# 120 Film recommendations? Development lab recommendations? To be shot Pinhole.



## cayenne (Aug 21, 2019)

Hello all,

I ended up getting and receiving one of the ONDU 3 pinhole cameras, 6x12 Multi-format ones.

I've been looking at what films to try....thinking B&W first.

Does anyone have recommendations?

I've read you should get decently fast film, due to potential long exposure times.

Looking at maybe:

ILFORD Film, maybe the Delta 400 Film 
or maybe:
Kodak Tri-X 400

And even for color I think the Kodak Portra films?

anyway, can someone give me a recommendation on where to start please?

Also, while I think eventually I'd like to try to do my own developing, while I'm trying out exposures and taking notes to compare, I'd like to use a lab to develop and take that variable out of the equation.

Can someone recommend a good lab to develop my 120 film?

I'm thinking I"ll try my hand at scanning them myself, but would like recommendations on where to send them to be developed.

Thank you all in advance!!

Cayenne


----------



## Graphic.Artifacts (Aug 21, 2019)

You can't go wrong with Tri-X in my opinion. It has very wide exposure latitude, can easily be pushed and pulled, has a very pronounced "film-grain" look even when scanned and can be developed by almost any lab. I've never used the Delta 400 but it has a good reputation for a fine grained B&W film. Delta 400 is similar to Kodak's TMAX which I have used quite a lot. In my opinion those T-grain type films are best used for images where you want to preserve a lot of detail.

The Ilford equivalent to Tri-X is their Hp5 which is also really nice. If I were shooting with a pinhole I'd probably be using either Tri-X or HP5.


----------



## cayenne (Aug 21, 2019)

Graphic.Artifacts said:


> You can't go wrong with Tri-X in my opinion. It has very wide exposure latitude, can easily be pushed and pulled, has a very pronounced "film-grain" look even when scanned and can be developed by almost any lab. I've never used the Delta 400 but it has a good reputation for a fine grained B&W film. Delta 400 is similar to Kodak's TMAX which I have used quite a lot. In my opinion those T-grain type films are best used for images where you want to preserve a lot of detail.
> 
> The Ilford equivalent to Tri-X is their Hp5 which is also really nice. If I were shooting with a pinhole I'd probably be using either Tri-X or HP5.



Oh my, THANK YOU for the info and advice!!

Any labs out there for developing that you could recommend?

Again, much appreciated!!

C


----------



## Graphic.Artifacts (Aug 21, 2019)

Can't really help on the lab. I live in a big metro area and there are a couple local labs with counter service that can handle film processing. My advice would be to find a local lab if you can. It's nice to be able to talk to a person if you have a question and local labs can definitely use the support. 120 film processing shouldn't be too hard to find.


----------



## cayenne (Aug 22, 2019)

Graphic.Artifacts said:


> Can't really help on the lab. I live in a big metro area and there are a couple local labs with counter service that can handle film processing. My advice would be to find a local lab if you can. It's nice to be able to talk to a person if you have a question and local labs can definitely use the support. 120 film processing shouldn't be too hard to find.



Ok thank you.
I did call one of the larger camera and print shops locally. She said they did handle 120 film, but sent it off, and was $20/roll to develop.
:O

And that it would take a month to get back. So, guessing that's not the best deal. I'm still looking, but haven't found exactly a 'local lab'....I live in the New Orleans area.

So at this point, guess I"m looking for online labs to send to like in my old 35mm days I did in college for snapshots for the family.

Anyway, THANK you for your replies.....

Anyone else out there know of good film labs to work with?

cayenne


----------



## Graphic.Artifacts (Aug 22, 2019)

Surprised there isn't a film lab in a town with as many creatives as NOLA. All those hipster shops along Magazine and nobody catering to film users? Seems like an opening for the right entrepreneur. 

Wish I could help on mail in labs. Fair price for a roll of "process only" 120 film at a better quality lab should be around $10 and they should turn it around in 24-48 hours. Processing 120 B&W film is pretty easy and you don't really need a darkroom (if you can work in a light proof bag) but in my opinion it's worth $10 to have someone else do it.


----------



## stevelee (Aug 22, 2019)

According to this article, Bennett's Photo in Metairie is the last film developer in Louisiana.


----------



## Graphic.Artifacts (Aug 23, 2019)

stevelee said:


> According to this article, Bennett's Photo in Metairie is the last film developer in Louisiana.


Good find! Looks like a winner. I'd give them a try. $7 for a roll of 120 is very fair and it sounds like they hand develop each roll.


----------



## stevelee (Aug 23, 2019)

Graphic.Artifacts said:


> Good find! Looks like a winner. I'd give them a try. $7 for a roll of 120 is very fair and it sounds like they hand develop each roll.


Great. I hope it works out for you. Let us know. And post some pictures. I'd like to see how the pinhole shots look.


----------



## cayenne (Aug 23, 2019)

stevelee said:


> According to this article, Bennett's Photo in Metairie is the last film developer in Louisiana.



D'oh!!! Thanks, I'd forgotten about them....I'd called Lakeside Photography that's over there, but didn't think about Bennet's!!

Thank you, I'll give them a look for developing!!

I went ahead and ordered 5 rolls of the ILFORD Delta 400 and 5 rolls of the Kodak Tri-X 400 from B&H....was like $6-$7 a roll I think, should be here by Tues and considering we're getting heavy rain here all weekend, that will suffice.

Again, thank you for the help, I'm usually good at researching and wow...I dropped the ball on Bennet's.....

C


----------



## AlanF (Aug 23, 2019)

Why don't you develop the film yourself? I did it when I was a kid and it was great fun and dead easy, and would be a nice way to complement the pinhole experience. And, you could make your own contact prints.


----------



## stevelee (Aug 23, 2019)

AlanF said:


> Why don't you develop the film yourself? I did it when I was a kid and it was great fun and dead easy, and would be a nice way to complement the pinhole experience. And, you could make your own contact prints.


When I was a kid, my uncle gave me his old box camera, a Kodak Brownie, I think, of some size like 616 film. I bought a plastic device for developing the film. It had a little knob on top that would spin the film to agitate in the chemicals. Just as with the developing canisters I bought for 35mm years later, you loaded the film into it in the dark, and then back in the light could pour chemicals in and out. I also bought small developing trays and a holder to make contact prints. The contact printing paper made gorgeous prints. The pictures were more postcard size, but the look was as good or better than anything I ever got out of enlarger paper. I still have some of the prints. They still look great.

But these days, if I were just going to scan in the negatives and I had a lab nearby, I'd gladly pay them $7 a roll. Over a period of almost 50 years, off and on, I had plenty of darkroom fun to hold me, color, black and white, prints, slides, infrared, maskless negatives from slide film, Cibachrome, solarization/Sabatier, etc.


----------



## AlanF (Aug 23, 2019)

stevelee said:


> When I was a kid, my uncle gave me his old box camera, a Kodak Brownie, I think, of some size like 616 film. I bought a plastic device for developing the film. It had a little knob on top that would spin the film to agitate in the chemicals. Just as with the developing canisters I bought for 35mm years later, you loaded the film into it in the dark, and then back in the light could pour chemicals in and out. I also bought small developing trays and a holder to make contact prints. The contact printing paper made gorgeous prints. The pictures were more postcard size, but the look was as good or better than anything I ever got out of enlarger paper. I still have some of the prints. They still look great.
> 
> But these days, if I were just going to scan in the negatives and I had a lab nearby, I'd gladly pay them $7 a roll. Over a period of almost 50 years, off and on, I had plenty of darkroom fun to hold me, color, black and white, prints, slides, infrared, maskless negatives from slide film, Cibachrome, solarization/Sabatier, etc.


That experience changed your life, didn't it! Those postcard sized contacts were gorgeous.


----------



## stevelee (Aug 23, 2019)

AlanF said:


> That experience changed your life, didn't it! Those postcard sized contacts were gorgeous.


It certainly did, in more ways than is obvious in these messages. And the look of those prints gave me something to aspire to in my darkroom work and could well still influence me today in Photoshop and in making black and white prints on my Epson that has shades of gray among its nine inks.


----------



## cayenne (Aug 24, 2019)

AlanF said:


> Why don't you develop the film yourself? I did it when I was a kid and it was great fun and dead easy, and would be a nice way to complement the pinhole experience. And, you could make your own contact prints.




That is the eventual plan if I find this to be a fun new avenue to pursue in earnest.

I've even seen YouTube videos out there with people developing with household substances like coffee, etc....which might produce some fun results.

I did find that the local place here, Bennet's Photo in the Metairie, LA area still does film....they're closed this weekend, but have emailed them to ask the particulars.

My film should be in here for B&H by Tuesday, so with decent weather, I hope to do some shooting this coming weekend.

C


----------



## stevelee (Aug 24, 2019)

cayenne said:


> That is the eventual plan if I find this to be a fun new avenue to pursue in earnest.
> 
> I've even seen YouTube videos out there with people developing with household substances like coffee, etc....which might produce some fun results.
> 
> ...


Let us see some of the results, please.

If you get serious about this, try to get your hands on some of Ansel Adams’ books. They could help you with concepts relevant to digital photography also, and Raw conversions.


----------



## cayenne (Aug 24, 2019)

stevelee said:


> Let us see some of the results, please.
> 
> If you get serious about this, try to get your hands on some of Ansel Adams’ books. They could help you with concepts relevant to digital photography also, and Raw conversions.



Will do!!
Oh good idea on the books. Do you have any in particular you could recommend?

C


----------



## stevelee (Aug 24, 2019)

cayenne said:


> Will do!!
> Oh good idea on the books. Do you have any in particular you could recommend?
> 
> C


The Negative and The Print are the two most relevant volumes to this discussion. Other people have done updates on his Zone System for the digital age, with varying results.


----------

