Film Development

We offer film development for the following film formats: 35mm (including half-frame and  disposable cameras) 120 / 110 / 126 / 127 / 220

4x5” large format developing coming soon

Unfortunately we are unable to develop APS format, subminiature (8mm) films or super 8 movie cartridges. However we can develop every type of film on the market today! This includes the following process types:

C41 (Colour Negative)

ECN-2 (Motion picture colour negative with remjet layer)

E6 (Colour transparency / slide film)

Black & White negative (in a range of different film developer chemistries)

Black & White transparencies / slides (e.g. Adox Scala 50 / Fomapan R100)

Scanning

We offer scanning of your films with the fantastic colour and tone of the industry standard Noritsu HS-1800 for 35mm / 120

or the incredible high-resolution Hasselblad Flextight X5 for scans of all formats from 110 up to large format 4x5.

You can order scans of previously developed films, as well as request scans as part of a processing package.

Printing

We offer high quality giclée prints in standard photographic sizes on our 

Epson SureLab D800 and wide-format up to 17 inch prints on the 

Epson Surecolor P800 with Ultrachrome archival pigment inks

We offer a variety of high quality professional paper finishes, including Gloss and Lustre

We offer FREE tracked shipping of your films into our lab: simply head here to follow the instructions!

We keep a regularly page with our current turnarounds on all our different processes: you can find it here

We can, but bear in mind that results may vary depending on the age of the film and storage conditions over the years. Black and white negative films and C41 colour films have the best chance of providing salvageable images, but expect increased grain and colour shifts.

We have salvaged surprisingly good images from 50-year old Kodak Verichrome Pan films!

In our experience, expired E6 (colour transparency / slide) film is more variable in results, as it is much more sensitive to ageing compared to negative film. 

Expect at a minimum for the film to have shifted in colour (usually to pink or blue) - but in some cases the film will be too fogged with age to capture images - in slide film this will manifest as an almost clear strip of film, as the film lightens with more exposure or age related background fogging.  We find that old Kodak E6 films from the 1980s and 1990s are particularly prone to this problem, and do not recommend using them.

We cannot develop the following very old film types, as the chemistry to do so can no longer be sourced:

Kodachrome / Agfa CT-18 or CT-21/ Agfachrome 50S or 64 / Agfa Dia-direct / 1960s slide films labelled E-2,E-3 or E-4 / Kodacolor-X / C-22 colour negative

We do not recommend push processing expired films, as it increases the background fog; making things worse in many cases.

Yes we can - choose the correct chemistry from our processing packages (they tend to be C-41 or B&W) and select the scan and print options as normal!

This is always a disappointment when this happens - usually this is caused by the film not taking up correctly in camera when loaded, or a problem with your camera. 

We will send you an image of the blank negatives on the lightbox to help with diagnosing the error.

If you have ordered a develop and scan or develop and print package, we will refund you the full cost of the scanning and/or printing. Unfortunately as we have had to use the chemistry to develop the film, we are unable to refund the cost of development.

Please note that 'Standard' size at SilverPan is often the 'Large' or 'Huge' version of files at other labs - for all formats other than 35mm it is the highest resolution possible on the Noritsu and we have the (even better) Flextight resolution as our version of 'Large'. This means that all of our scans will be sufficient for displaying and printing up to 10x8" - and the 'Large' ones can go even bigger.

The specific size of your scanned images will depend on the format of the film and the scanner chosen. The 220 sizes are the same as the 120. Please see a summary table here

The Noritsu HS-1800 is a professional lab scanner designed for 35mm and 120 film. It produces excellent quality scans with a consistent and pleasing neutral colour balance and a good tonal range. B&W scans have plenty of punch and good micro contrast. Due to the speed and consistency, almost all professional labs today use a Noritsu or its close counterpart the Frontier.

The Hasselblad Flextight X5 is the 'Rolls-Royce' of the scanning world, using a patented virtual drum system to get every detail and nuance out of your film. You will be amazed at the detail available in a hi-res scan from this machine. A much more time consuming and hands-on approach to scanning is required, however, hence the higher cost per scan. 

At SilverPan each and every image is individually colour graded and fine tuned by our experienced professionals via adjustments made on the scanner itself and later in dedicated software including Photoshop. Nothing is left to chance on ‘Auto’ here!

Black and white images are carefully spotted in photoshop to remove any stray speck of dust which can occasionally occur even with scrupulous anti-static dust precautions.

We feel that this approach provides you with a true representation of what is present on the negative, which is judged by eye; as opposed to allowing automated scanning software to artificially enhance or brighten under-exposed negatives for example (which often results in increased grain in shadow areas and colour shifts)

Of course all art is subjective, and we cannot always know what your final vision is for your images!

We will by default aim for a neutral colour and contrast, but if you have specific requirements (higher/lower saturation, cooler/warmer colour balance, flatter or stronger contrast for example) we are more than happy to accommodate, just let us know when you place your order, or drop us a message to discuss.

Unfortunately we cannot as our professional machines crop out this area of the negative by design.

'3F' or 'fff' files are a proprietary raw file format created when scanning with the Flextight machine.

These files can be used natively in Hasselblad's Flexcolor software, but cannot be used in any other editing software.

Unfortunately, Hasselblad has removed future support for this software, and as a result it no longer works on 64-bit versions of Mac OS. Windows 10 is the last PC version which will work.

To avoid confusion and disappointment to those unfamiliar with this, we have removed this option from our ordering page.

However, if you are an existing Flexcolor user with the software installed, and you require these files, please get in touch with us, as we will be able to supply you with these files if required.