like Diamonds don't do very much film, and they don't know how to maintain equipment and will ruin your film.

  There's a place in Fairfield I think called ColourTech which still does film. As well as ColourLine in Marylands. Both these places have well serviced machines but I'm not sure about cost.

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    retiredfeline on 20/07/2013 - 00:21

    However in your example, the washed out colours are due the dyes fading. The dyes are only introduced during the development process. Until then, the image is held in the silver halide layers, not any dye.

    And even for developed slides, it depends on the quality of the storage. I recently scanned in slides from 20 years ago, and they survived remarkably well.

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      cpho on 20/07/2013 - 00:56

      No, that's not true. Actually the opposite. Once a film's been processed, (if the machine is any decent,) the film will retain image quality and colour for many many years. My parents recently reprinted an old picture after the current one started to fade. The new print is as good as.. well.. new.

      The film will lose quality after so many years. When it rolls through the machine, the chemicals wont properly develop the pictures. This causes the washed out effect and loss of colour.

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        retiredfeline on 20/07/2013 - 01:11

        Your negatives were stored well, that's why new prints were good. But dyes in colour negatives and colour slides will fade if not stored properly. Also you have to take into account that printers do some automatic colour compensation even if the negatives have shifted in colour over time. With slides you are viewing the original and any changes there are visible. I have some slides that have gone bad due to poor storage. On the other hand B+W negatives don't fade but I have some that have warped due to the emulsion suffering from poor storage even though the image was good. That happens too with colour film.

        As for exposed but undeveloped film which the OP has a lot depends. We don't have many cases of this happening and there is no control over the storage condition so it's very hard to say.

        There is a third case and that is unexposed film. This I know goes bad. Years ago I tried using some past by use date slide film. The colour balance was bad and it was a waste of development cost.

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    [Deactivated] on 20/07/2013 - 19:49

    I developed some 35mm film several months ago, that was several years old. The prints look fine - and that was just done at BigW. And the uninsulated, uncarpeted house we lived in was either an oven or a freezer most of the year.

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  retiredfeline on 20/07/2013 - 00:18

  I read of a case where an exposed roll of film wasn't developed for 26 years and images were recovered after developing, and the person in the photo had died in the meantime. However this was B+W film. I have no idea how well colour film would keep a latent image. So yes, try developing one roll before you go any further.

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  tonester on 20/07/2013 - 01:31

  http://www.visionimagelab.com.au are apparently (one of) the best in sydney

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    nige0090 on 20/07/2013 - 19:25

    Thanks. Looks like what I need. Their list of services looks good.