Old undeveloped B+W

I stand corrected about Jessops, MMc – thank you. But I have had irreplacable films wrecked by High Street shops, unfortunately. And it has to be said I did wonder if anyone would misunderstand what I meant about ‘specialist’ processing; I actually amended my reply to Ivan about 4 times before I sent it ( obviously didn’t work ! ).:o

Yes, the term “Glamour” is wide reaching !! 🙂

Apropos of high-street processing, you are right – you have to pick carefully or your pics will just be be batch processed along with holiday snaps.

However, bulk batch processing allows for cheap prices – i have worked on both sides bulk processing (Kodasnaps) and in several professional laboritories. The price increase from a pro lab buys you more technician time which in turn buys you more care and attention.

You do find that many of the high-street outlets do have the facility to send films to a pro-lab, but they dont unfortunatly always advertise this very prominently

I stand corrected about Jessops, MMc – thank you. But I have had irreplacable films wrecked by High Street shops, unfortunately. And it has to be said I did wonder if anyone would misunderstand what I meant about ‘specialist’ processing; I actually amended my reply to Ivan about 4 times before I sent it ( obviously didn’t work ! ).:o

Ivan
I’ve nothing against Jessops, but they’re probably (as a high street chain) not geared up to handle an ‘oddball’ task like this, although I may be wrong. Suggest you buy a good photo mag and ring round the specialist processing labs that advertise therein. You shouldn’t have to travel too far in your part of the country to get to a decent outfit, and it’s better to be safe than sorry!

I think you are being a little unfair to good old Jessops – they offer many professional services ex store like B&W and large format processing , not just in-store Develop and print – i wouldnt have any hesitation in taking an old film like yours into one of their stores, as long as you explain the situation properley to them.

BTW if you do look at the ads in Photo magazines, dont confuse “Specialist Processing” services with a specialist lab – if you see what i mean !! 🙂

Many thanks chaps. Think I’ll take it into Jessops when I get chance. I’ll let you know the results. Thanks for the advice Michael. Much appreciated.

Ivan

Ivan
I’ve nothing against Jessops, but they’re probably (as a high street chain) not geared up to handle an ‘oddball’ task like this, although I may be wrong. Suggest you buy a good photo mag and ring round the specialist processing labs that advertise therein. You shouldn’t have to travel too far in your part of the country to get to a decent outfit, and it’s better to be safe than sorry!

Many thanks chaps. Think I’ll take it into Jessops when I get chance. I’ll let you know the results. Thanks for the advice Michael. Much appreciated.

Ivan

Hi there, first post on this particular forum (I think?!)
I have unearthed, deep within the bowels of our store cupboard in a rather musty old tent, an undeveloped roll of b+w film (ilford FP4/125 to be exact) it has got to have been there for at least 9/10 years. I think it has legends and a few arty shots of my niece and nephew from my rather dusty memory. Do you think it would be worth having it developed, or will it have degraded too much after this time?
Thanks
Ivan

Definately have it developed – it may well be in perfect nick !!

I worked as a film processing technicion for Kodak (and Kodasnaps) for over 10 years when i left college and saw dozens of films bought in for processing having been discovered after many years. The two factors wich may affect it are temperature and humidity – if it has been cool and dry within the packaging it could be in perfect shape.

The best i saw was a roll of 40 year old Kodak film which needed sending off to the europoean research labs as nobody recognised it and wasnt sure whether it was C41 process or not !! – it turned out pretty well.

I would mention its age to the lab before they process it and if you ask nicely, they will extract the film leader in the darkroom first and snip it off to then inspect the quality of the emulsion prior to processing it. They will thank you for being honest with them as :…

1) they can tell you if its gone mouldy or dry before processing it and…

2) so they dont write off a whole tankfull of chemistry by putting a mouldy / dry film thru.

3) so they will air-dry it gently after processing rather than putting it thru a hot blower.

**** definately take it to a professional lab (this might be your only choice nowadays with B/W) as they will be enthusiastic, sympathetic and handle it carefully ****

Have them developed! Definately! I took these shots when I was around 13-14 years old (13-odd years ago) but the film was sat for something like 4 or 5 years before being developed. At first I thought my shots were ruined by the deterioration of the film, but it’s only now I can appreciate the effect and actually quite like it. I’m so glad I didn’t throw them away!

I’d imagine black and white film would probably deteriorate in a similar way, so who knows what weird and wonderful effects you may find. It may not be to everyone’s taste and I’m sure many would still consider their images ruined, but I’d say it’s definately worth a go. 🙂

Paul