Have located a box of old negatives from early 80's, 70's, 60's, 50's...

[Tiggerlovinggrandma]

and even before that. Most of them are family photos. Some are rather large negatives compared to todays and some are the old strip type. Can they still be devolped? I was wondering whether I can take them to Walgreens and put them in for processing? Would hate to lose them. They are of pictures my family does not have copies of. Hope someone can give me some suggestions.

 

[fhirleighinn]

Any lab SHOULD be able to develop them, but I would suggest that you go to any lab that is not a one hour lab, and does "professional" prints. Any lab like walgreens would have to send them out, and since these may be unreplaceable, I think that keeping them locally would be the best option.

 

[WillCAD]

Just about any place can handle the 35mm negatives, including Walgreens, but for other types you will probably have to go to a full-service photo lab, and maybe even a professional lab. Never hurts to ask, though; Walgreens might have the machinery to print your other types of negatives.

I haven't developed or printed film pics at Walgreens in several years (since I went digital), but I used to get mine developed at the Walgreens stores around WDW all the time. All of the Walgreens photo labs I dealt with dow there had terrific service, nice people, and did an excellent job of developing and printing my pics. If you go to Walgreens for your reprints, I think you'll wind up pleased with the results; just explain in a friendly fashion that the negatives are quite old and pretty irreplaceable, and the lab tech will take good care of them.

For clarification:

a) One-hour labs like Walgreens do not send pics out - they have the machines right there, that's why they can get pics developed in 1 hour. However, most 1-hour labs have machines that can only handle 35mm or APS film and negatives.

b) Negatives are already "developed." What you want is called "reprints." This is usually a bit cheaper than "processing", which includes both developing and printing.

One other recommendation: As soon as you get the prints home, you should scan them at hi-res so that you will have digital copies that you can back up in case the prints and negatives are ever lost. You can also use software like Photoshop Elements and Noise Ninja to clean up the scans and make the digital pics look at least as good as the prints, maybe better.

 

[Tiggerlovinggrandma]

Thanks to both of you and a special thank you to WILLCAD for your detailed explanation. I needed that!! I think I will try Walgreens first as it is the closest to me with just a few of them and see how it goes. Then I will take it from there. If I need to go to a more professional lab for some of them, I will. Also I will definitely back them up like you said too.

Thanks!

 

[Candlepin_Man]

Just about any place can handle the 35mm negatives, including Walgreens, but for other types you will probably have to go to a full-service photo lab, and maybe even a professional lab. Never hurts to ask, though; Walgreens might have the machinery to print your other types of negatives.

I haven't developed or printed film pics at Walgreens in several years (since I went digital), but I used to get mine developed at the Walgreens stores around WDW all the time. All of the Walgreens photo labs I dealt with dow there had terrific service, nice people, and did an excellent job of developing and printing my pics. If you go to Walgreens for your reprints, I think you'll wind up pleased with the results; just explain in a friendly fashion that the negatives are quite old and pretty irreplaceable, and the lab tech will take good care of them.

For clarification:

a) One-hour labs like Walgreens do not send pics out - they have the machines right there, that's why they can get pics developed in 1 hour. However, most 1-hour labs have machines that can only handle 35mm or APS film and negatives.

b) Negatives are already "developed." What you want is called "reprints." This is usually a bit cheaper than "processing", which includes both developing and printing.

One other recommendation: As soon as you get the prints home, you should scan them at hi-res so that you will have digital copies that you can back up in case the prints and negatives are ever lost. You can also use software like Photoshop Elements and Noise Ninja to clean up the scans and make the digital pics look at least as good as the prints, maybe better.

I have worked in a CVS photo lab for the last 4 years, I no longer work for the company however I will always use a CVS if I can. With old negatives like that I have seen and compared the CVS processing compared to Walgreens processing and every time CVS has turned out better. I also have a friend who runs a Walgreens lab and she agrees. The reason for the better processing is that CVS has currently mixing their own chemicals so the are more fresh than the pre-made that Walgreens receives. Also the paper used by CVS is Kodak gold, a thicker paper which results in better color quality also while reprinting most CVS locations can also add the pictures to CD by scanning negatives so the scan is already picture quality or better.

As for negatives that are not 35mm your best bet is to find a local professional "studio or camera shop" they would be best for old negatives.

Hope this helps.

 

[thomas998]

you might want to consider buying a flat bead scanner that has a backlight for slides/negatives.... I only suggest this because if you have a lot of negatives it will get expensive quickly to have them all printed by service and odds are you will have a lot that you don't really want prints of... a scanner of your own would allow you to get digital versions of everything you want and then print what you need prints of.... this will work wonders when and if you realize you have some of the odd negatives like the old kodak disks... if you want prints from some of those odd negatives it will cost you a lot and if I'm not mistaken only one place in the midwest still has the stuff to print them.

 

[pyrxtc]

I second a good scanner. I have a bunch of my great-grandfathers slides and have been doing them this way.

 

[JR6ooo4]

Third vote for the scanner. set it up next to the laptop, watch a tv show with a beer and in a few nights or months you will be done. Hehehehehee

I had a fun time scanning our honeymoon photos that way. It only took two nights for about 13 rolls of film.

Mikeeee

 

[MarkBarbieri]

b) Negatives are already "developed." What you want is called "reprints." This is usually a bit cheaper than "processing", which includes both developing and printing.

I always chuckle when I hear someone with a digital camera saying that they want to have their pictures "developed." I guess they mean printed. I wonder if the term will survive along with "dialing" a phone number?

I've noticed that "turning" the channel appears to have finally been replaced with "changing" the channel.

 

[Super]

Hey i'm scanning a bunch of negatives from my visit to Disneyworld and America in 1999, heres a sample from the CS8800f (Canoscan - Canon) at 4800dpi.
The output resolution is 6880x4496 for a 35mm negative. But it can go as high as 13568x8960 (19200 dpi)

the big circle is a 100% drop

I think this is at an aquarium in Florida...?

 

[seashoreCM]

The standard home slide scanner scans a track about 2-1/2 cm wide which is the height of a 35mm still picture.

THe most common larger format pictures are 4x4cm and 4x7cm for "127" film and 4x6, 6x6, and 6x8cm for "120" or "620" film.

Some flatbed scanners have backlights that are wider and have ability to scan these larger formats.

You will need at least 2400 dpi optical resolution to do any justice to these pictures. 4800 dpi will give noticeably better results on slides and negatives taken with cameras more sophisticated than "box cameras".

A common problem with less expensive slide scanners is lower contrast ratio if the slide or negative itself is not perfectly exposed. If the film was overexposed, blacks come out gray. If the film was underexposed, whites come out gray. Your computer software (Photoshop, etc.) may or may not be able to compensate for you.