Dwayne's Lab Questions

[roxics]

Just shot my first roll of 35mm film in years. Sort of a spur of the moment choice to get out my old Nikon FE, pick up a 4-pack of Fuji 200 from Meijer and take it to the beach with some friends.
Now I need to know where to process it. I've heard Dwayne's mentioned multiple times and I've probably had film processed by them in the past when I went through stores for send out processing. But I don't know for sure and I've never used them directly so I have a few questions.

1. What is the resolution of their photoCD scans?
It's only $2.99 so it seems like a no-brainer for quick scans. But if it's less than the resolution of full HD it's not useful to me. I assume they are jpegs?

2. Do they print from the negative or from a digital scan?
If the scans they do are not high res I would like to scan on my flatbed from a print in higher resolution. But that makes no sense for me to do if they are making prints from a scan themselves. In which case I'll just skip getting prints altogether since I don't really need prints and I would noly get them to scan.

3. Do they send back your negatives?
I read some story online about a guy sending out his film through Walmart which used Dwaynes and didn't get his negatives back.

4. I have some older rolls of 35mm C41 film that are probably 15-20 years old. Will they process film this old?

 

[egproductions]

It would help to know where you are located? I've never heard of those places, I'm on the east coast.

In general you should be able to process color film in standard photo centers and get your negatives back. In fact its usually better to use the big box stores to develop film because their chemicals are fresher. In regards to scanning film, they can usually do it but it won't be that great quality. More specialized photo retailers are usually better for that. In NYC area there are a bunch. Or you can always pickup a high resolution film scanner of your own.

For B&W film, you have to take it to a place that can do it. Costco/CVS/Walmart type stores won't be able to do it.

It shouldn't matter how old your film is.

 

[robmneilson]

I use Dwaynes, and usually just get the negatives processed and scan myself. The last time I got them to do scans for me, they were pretty damn big resolution 4k or so. I had a few rolls, which came on 5 dvd data discs.