Developing & Digitizing Service.

[RustBeltRaw]

I've had a few run-ins with anti-digital elitists lately, and I've gotten fed up enough to do something about it. So I busted out my Canon A1 and borrowed my dad's 120-format Zenza Bronica, ordered a few rolls of Ilford Delta ASA3200 film to shoot roller derby this season. Syncing them with a modern flash system is somewhat confusing, and I suspect I'll burn a few rolls getting it right, but it's an interesting challenge.

However, I'm having trouble determining which processor to use. Naturally, there's a smorgasbord on the Internet, making it hard to separate the wheat from the chaff. Ilford 3200 is not terribly common, so I want to find someone who can develop it, and preferably do high-res scans without oddball editing. Can anyone recommend a developer and/or scanning service?

[Polar01]

Lex say it is not so, your solution is to join them? One thing to ask these anti-digital elitists is are they still working in the darkroom with all the chemicals and solutions, then printing or are they sending their images out to be developed, than DIGITALLY scanner, so then they can DIGITALLY work on them, then send the DIGITAL files to a printer to be printed.
I know 2 or 3 shooter who still at times shot medium format film (4x5), sent it to a lab, then scanned, then they use a digital program to finish the image. One thing shooting 4X5 film is a lot less expensive than using a Phase one at a cost of $40,000.00.
As for your second part on getting someone to do the scans and that, can't help you there mate.

Cheers:

Allan

[RustBeltRaw]

Lex say it is not so, your solution is to join them?

Don't worry, I'm not putting away my DSLR. I'm basically looking for something different, and settling a score while I'm at it. Most of the people championing this film-above-all viewpoint are fine art photographers, only a few of whom are making a living with their work. I fully intend to return to the "heathen" land of ones and zeroes after this little experiment.

[Ady]

Hi Lex,

I'm afraid I can't help with your question about film processing but I thought you might be interested in hearing my most bizarre interaction with an anti-digital/pro-film elitist.

Each year I produce a calendar of images of the West Penwith area of Cornwall. A couple of years ago I was talking to a film based photographer who'd seen one of my calendars and he commented on the quality of the images and told me I must be using film because 'you can't take photographs like that with a digital camera'. When I explained that I had in fact taken all the shots using a digital SLR he confidently soldiered on with his misconception and informed me that I must be mistaken. Despite assurances that I don't even own a film camera he wandered off quite content that it was me that was confused.

So I wish you luck in your experiment and hope you do better than I have at convincing the anti-digital folks that film is not the only way to high quality results.

Cheers,
Ady