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Camera film processing in Birmingham

Vivienne14

Vivienne14

Kentish Brummie Moderator
Staff member
Remember when you used to take the film from your camera into the local chemist shop to get the film processed ? Then you'd wait a couple of weeks for the photos to be returned in a wallet similar to the ones below. On one side of the wallet were your photos, on the other side were the negatives from the original film roll.

Not sure all chemists offered this service, but given the length of time it took them to produce the photos from the film, I'm guessing they must have sent the rolls of film away to be processed somewhere else.

Viv

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In Devon a one service was give. Motor cyclists collected and delivered films which were processed in Paignton. The area covered was chemists an some large gifts shops in the areas Dawlish to Kingsbridge and to the moor areas . Motor cycles were used to beat the traffic queues. I worked in the processing unit, at a was in a nearby town, when aged 16 as my first job in Devon. The was an assortment of sized films ranging from 35mm up very large size spools.
 
As Mort has pointed out, I too remember processing films being pricey. You didn't snap away like we do today. You had to make taking a photo really count. You didn't know how good the photo was either until it came back developed.

I expect Alan's Devon processors would have to work pretty sharpish to get the developed photos back to holidaymakers before they returned home.

I remember we had Ilford film. Don't think we bought Kodak until much later. When my aunt came over from the US she sent back photos of us she'd taken in the UK and they all had the date printed at the bottom of the photo. It's proved very useful since - no hoping that someone had written the date on the back of the photo.

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I have a question. I have a lot of small B&W family photos from the 1950s. Why were they so small (about 2" x 1.5")? Was it to do with the film they were taken with ? Viv.
 
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When I left for the US (Nov 1962) ,I had an Agfa 35 mm camera that I bought Ilford 400 asa (very fast in those days ) film black and white. I took it to Boots on Villa Road to be developed and it took over a month to be developed because of the speed it needed special handling. Didn’t see that coming. And yes I still have that camera!
 
Vivienne14 said:
I have a question. I have a lot of small B&W family photos from the 1950s. Why were they so small (about 2" x 1.5")? Was it to do with the film they were taken with ? Viv.
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It was quite common to have a film developed and proof strips made of the 35mm negatives (though usually they were a bit smaller than those you describe). yku could then choose which you wanted printed to a larger size.
 
I think that at that time that was the standard size of print produced by the [rocessors from 120 film. This was because that corresponded to the size of the negative, and the prints were contact prints
 
I thought that 120 film, was originally used for what was known as 21/4 Square or 6x6cm formats.

Also used in my Pentax for 6x7 pictures.

620 roll film i have never used and believe it no longer is produced.
 
AnnS said:
I thought that 120 film, was originally used for what was known as 21/4 Square or 6x6cm formats.

Also used in my Pentax for 6x7 pictures.

620 roll film i have never used and believe it no longer is produced.
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620 film was discontinued by Kodak in 1995. You can still find some around by other manufactures. It uses/ produces smaller photos but it was very available circa Vivs photos. My parents had a very nice Kodak camera that uses 620 rolls.
 
Filmprocessing.co.uk sell and process 35mm, 126, 120 and 110 film in colour and black and white. They developed a couple of old 35mm film cassettes I found in a drawer and did a good job at a reasonable price, and were happy to only develop the films instead of insisting that you had to have sets of prints and digital copies (at extra unwanted cost) like some of the "big boys" do.
 
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i used to buy rolls of out of date 35mm and cine 8 film and keep them in the fridge. i did try home developing but that was a failure morris's was quick 2 days :)
 
AnnS I have a collection of Coronet Cameras that were made in Birmingham, whilst i was building my collection a couple of cameras i bought off Ebay had films in them and Palm were brilliant at developing them, sadly they were boring photos
 
I had almost forgotten about those. I did use one a few times, we would buy a bulk tin of Ilford FP4 and fill up the cassettes.
 
I used to get my bulk film from a shop in Ethel St. Dirt cheap as it was usually almost out of date - this forced you to use it quickly and take loads of photographs...... well that's my excuse anyway! Developed in a 2nd hand Patterson tank in the shed, using an inside-out coat with the ends folded over as a "loading bag".
 
Vivienne14 said:
I have a question. I have a lot of small B&W family photos from the 1950s. Why were they so small (about 2" x 1.5")? Was it to do with the film they were taken with ? Viv.
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They were small because the paper they were printed on was a long roll having been exposed the roll was taken out of the printing machine in to the processing lab where it was developed and fixed still on the roll. It was not cut until the pictures had been dried.
The paper rolls came in various sizes. Up to 8 inches wide. Larger sizes were exposed and processed as individual sheets.
even recent colour processing machines use rolls of paper.
 
Richard Dye said:
620 film was discontinued by Kodak in 1995. You can still find some around by other manufactures. It uses/ produces smaller photos but it was very available circa Vivs photos. My parents had a very nice Kodak camera that uses 620 rolls.
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Buy 120 film and rewind it on to the 620 spools. Bit fiddly but film size is the same only the spool ends are different.
AnnS said:
Were that size of prints called enprints, smaller than postcard?

Probably from 127 roll film.
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AnnS said:
Were that size of prints called enprints, smaller than postcard?

Probably from 127 roll film.
YES, Enprints were prints made from the whole negative without any cropping they were either 3.5 inches square from square negs or 3.5 x 5inches from rectangular negatives. Postcard size were 3.5 inch by 5.5 inches.
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Richard Dye said:
Come to think, I only ever used their black & white.
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Yes Ilford did make a colour film, it was called Ilfacolor. It was awful, it might have originated in Eastern Europe or Italy. It was certainly similar to Orwo or could have been Ferraniacolor.
Incidentally Orwo make incredibly good B&W film and are a major supplier of 16mm and 35mm cine film.
 
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