A 'Where To' of Places to Develop 35mm Camera Film

Film Developing Locally
Hunt's Photo, my local camera shop, still accepts film, including 35mm, for processing. No longer processed in the shop, it is instead shipped to a lab in Massachusetts. Just as in the old days, I will have both prints and the negatives for archiving, and though the prices vary depending on project, I can expect to spend about $15. As an additional service, the images can be digitized to a CD for a more practical way of sharing, saving me a step. And as with all things, I prefer to do my business with local shops. In case no local shop exist, here are some decent alternatives. But I stress for the goodness of your soul, do your community a favor and find a local shop.

There are plenty of places online that will still process film, whether it be 35mm or other, and I recently tried one out of San Clemente, CA called The Dark Room. Their customer service and ease of mailings made the process simple. After plugging in what I wanted, the web site created an invoice with a free pre-paid mailing label to send my film in. They offer a push/pull for a slight fee increase ($2.00 in my case) and the pictures were scanned onto a CD for free. Without the various add-ons I
had, basic processing, printing, and the CD cost me $10. With free shipping.
Walgreen's Drug Store
Quite a few chain drug stores still accept film for processing, and Walgreen's is the one closest to me. One bonus of doing this is that Walgreen's often has printable, online coupons for processing film that can be applied to my orders. The film is sent out of the store to a processing facility, but I can count on notification it's ready to be picked up in under a week.
Walmart Film Processing
As to be expected, Walmart processes film as well. Though I have not tried this retail giant for film processing myself, I have heard from others that the company does not return negatives for any jobs it does for customers and the prints are sub-standard. Based on this tid-bit of info, as well as my general distaste for large box stores, I don't recommend this option. However, folks may have this as their only option, hence why I have mentioned it.
Keep shooting, and have a wonderful day!
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