#Develop 35mm film upgrade

How much you spend at the lab has one of the biggest impacts on the total cost of each film photo. How Much Does Scanning Film Cost in 2023?

With 172% – 334% bigger negatives, you can bet that large prints from medium format film will be much sharper than 35mm.

Instead, you should just be mindful of the cost when shooting 120 and save it for special work. The takeaway here shouldn’t be to avoid medium format film. This got us wondering: how well does the increase in price line up with the increase in photo size? Compared to 35mm film, we found that:Ħ×4.5 format costs 121% more per photo for negatives that are 172% larger.Ħ×6 format costs 176% more per photo for negatives that are 263% larger.Ħ×7 format costs 231% more per photo for negatives that are 334% larger.Įven though the price per photo increases significantly as you move to larger formats, the difference in size is at least comparable. You can expect to pay about $1 more per photo if you’re shooting 6×7 format vs 6×4.5. The cost per photo rises pretty consistently as you look at the difference between medium format photo sizes.

#Develop 35mm film upgrade

The upgrade in image quality is certainly there, but you’ll pay the price. This is nothing new, but in 2023, shooting medium format film is significantly more expensive than 35mm. Hardcore landscape photographers who love medium format slide film may want to start considering other options – each 6×7 photo on slide film costs a whopping $3.41!Ĭost of Developing 35mm Film vs Medium Format Shooting E-6 color positive film is a unique and enjoyable experience, but the high cost will likely be a deterrent for most casual photographers.Įven when shooting the cheapest format (35mm), it still costs around $1.25 to buy, develop, and scan each photo on slide film. And that’s assuming your lab even offers the service anymore. Similarly, developing slides has always cost a bit more than standard color film, but that’s increased significantly in recent years. Some places will even let you choose which developer is used for your photos and others offer cheaper developing prices because their workflow is more suited to black and white.Įven the quickest glance at the graph above makes one thing painfully clear: E-6 slide film has gotten outrageously expensive.Į-6 has always been the most expensive type of film to purchase – there are far fewer film stocks available and all of them are considered “professional” grade. If you find yourself shooting a lot of black and white, we’d definitely recommend finding a lab that is well equipped for this type of film. It seems that all around, black and white has been losing popularity – with less demand for B&W developing, labs are raising prices, and oftentimes, developing less frequently than color. The average cost of developing and scanning a roll of 35mm black and white film is 19% higher than C-41 color. That discount quickly disappears once you head to the lab, though. That means that for every 10 rolls of 35mm B&W film you buy, you’re spending about $25 less than you would be on color. On average, black and white film is 23% cheaper than C-41 color. We were surprised to find that for all formats, black and white and color photos were the same price when factoring all of the costs.īlack and white has historically been the cheapest option – that’s still true when it comes to buying film. One of the biggest factors in the total price per photo is what chemistry you’re shooting. We looked at 35mm film and 120 medium format in the three most common photo sizes (6×4.5, 6×6 and 6×7).Ĭost of Color vs Black and White vs Slide Film

With these numbers, we found the total cost per roll of film and per individual photo. We calculated the average price for developing with what we would consider “standard” scans – somewhere around 2000 x 3000 pixels for 35mm. Then, there’s the developing and scanning – most people get these done at the same time, by the lab. For consistencies sake, we only included 36 exposure rolls for 35mm. Let’s start by looking at each of the costs involved with every photo you shoot on film.įirst, the film itself – we calculated the average price of each type of film, based on all of the options available to purchase. How Much Does it Cost to Develop Film in 2023?